Premiere & Interview: New Song from Asbury Park's The Vansaders

The Vansaders (l-r: Deaglan Howlett, Kyle Zupe, Doug Zambon, Jay Maranzino) by Erica Snyder

"Sunrise"

The Vansaders are all set to release their next EP, No Matter What,... ...uh... ...no matter what.

Once again, the band headed into Pete Steinkopf's Little Eden Studios, and the result of that third-time-around collaboration is due on August 11th. Today, we're premiering the first single from the EP, "Sunrise."

"Sunrise" is an ultimately hopeful pop-punk anthem, featuring absolutely huge drums, layers and layers of guitars, and big vocal harmonies. I sat down with all of The Vansaders over some Mexican-inspired food to discuss the song, the band, and more.

Check out "Sunrise" right here; and, while you're listening, read on to find out how Doug Zambon's fashion sense almost cost the band a bass player, what it's been like for the band to work with Pete Steinkopf, and about Doug's recent trip to Cuba.

You can catch Doug Zambon doing his solo thing tomorrow night at Crossroads in Garwood when he plays with Lost In Society, Nervous Triggers, Chris Brown, and Chris Skel.

And, this summer, The Vansaders have several Tri-State Area full-band dates:

7/6 - Porta, Asbury Park NJ
7/7 - Mill Hill Basement, Trenton NJ
7/21 - Century, Philadelphia PA
7/29 - APYC, Asbury Park NJ
8/11 - Bond Street, Asbury Park NJ* (record release)
8/26 - Mill Hill Basement, Trenton NJ
8/31 - The Gutter, Brooklyn NY
9/1 - The TUSK, Philadelphia PA

This interview has been edited and condensed because you really don't want to read "Rackball!" for an entire post.

Can you talk a little about the origins and evolution of the band? How you ended up with this group of guys?

Doug: It's been a long road. Really, this is the third line-up of the band. The first line-up was instrumental in defining the sound of the band.

Then it's the usual tale of everybody else had kids — got married, had kids — and moved. So it was time for Vansaders, Part 2 and Part 3…

…has it pretty much gone release by release?

Doug: Actually yeah. It has been release by release.

Jay: This will be the first time that it's the same line-up twice in a row.

Doug: WINNING!

So, you had Stuck In New York City, and soon it will be three EPs since then.

Doug: Stuck In New York City. Then Jumping at Shadows — second line-up. Then This Time Around — this line-up, and soon No Matter What — this line-up again.

The Vansaders at Amelia's Kitchen in Shrewsbury, NJ

How did you put this now record-setting, two consecutive EP line-up together?

Doug: It took time. It was a fresh start, a completely fresh start. Jay [Maranzino, drums] was recommended to me by Alex [Rosen] and Brent [Bergholm] from Battery Electric. Deaglan [Howlett, guitar] was always kind of in the works. Jay knew Kyle [Zupe, bass] who turned us down the first time.

Kyle: Yes, I did.

Deaglan: Do you remember why?

Kyle: I forget.

Deaglan: I remember why. It was because of the first show we played with this line-up and Alex on bass. It was at Red Bank Rehearsal Studios; and Doug, for whatever reason, wore this hideous striped sports jacket…

Doug: It was a nice jacket…

Deaglan: It was ridiculous! Everyone kept saying he looked like a host for TGI Friday’s. And Kyle saw the pictures and was like, "I want nothing to do with this."

Doug: I wear that jacket when you're not around.

Kyle: I was playing in a band that was winding down, and Jay said that they needed someone on bass to fill-in for a show. That show ended up getting canceled because of snow, but I wound up practicing and learning the songs. It was fun.

Then I was getting married…

Doug: What?? You were getting married?

Kyle: Yeah.

Jay: Don't you remember you tried to get him to call it off?

Doug: I don't remember any of this.

You mentioned how the first line-up was instrumental in defining the sound of the band, but I also think that the band's sound has evolved over time from something a little more country / folk influenced to the more rock and roll sounds now.

Doug: We've definitely evolved. I guess this latest one is a departure.

