In addition to giving us an exclusive on their excellent debut EP Veracruz, Nashville's The Deep Vibration were kind enough to answer some of our most pressing questions -- including how it came to pass that Lou Reed named the band! Find our interview after the break...

A couple of you guys met while attending college in Nashville and started the band -- what was it like playing around the college scene?

Jeremy and I met freshman year of college. Our first gig was at the Basement's new faces night. That was with our first band The Attack!. The college scene is not all that great of a scene in Nashville in my opinion, especially the scene at the college we attended.

So you met Lou Reed and he renamed your band? Can you give us any details on that story?

We were told we needed to change the name of the band due to legal issues so we started to come up with ideas. Every decent name we came up with was taken. So we decided to just ask Lou after his show at the Ryman. So after the show finished we rushed around to the back of the building and waited for Lou to exit the building. There was a crowd. Everyone was huddled up close to the door waiting like we were to have the man sign their copy of Metal Machine Music. Around a half hour later it starts to rain. I look up and see through the rain and see Lou descending the stairs of the auditorium. Everyone huddles close to the door and there he is. Lou Reed. Everyone is shoving VU at him and all I really want is a band name. So I say, "Lou I need a band name." He keeps on signing records and ticket stubs and about five minutes go by without him saying a word. I figured he either didn't hear me, or didn't feel like giving out band names to random kids. But then he slowly lifts his head up and looks me dead in the eye through his metallic tint sunglasses and says to me "Deep Vibration." So that was that.

What are your biggest influences and favorite older records? What about new bands?

Elvis sits pretty high up there. He started it all. He was the first fire you could really see doing some serious damage to the hillside if you know what I mean. The man tore it down. He could move, and he could sing. The man could sing. Hank Williams. That man wrote so many hit songs it makes my head hurt. Then there's Bob Dylan. There's not much anyone can say about that man. He just doesn't... I don't know what to say about him. He makes me nervous. The Beatles. The best band to ever grace the face of the earth. The Rolling Stones. They moved more than The Beatles. I like movement. Then there's the boss, Bruce Springsteen. The man can write. Nebraska is one of my favorite albums of all time. That record is haunting. I'd put that up to any piece of literature. Townes Van Zandt. Gram Parsons. Bill Monroe.

There's a handful of new acts I like quite a bit as well. Radiohead- There one of those bands that I have a hard time saying much about. They are just incredible. Wilco- Good tunes. I think they're drinking the right kind of juice. They've get their heads on some what straight. Then there's Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Soul Journey is also up there in my list of great records. "Wayside/Back in Time." "Look At Miss Ohio." "Wrecking Ball." I think if Bill Monroe played the guitar and Django Reinhardt played the mandolin you'd have yourself a Dave Rawlings. The man can play.

What's the best press you've gotten so far? Do you like reading reviews?

We got a great write up in American Songwriter Magazine where they compared us to Neil Young. I love Neil, but I'm not so sure how I feel about being compared to him. Reading reviews makes me a bit edgy though. I'm not sure I like reading them or not. I'm learning though that my job is to write the songs and to present them with the band the way I feel best, and then whatever happens after that is pretty much up to the public. It's not really mine anymore. It's been released out into the wild. You just never know... It could be a tiger or a bear or a dog. So watch out.

What was it like working with Gillian Welch on "Tennessee Rose"? (We're big fans.)

Wonderful. She just stopped by the studio and sang. She's a lovely lady. I met her a few years ago after a show they played at the station inn on St. Patrick's Day. It was my second show of theirs I had seen. It was great. Everyone was drinking green beer. Dave was on the bar singing "Danny Boy" through the "pizza's ready" microphone. I was still in high school. I remember driving back real early the next day going straight to class. My mind was blown. That was definitely one of the best shows I've seen. But I always make it out to their shows in town and one night after a Machine show I asked her if she'd mind singing on a song sometime. So about six months later she sang on "Tennessee Rose," and about nine months later we put it on this EP we've got out now.

This EP was produced by Niko Bolas (Neil Young, My Morning Jacket)... What was his role in creating the record?

Niko told us to listen to each other. It's a very simple and crucial part of playing music. You've got to be listening to everyone. He helped us decide when we had a good take, and when we needed to stop playing and revisit the song later. He also pushed me to pitch the songs up higher then I normally would.

Three of the song titles on Veracruz reference areas in the American South, and then of course there's the title. How have these places influenced your music? Do you write a lot on the road?

I met quite a few people from these states after moving to Nashville a few years ago. "Oklahoma City Woman Blues" and "Mississippi Women" are more so influenced by the people from those places not really the actual place thus the Women/Woman in the title. I took a trip out to Las Vegas a while ago... passed through Memphis, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe, Flagstaff, Denver, St. Louis. I wrote a bit about those areas I suppose. Stopped off at a big meteor crater somewhere in Arizona I think. That was great.

The south is a magical place. It's the birth place of rock'n'roll. I live in Nashville, and being a city of the south, I'll tend to write about just that. It's were I'm from. I grew up here, so I'm gonna write about what I know... most of the time. Rivers. Mountains. Roads. Women. Guitars. Music.

Inherent in the idea of "Americana" is a sort of nostalgia -- people tend to use words like "retro," "classic," "timeless." What do you see as the contemporary aspects of your music?

I'm not really a nostalgic person. I just like solid dense good things. Like mashed potatoes and gravy. Steak. An E chord. Or even an F#. Everything about our music is contemporary. All the songs are about things that have happened to me. All the notes are notes that we played in the studio. We recorded the EP on tape because it looks better on us than a computer does. We are making music now. Not then. Some things just are timeless. They defy a date and time. Real solid things do that. Tape. Bob. Steak.

Do you guys have any pre-show rituals or ways you celebrate a good gig?

We don't have any pre-show rituals. We'll make a set list up. I suppose that's a ritual. I also make sure I have a glass of water. And we all do our best to start a show off in tune.

After a good gig we smile. That's how we celebrate. If it's a really good gig we go drink a beer together at the bar. If it's a really awful gig we go get a shot together at the bar.

What's next? Where do you see the band this time next year?

I plan on writing more songs. That's the foundation. From there I plan on playing those songs with the band and eventually, once the songs are there, record an LP. Eventually I'd love to play some of these theaters and auditoriums I've grown up going to see shows at. The Ryman. I would love to play the Ryman. I also would like to play Austin City Limits. I plan on touring a lot. Getting the good word out there to the people. That's what I'd like to do. Then I plan on writing more songs.

Featured Tracks:
Oklahoma City Woman Blues (Veracruz)
Tennessee Rose

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