The Austin Chronicle Presents People To Wave To: Virginia Creeper

Some bands describe their evolution in careful, considered terms. Virginia Creeper puts it more simply: They’ve been getting “progressively louder and weirder” as they go. What started as alt-country and folk-experimental collaboration between Genevieve Poist and Aaron Arguello has evolved into something harder to pin down – a fourpiece that pulls from shoegaze, Christian rock, and whatever else catches their ear, all filtered through a sensibility they call “playfully dark.”

Their latest album, Girl, You’ll Be a Giant Soon, takes its title from an episode of King of the Hill – specifically, the one where Luanne hides inside Big Tex to protest a grilling competition not allowing the use of propane, part of a larger effort to prove her maturity. Poist admits to an unusual habit: reading Wikipedia episode summaries of TV shows for fun. When she landed on that particular episode’s page, something clicked. “I thought the name was really compelling and interesting,” she says. The title captures the album’s central tension: that space between innocence and experience, levity and weight.

“It’s never too over-the-top serious,” Arguello explains when describing the album’s feel. “It’s not like an early 2000s screamo record that’s just so dramatic. But there is a darkness to it.” Poist adds that it’s about “obscuring things” and finding “lighthearted darkness” – balancing heavy themes with playful production choices, letting songs feel specific while remaining open to interpretation.

Girl, You’ll Be a Giant Soon and the EP GOBLN7 were recorded in the same sessions, making the wait for the full album feel especially long. “Hearing people be excited about the EP was like, just wait till you hear the full one,” Arguello says. Now that it’s finally out, the band describes the bittersweet feeling of celebrating what they’ve made while already looking ahead to new material.

What matters most to them is that listeners have their own experience with the music. “I love the way Genevieve writes songs,” Arguello reflects. “You can tell there’s something very specific that it’s about, but also it feels like it can apply to anything you’re going through on a specific day.” The goal isn’t to prescribe meaning but to create space for whatever emotional response emerges.

This month’s People To Wave To docu-concert captures Virginia Creeper at their album release show at 29th St. Ballroom on February 22, 2026. You’ll find a band comfortable with contradictions, unafraid to get weirder, and trusting enough to let the music speak for itself.

The Austin Chronicle Presents: People To Wave To is a docu-concert series produced by Kyra Bruce. Find more on YouTube.

The post The Austin Chronicle Presents People To Wave To: Virginia Creeper appeared first on The Austin Chronicle.