Upstate With Acid Dad
The first time I officially met the boys of Acid Dad was at KGB on E 4th last April, their regular hangout at the time. Within the first ten minutes in the Soviet themed bar, a round of drinks was downed, Kevin and Danny shared a peck on the lips, everyone was trying to convince me that Vaughn was from Australia (spoiler: he’s from Tennessee), and next thing I knew I was offered an invitation upstate to the barn where they record.
Now, I’m sure they don’t remember this invitation for more reasons than one, but nine months later I find myself sitting on their recording room couch upstate, at Guitar Center Danbury as they like to call it, reading out loud to Vaughn and Sean, Noisey’s article on shitty interview questions you should never ask bands. “What does your band name mean? The answer you deserve: ‘Fuck you.’ ”
Since first impressions at KGB, Acid Dad has gone through three bassists, finally staying with Sean, signed with an agent, booked a US/Canada Tour as well as a European one, and was named one of “NYC’s Hardest Working Bands of 2015” by Oh My Rockness. You can say a lot has changed. But it’s probably because you’ve only seen their effortless charm and head banging on stage from afar. The rewards haven’t come without weeks of all nighters with Danny heading into the city for work every morning, Vaughn never leaving the mixing table with his bed of a mattress to its side, Kevin networking with anyone who is anyone in the industry, and Sean methodically thinking of the slightest tweak to a song to give it that extra kick.
I came up at 1PM and now it's 1AM and the boys are all listening, with headphones plugged in, to Danny singing into the mic. Kevin beckons over to me and hands me his headphones. I carefully place them over my head and I instantly hear how everything comes together for them. It's the hours of practicing the same riff, the countless cigarette butts, the black and gold samurai sword hanging above the entrance, the leopard felt bean bags, the barren hill outside the back double doors - it’s all of the little intricacies of the space and all of each other’s ticks and tendencies that they know so well, that make it not a means of trying, but a way of being:
