Listening to a Vacation Manor song feels like stepping into the soundtrack of a coming-of-age film, melodies steeped in nostalgia and hope, with lyrics that echo a main character’s voiceover, eloquently capturing life’s pivotal moments.
The indie-rock duo’s latest EP, Back To Town, arrives on the heels of some of their most meaningful milestones, from celebrating a decade as a band to embracing fatherhood.
ECHO sat down with guitarist and vocalist Nathan Towles to talk about the making of the EP, becoming a father, and learning to soak in every moment.
Excerpt from the podcast:
ECHO: “Love in the Afternoon” was inspired by you becoming a father. Could you share the story behind the song and its inspiration?
Nathan Towles: I think that one came about this time last year. And it’s going to sound maybe kind of cheesy, but it was springtime and we had just moved into a new house, and right out our back window, there was this tree that I kind of just thought was a dead tree. I hadn’t seen anything on it, but we hadn’t quite been there a year. So spring came, and there were all of these cherry blossoms or some kind of blossom on it. It was just this beautiful tree outside the window. Springtime just makes me feel a certain way and that tree kind of represented it for me. And so I was like, I want to write a song that makes me feel as springtime-y as that tree does.
I think it became kind of sentimental to me too, because my wife and I were just getting through the first couple of months of being new parents, which can be a tough transition. Everything is new, you’re lacking sleep, and all that. And it had been the dead of winter here in Virginia the whole time, so I think there was just something life-giving about seeing that, as silly as that might sound.
ECHO: You talked about the pride that you have in the creation of this EP. This marks a decade of Vacation Manor. Looking back at the past 10 years, what are you most proud?
Nathan Towles: I think it still kind of baffles me that there are people who show up for shows that we put on, and that the music gets out there and gets listened to—“Like It Was.” The day after we had just played in Nashville—I guess we played there on Saturday—so Sunday morning we walked into a coffee shop, and one of our songs was playing.
And sometimes friends will send me a text like, ‘I’m here and one of your songs is playing.’ It doesn’t happen to me that often. So even little things like that are just like, ‘wow, how did this happen again?’ I think on one hand, we feel shocked that that happened, and on the other hand, we’re also like, we’re still a little indie rock band from Virginia. A lot hasn’t changed. We still live close to the same place we were living when we first started. And there have been a lot of changes since then, but it has brought us right back.
So I think if anything, I’m glad we don’t have the same rose-colored glasses about the music industry that we did when we first started—of like, we’re going to put this song out and our lives are going to change. I think I’m proud of both Cole and me for just having a pretty grounded view on what we’re expecting out of this, and hopefully being okay that this is still a blue-collar job. I still have to take our 12-passenger van in for an oil change. There are a lot of things that we still have to do ourselves. I think I’m proud of us for sticking it out this long and just continuing to kind of keep the center of it the same.
And I think I would also say I’m really grateful and proud of our fans too, because I think our music is streamed well, and that’s been a really cool thing. But at the same time, there hasn’t been a huge machine behind this whole thing. And a lot of things have happened very organically. So I think the culture around our shows and our fan base is very grassroots still. And yeah, that’s something that we’ve really come to value.
Featured Photo Credit: Nathan Grimes
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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.