by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Feel-good rock band Virginia Coalition said it offers a two-hour vacation from the world's turmoil.
"We're definitely upbeat," bassist Jarrett Nicolay said. "We're not the kind to dwell, but we're not the kind to look the other way either."
He said they played a show at a college in upstate New York a week after Sept. 11, 2001.
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The mood was heavy and they wondered how they were going to rock out after such a national tragedy.
"We got out there and just kicked it," Nicolay said. "It was cool because you could tell people were ready to just forget about it for two hours and let go and then realize what had happened again later. You don't want to be insensitive, but you have to read your environment. These people, you could just tell, they needed a break and we were happy to give it to them."
Virginia Coalition is on a month-long tour with G. Love and Special Sauce that started in California and ends on the East Coast.
"People call us VACO even though our name is Virginia Coalition," Nicolay said. "We went with VACO because we found out in Latin that means to have no master or to live without work."
Nicolay said what sets the band apart from others is it doesn't cater to formats and formulas.
"We're not trying to write songs for radio," he said. "We just do what we do and if people like it, it's good. We definitely aren't interested in trying to emulate a sound. Whatever noise the four of us together make is what we're putting down."
Nicolay said he's inspired by Django Reinhardt and the Flaming Lips.
"We all come from very different musical influences," he said. "Andy (the singer) and Paul (the keyboardist) grew up with a lot of Prince records. I was more into R.E.M. back in junior high. When I was a kid I thought R.E.M. was the coolest thing."
He said with R.E.M.'s early records, people didn't have a clue what singer Michael Stipe was saying because he mumbled. Nicolay makes an analogy to the way Virginia Coalition tries not to be too literal with their music.
"The lyrics were kind of jumbled, but part of that was nice because you just heard the melody and it emitted some emotions," he said. "It was the melody and the tone of his voice over the music, and it really opened up the window. You could take it any number of ways and that's different from being too literal in music."
He said although they try not be too literal, it's hard in today's world because of political issues.
"It definitely infiltrates your subconscious when you're writing lyrics," he said. "Whether you know it or not, you'll write something and a month later, once you've got some distance on it, you're like 'oh, OK, I was thinking about this or that.' We watch a lot of CNN and the History Channel and parallel what's going on. These are very strange times."