Jay: The one before this was more a mix of old and new songs, and the songs on this one are all new songs.

The Vansaders at APYC

Are you all writing together now?

Doug: Yes. I would say, on this record, everybody shines in their own way. It's a much clearer collaboration.

So it's your first whole-band effort, then?

Doug: I would say so. We did it for a few songs on the last one, but some of the songs were already written or mostly written before the line-up came together. This time, there was none of that.

Jay: "Home" was already written and recorded when I started playing for the last EP. We, of course, did the Bruce cover ["Dancin' in the Dark"].

That's interesting to me. While I've never necessarily made a Bruce connection with you guys — and I mean this in the best possible way — I definitely think you guys have a very "Jersey" sound…

Jay: I don't hate that. It's authentic.

Deaglan: The best bands have come out of Jersey, for sure.

Jay: ...Us...

Deaglan: Titus Andronicus, Gaslight, Misfits… …Jonas Brothers...

…Halsey…

All: Who?

[Long digression on Halsey, The Chainsmokers, and "Closer"] 

There was a country / folky influence on your early stuff; and, when I say "Jersey," I'm thinking some of the big punk sounds like Gaslight Anthem and Bouncing Souls. What are some of the influences on The Vansaders?

Doug: I listened to a lot more folk stuff as a kid. As I started playing in the area, that punk music just kind of came. You hear it. Start listening to it. Once we started recording with Pete, I ended up listening to a lot more Souls than I had before. And that influenced me further.

You've done the last 3 releases, including the upcoming No Matter What, with Pete Steinkopf over at Little Eden. That seems to be working.

Doug: It’s just great!

Deaglan: It's ridiculous!

Doug: He's just easy to work with. He's a good dude. Some producers are pushy. He's not. He has great ideas, but he's not married to anything. He's awesome.

Is it different to have someone outside the band give ideas?

Doug: Definitely. When you record your own songs, you only have so many ideas about the songs. And, as far as I'm concerned, they're not done until you're done recording them.

You don't go into the studio with limitless ideas. You have set ideas, but then they evolve when you get there. Somebody outside the band doesn't know what you're thinking. They may not even know what you're supposed to sound like, and their opinion could drastically change how your music comes out.

The Vansaders at last year's Bouncing Souls' Stoked for the Summer

How do songs evolve from their live incarnations to their recorded versions?

Doug: We like to record a lot of guitars. We like to record a lot of harmonies.

Deaglan: A lot of harmonies.

Doug: There's a set amount of it we have in our heads. In the studio, we intend to do that. Then, when it's done, we do another pass and new things come out.

Kyle: Probably for every song or part we record, there are probably three other parts that, once you record them and sit down and listen to it, you're like, "Why were we even thinking about doing that?" Like Doug was saying, the songs are 95% done before we go into the studio, but that last 5%…

Doug: …makes it. It really makes the songs what they are, for sure.

We talked about No Matter What and how it evolves your sound and how it's your first full-band effort. It comes out on August 11th. Are you planning to tour for it?

Doug: We have a string of shows lined up. Regional, Northeast weekends. I wouldn't call it a tour at this point.

In addition to Asbury, are there any other areas where The Vansaders have kind of a following?

Doug: Trenton is really good for us. Long Island, we've done well there in the past. Brooklyn is sometimes good, sometimes bad. But Brooklyn's tough because it's such a big scene.

Kyle: And so many of the bands in Brooklyn are so different from one another and different from us, it can be tough to put together a bill.

What do you like about Asbury Park and the Asbury music scene?

Doug: It's a good scene. There's a lot going on. There's always something happening. There's always a show to go to, and it's almost always good.

Kyle: When I was in high school in Middletown, the Red Bank scene was thriving. Then that kind of went away. Lately, it's all found itself in Asbury. Everything that had been displaced has found itself in Asbury.

Doug: We're lucky. Most people do not get the chance to be part of such an active music scene.

I think that -- even though you guys play guitar-centric rock -- you're a little different than a lot of the bands playing Asbury.

