It’s Saturday night, and you’re at Court Tavern drinking a tall can of PBR. Anticipation builds as The Vaughns takes the stage and i
nstantly launches into the hard rock ‘n’ roll sound of “What’s Cooking.” It’s clear that this is their time to let loose, and that feeling is reflected in the energy of the audience at their EP release show.
The Vaughns is Anna Lies on vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards and percussion; Dave Cacciatore on lead guitar and back-up vocals, Tom Losito on bass guitar and back-up vocals, and Ryan Kenter on drums, percussion and back-up vocals.
All members of The Vaughns went to Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield. A mutual friend of theirs suggested that they play music together, and soon after, they had an official jam session in Kenter’s garage. They started writing songs collaboratively, and it was after creating “Hide Yourself Away” that they decided to continue as a band.
Before The Vaughns, Kenter was in a synth metal band called Stepdown and both Cacciatore and Losito were in classic rock cover bands. The influence of these genres mixed with Lies’s background in folk music comes together to form a “new indie rock” sound. Or in other words, Losito said, they’re indie pop influenced by classic rock bands.
Some fans have said that the music of The Vaughns reminds them of bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Of Monsters and Men and Wolf Alice. Personally, they are inspired by The Beatles and Nirvana and anything in between, such as Led Zeppelin, Incubus, Alabama Shakes and a bunch of new indie and folk bands.
Kenter’s drumming style is reminiscent of synth metal since he frequently uses double bass, Lies said. During performances, you feel a fun, spirited energy radiating through the band and crowd. Their passion is easy to see, especially when Lies jumps up and down with her hair flying or when she falls to the ground and throws all her energy into her guitar. Her voice is punctuated with quivers that create a sultry vibe. Losito’s facial expressions reflect the high energy of their music. Cacciatore makes his complex guitar solos look easy despite his fingers flying up and down the fret board.
“And then Ryan is just sitting in the back killin’ it,” Losito said.
On Oct. 24, The Vaughns released an EP called tomfoolery. The EP features six energetic rock ‘n’ roll songs that have plenty of guitar solos and fun unexpected additions such as the whistling heard in “Please Don’t Take Offense.” Lies said that most of the songs explore the theme of perseverance.
In comparison to their other EP’s, Lies said that the first EP was mostly to get music out so they could start playing shows. “tomfoolery is us,” she said. “It’s finally us in a recorded version.”
Kenter added that the first EP was more of a learning curve. They were writing a lot of songs and getting through the “what is our sound is going to be” stage.
“We’ve been playing these songs for months now,” Kenter said. “We just couldn’t wait to get a recording out that captures our live sound and was The Vaughns.”
As for the recording process of tomfoolery, Kenter explains that they recorded the EP at Cannon Found Soundation in Union City with Mike Oettinger and Jesse Cannon.
Lies said that the songs were tracked, starting with the drums, and then they layered on the guitars and everything else.
“Our goal with this recording was to capture our live energy,” Lies added. They doubled up on certain elements such as guitar to make it sound stronger. Since they never really recorded professionally before, they wanted to do it the right way.
“We were so impressed because we were considering doing live recordings until we heard the products that they were putting out,” Kenter said. “By tracking them, we could create the sound that we wanted.”
The cover art is a picture of the band jumping into a pool with joined hands and goofy smiles on their faces. The CD itself has the huge splash, which reflects the heavy impact that the EP has on its listeners.
The cover photo along with a bunch of others, were taken before discussing a possible title for the EP. Losito’s dad offered to do a photo shoot with them.
It was a 90-degree day and everyone was wearing jeans and button-downs. They only got halfway through the photo shoot before everyone was soaked in sweat. Lies had the idea to jump in the pool when they got back to Kenter’s house, and everyone agreed to join her. Losito’s dad put his camera on continuous shooting mode in order to capture the perfect action shot.
While editing the photos on Photoshop, Lies threw in the word “tomfoolery” as a working title because all the pictures felt goofy. She forgot to take the title off before showing them to the guys, but this worked in her favor. Upon seeing the title, they all agreed that “tomfoolery” was fitting for the album cover and speaks to who they are as a band. They also liked that it includes Tom’s name, and it became the official EP title.
The first song on the EP, “What’s Cooking,” is a provocative, in-your-face rock ‘n’ roll song about sex. Kenter said that upon re-writing it before recording, it transformed into something completely different. “We thought it was a good song but knew it could be better,” Kenter said. “The way that it transformed itself—Once it hit that spot, we all knew instantly that it was going to kick major ass.”
Kenter explains that one part of the song – the part with the pauses – was inspired by classic rock songs like Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” where it’s all about the syncopation with drums and bass and then the vocals are just killing it on top.
“The pauses are really fun for us to do live—it’s so fun to go from such high energy to a drop with just vocals,” Lies said.
The distortion and fuzz of the guitar, lots of effects pedals and the settings on the amp all help to give the song its crunch—or add a “mean” sound to the guitar. Lies said that these techniques—fuzz and distortion are used frequently on this EP.
“Please Don’t Take Offense” is the most personal song on the record, mainly because it is about a relationship and trust issues, and it has a melancholy feel to it. “It’s coming to the realization that just because you love someone, it doesn’t always work out, and you have to keep going on.” Lies said. Kenter said they decided to use the whistling part to kick in the melody.
“I didn’t want to just sing the chorus again, because I didn’t want that to be too repetitive,” Lies said. “We wanted to put the melody in there in a different way and when we were writing it, the easiest way to do that was by whistling. We were doing that live as soon as we wrote it, and my hope is that people will whistle along.”
“Phase Me” is about giving love one more try and features a surprise hard rock breakdown at the end with a screaming guitar solo from Cacciatore. “Mr. Skully” is about running away from things that bring you down. The sound is that of classic rock with undertones of something harder. “Roses” is about moving on from someone who does not see you as a priority, with the lyrics take these roses off my nightstand/because I’ve been waiting too long for your call. The synth adds an alternative rock element that may pleasantly surprise an unsuspecting listener. “Willoughby” is a hard-hitting journey to freedom that unfortunately is temporary, as heard in the lyrics Darling take my picture for me/I’ll never be this free.
Songs from their new EP can be heard at upcoming shows, which tend to be in smaller venues such as basements or their favorite spot, Maxwell’s Tavern. Losito said the band enjoys the crowd interaction when everyone is tightly packed together for a more intimate experience.
The support they receive from their families is also a major part of what defines them. “They are our biggest fans. It’s funny because some gigs there will be a lot of our friends and younger people, and then there will be a whole section of our parents and the people they know…It’s good that young people and older people like our music,” Losito said.
Lies stressed that more than anything, “We try to convey that we’re four regular kids, just like everyone else in the audience listening. We’re not trying to be anything bigger than what we are. I’ve realized that we want people to watch us and relate and be able to listen and say ‘you know, I feel like I’m one of them.’”
Image Courtesy of The Vaughns Facebook page.
Laura Curry