Hot off the release of a new album, and a positive review from Pitchfork to boot, the growing hype around Minneapolis band Vial is seemingly unending.

The indie-punk trio, composed of Katie Fischer (drums), Taylor Kraemer (bass) and KT Branscom (guitar), have been making music together since 2019 and have since gained a national following.

Their sophomore album “burnout,” released on March 29, is a short but sweet punk record with a runtime of 19 minutes spread over 10 tracks. After kicking off the tour with an album release show at the Whole Music Club April 6, Vial is touring the U.S. in support of their latest album.

“It was amazing,” Branscom said of the tour’s opening night at the Whole Music Club. “It was sold out. People were moshing so much and dancing and singing the brand new lyrics, which just felt really good.”

Given the album’s short length with many songs being shorter than two minutes, Vial plans to perform the entire tracklist each night of the tour.

“We’re planning on playing every song from the record during our sets,” Fischer said. “Because the record is like 20 minutes long, we’re playing the entire record and also a bunch of old stuff too.”

Even after five years of work as a band, they are still learning and growing on tour, both personally and professionally.

“Tour specifically is such a pressure cooker,” Fischer said. “When you’re together 24/7 and you’re working all the time and you’re tired and you’re hungry and you’re stressed, communication is so, so important. And that is something we had to work on a lot, but I think we’ve gotten a lot better, and we definitely have room to grow, but it gets better every time.”

Ahead of the release of their 2021 debut LP “LOUDMOUTH”, Vial gained notoriety on TikTok before music venues re-opened after COVID-19. As of right now, the band has amassed over 132,000 followers on the platform.

Branscom said the band’s TikTok account blew up after having several viral videos. 

“It got to be a little bit too much after a while, of like, every single time we’d see each other, instead of prioritizing the music and prioritizing rehearsal, we would be prioritizing making content for TikTok and that just wasn’t healthy musically and creatively for us as a band and it wasn’t healthy for us and our mental health,” Branscom said. “That attention can get to be a f—ing lot.”

Kraemer said this experience influenced the lyrics on their latest album.

“I think that’s what a lot of ‘burnout’ is about,” Kraemer said. “That burnout of the initial record’s hype. The hype for this record has been a lot more kosher.”

In the past three years, the members of Vial have dealt with personal and professional challenges, which have served as inspiration for their new music.

“Creatively, we were going through a lot within the band and in our personal lives as well, a lot was changing. We were getting older. And specifically in the band, like we started touring, we had a lineup change. And all of that led to a lot of stress, and a lot of burnout. So that’s kind of where a lot of the songs’ inspiration comes from,” Branscom said.

Some songs on “burnout” had been in the band’s backlog for years. “falling short,” for example, was written before the release of the band’s debut album.

“It’s kind of interesting to see, like the state of mind, I guess, that some of the songs were written in over the course of three years of like, emotions changing quite a bit,” Fischer said.

Amidst the new album release and the ongoing tour, Vial has already made demos for their next album.

“Hopefully by the end of 2025 we’ll have some new stuff out,” Branscom said. “We have plenty of stuff on our end of things. What takes the time is like, recording it and mixing it and mastering it. And doing all the art and all the planning and pressing the vinyl.”

With their latest album, the members of Vial say they have reached a point where they have a lot of creative freedom, as they balance the lighter and aggressive sides of their music.

“On ‘burnout’ we have ‘two-faced,’ which is like super punk and heavy and angry, but then we also have ‘broth song’ and ‘bottle blonde,’ which are more indie, light and fun,” Branscom said. “We feel even freer to write literally whatever we want.”