Kyle: Jay likes to say we're a singer / songwriter-driven rock band. Like how does the complete version of the song sound? It doesn't matter what I'm playing on bass or if it's complex on the drums...

Jay: ...It's not. It's very simplistic and and just driven. That's our style.

Kyle: We spend a lot of time on lyrics and vocal melodies and harmonies.

Jay: There are lots of disgustingly good musicians in Asbury. We're not trying to compete with them. We have our own style.

Doug, Kyle at The Stone Pony

You definitely have a lot of punk influences on your style, and [Segue Alert] you recently played Punk Rock Bowling at The Stone Pony Summer Stage. How was that experience?

Doug: Awesome!

Deaglan: Incredible!

Doug: We opened the first day. We opened Summer Stage for 2017.

Deaglan: Technically, if The Specials sound checked, they were first...

Doug: That doesn't count!!!

And you were an official band on the bill not just local support, right?

Doug: Yeah. But, when we got there, someone asked us if we were playing the main stage or inside, and I kinda lost it for a second. I thought, "Are we playing inside??" But it was all good.

Jay: Though we may have been the only band without a manager there.

Doug just spent some time in Cuba. How was that?

Doug: It was fun. [Heavily edited for "clarity."]

...OK... ...Well, we're premiering this single today... "Sunrise"

Everyone: [Laughter]

I've listened to it a few times, and the thing that jumps out at me is the drums. They're so huge on this song.

Jay: [Putting down food. Perking up.] Let's talk about that! We talked ahead of time about what kind of sound we wanted for the drums. We wanted something roomy and big, something natural and big. Pete did a great job capturing it.

Deaglan: I was still away at school when they wrote that. When I came back, they played it for me at practice without any vocals or anything; and I was just like, "Holy shit! This is really fucking good!" And then the more we added to it... ...it just... I love that song.

Doug: Those "Whoas" were a bitch.

Jay: We made the chorus more driving. It wasn't originally as upbeat there, but it just made sense to make that chorus driving.

Doug: We found the perfect speed for it. And the song was easily the hardest to sing.

Can you talk a little bit about the lyrics? You throw your little Asbury reference to Bond St. Bar in there...

Doug: Yeah. We'll see when it comes out if we're still allowed to play there.

The song is really about making a real mess of yourself and trying to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and learn from past mistakes. To quote the Big Lebowski, "Sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you." As rough as it sounds, it's really a hopeful song about taking a hard look at yourself and making some changes. It's about making mistakes and chugging on.

Kyle: Keep on truckin'.

What's coming up for you guys?

Doug: To keep writing. We're a band now. We're tight. We're good. We perform well. Our songs are good. Our recordings are good and getting better. This is definitely our best release so far. Pete really gets what we do, and he nailed it on this one.

For me, I would just love to keep writing, and I'd love to just play music. You guys all agree with that?

Everyone: Yeah. Definitely.

The Vansaders' No Matter What comes out on August 11th. 

The Battery Electric Release New EP

The Battery Electric have a new EP and return to APYC on June 10th.

Little Eden Sessions, Vol. 1

Asbury Park rock and roll four-piece, The Battery Electric, went into Little Eden Studios to work with Mr. Pete Steinkopf once again and just released some output from those efforts in the form of Little Eden Sessions, Vol. 1.

The five-song EP packages new versions of Got Your Soul tracks "Maybe," "Need Ya," and "Nobody's Fool" between straight-up rock tracks "Ghouls in Heels" and "Shake." Steinkopf manages to bring an openness to The Battery Electric's sound while maintaining some of the rough edges. The set features help on horns from Robert Butkowski (Black Flamingos, Plato Zorba) on trumpet and Anders Carlson (Waiting On Mongo) sax.

The timing of this release lines up nicely with a couple of shows from The Battery Electric later this week. On Thursday, June 8th, the boys head up to Jersey City's Monty Hall for a show with Italian glam punks, Giuda, and Jersey City hometown heroes, Wyldlife. Then, on June 10th, The Battery Electric return home for a show at Asbury Park Yacht Club with Jon Caspi and The First Gun ft. Dez Cadena. That one gets billing as a Punk Rock Bowling afterparty.

