Interview: The Vaughns Talk About Ear Worms, Sea Foam Green, and Sesame Street

The Vaughns are a four-piece indie rock band out of Springfield, New Jersey. All accomplished musicians, they’ve been sharing their infectious melodies throughout and around the Garden State since 2014. 

DOPECAUSEWESAID took some time to talk to them amidst a slew of weekend tour dates—check out the interview below and check out their latest single here.

In your song, "Santa Cruz," you repeatedly sing this little riff-thing that goes oh-oh-a-a-oh. This little vocal-riff-thing is extremely catchy. When I was trying to go to sleep last night, after listening to this song, it was stuck in my head and I had trouble sleeping because of it. It was almost as bad as that time I couldn't stop hearing "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" by Beyoncé (specifically the part where she goes, oh oh OH oh oh OH oh oh OH oh oh OH, so there's a pattern I'm finding here) and I spent an entire night struggling to sleep and I genuinely, truly thought I was going insane. Are you trying to be so catchy that you drive people insane? If so, why would you do that? 

First off, we really enjoyed hearing about your sleeping patterns. As a band we love doing harmonies and sometimes I suppose these little patterns really get addicting…you must go on a trip to Santa Cruz, there you will find the answers to your sleeping problems. That is all we can disclose at the moment. We like The Beatles. 

The logo for band, and your choice of, like, sea foam green colored instruments has a very retro feel to it. Are you time travelers? If so, how did you get here and why did you choose 2017? Do you have any regrets about your time traveling choices? Please reference Donald Trump in your answer.

Sea foam green is definitely a favorite of ours. We don't remember much about our time traveling experience. All we know is that Marty McFly was there and Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy. HEY MCFLY!

You play a lot of shows in and around New Jersey, PA, NY, etc. Considering practice, travel, and promotion, that takes a lot of time and, since I'm extremely lazy, I can't imagine devoting so much time to something. Don't you ever want to just sit around at home and watch fourteen hours straight of Netflix like good Americans? Why do you have to work so hard at your artistic pursuits when there's so many fun distractions all around us at all times? Please answer using only GIFs.

On the cover of your album Tomfoolery, everyone in your band is jumping into a swimming pool while holding hands. It appears as if you all were trying to jump at the same time, but in the resulting image three of you are still in the air, while the drummer has clearly jumped ahead of you, because he is already halfway submerged in the pool. So my question is: does your drummer have a terrible sense of timing, or is it the rest of you? Please only let your drummer respond.

I probably should have pulled the stones out of my pocket. I'm not a witch.

If you could have a guitar that was also a unicorn or a unicorn that was also a guitar, which would you choose and why?

We would love to let the unicorn stand on stage before we performed for approximately 33 minutes. Then Dave would take the Unicorn and turn it into his guitar. Their name would be Charlie Willoughby.

If you could open for any band on the planet, and you were at the show, and you were backstage, and you were about to meet the band that you were opening for, and they were a band you loved, and they told you that the only way they would allow you to perform was if you wore Sesame Street character costumes on stage, which character would you each select and why?

Anna: I would choose Cookie Monster. 

Dave: I would choose Elmo.

Tom: I would choose Count Von Count.

Ryan: I would choose Animal.

Please leave us with your favorite words of wisdom. But please also jumble the words of the phrase, like this: "Bird early the gets worm the."

"home pants forget your never at"

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