Have a listen to Little Eden Sessions, Vol. 1 via Spotify and look for it via your favorite online outlet in the coming days.

Premiere: New Single from The Vansaders

The Vansaders closed out The Bouncing Souls' Stoked for the Summer at The Stone Pony.

"Long Lost"

Sometimes, you can't live without someone; but you can't really live with them either. You break it off. It's all for the best. But, then, you find yourselves remembering only the good times; and you decide to give things another try. Yeah. No.

That's the tried and true story in The Vansaders' "Long Lost." As they've been known to do, though, Doug Zambon and company infuse that familiar story with gut-punching emotion and rock and roll romance.

The song is off of The Vansaders' upcoming EP, This Time Around. Once again, they worked with The Bouncing Souls' Pete Steinkopf at his Little Eden Studios, and it really is a match made somewhere in the swamps of Jersey heaven. Steinkopf's approach is perfectly suited to Zambon's songwriting and from-the-heart delivery.

The Vansaders will be releasing This Time Around when they open up the evening inside The Stone Pony for Flogging Molly, Frank Turner, and Chuck Ragan who play Summer Stage on Saturday, August 20th. Stream "Long Lost" below and grab your copy of the EP and one of The Vansaders' awesome new shirts at the show.

New Single from Seaside Caves

Artwork: Matthew Gere

"Summer"

Most of the memories of my youth are of the summer. The ones that get further and further away as time passes start to become hazier and more dreamlike, kind of like the steamy days that spawned them. Lots of my summer memories are joyful ones: watching the fireworks in Red Bank with my family, piling my friends into my little Tercel after summer evenings on the beach. That car was always full of sand. I have other summer memories, though: leaving a party alone, unhappy and riding my bike along Rumson Road in the dark, sitting and staring at the waves by myself on the beach at night.

On "Summer," the first single from their upcoming Hope, Seaside Caves come to us with one of those solitary summer memories. "She is going to a party. I am left here with the lie," sings Todd Wacha. He's alone in his apartment as the carefree days of summer creep along outside. The keys and the guitar merge into a New Wave / shoegaze dream, and Dentist's Emily Bornemann contributes a hint of gauzy backing vocals to complete the picture.

Seaside Caves worked with Pete Steinkopf at Little Eden Studios on this and the rest of the tracks on Hope, which the band will release at the end of summer. Stream "Summer" below or at Seaside Caves' Bandcamp page. As part of this single release, you can also hear a live version of "Summer" recorded at Asbury Lanes along with the original home demo of the track.

Exclusive Premiere: New Single from Corrina, Corrina

"Pratfall"

And our week of premieres continues here at CoolDad Music.

Today, we've got the latest effort from Red Bank pop punks Corrina, Corrina. The boys are almost done with this year at college. Somewhere between keeping up with their studies and playing the occasional show, they found time to head into Pete Steinkopf's Little Eden Studios to record two new tracks. You'll have to wait until early summer to get your hands on the two-song flexi disc from Little Dickman Records, but you can hear "Pratfall" right here, right now.

Just like pretty much their entire year-old debut LP, American Short Stories, "Pratfall" shows Corrina, Corrina to be a band with an ear for what makes a great punk / alt rock song. They're a band that worships at the feet of The Replacements, The Bouncing Souls, The Menzingers, and The Gaslight Anthem; and you can hear all of those influences coming through on "Pratfall." The track is a two-and-a-half minute mix of emotion, aggression, and accessibility that comes together in a way that's kind of just right.

I continue to be impressed that a band with 3 of its 4 members still in their teens can churn out songs with such polish. That's almost unfair to Corrina, Corrina, though. I'd be impressed with this stuff no matter how old they were.

Check out "Pratfall" below and keep your eyes peeled for the release date of the "Pratfall" / "Distance" flexi.

Corrina, Corrina will be back in town to play a free show at Langosta Lounge on May 15th with Sammy Kay.