It’s May 2014. Nathan Towles, whose band recently broke up, decides to attend Lynchstock in Lynchburg. He makes the four-hour trip from Maryland, where he’s living as he attends Catholic University of America in Northeast D.C.
At the festival, Towles meets Dane Spearman, a Liberty University student, and the two get along instantly. Towles, a singer and guitarist, is looking for a band to enter a battle of the bands competition back in D.C. He recruits Spearman, a bassist, who calls up Cole Young, a drummer from the area. The three head up to D.C. where they join Towles’s friend Josh Morales, who will soon become the band’s other guitarist.
“They came on a Friday night—none of us had ever met Cole before—and then we just spent Friday night hanging out. All of us hit it off really well,” says Towles over the phone one afternoon during a rare moment in the band’s busy schedule.
The day after the four meet, they throw together a practice a few hours before the competition. They win.
After winning the battle of the bands, the four walk around downtown in the crisp October air, and they consider continuing to play together as a band. It’s here, on U Street, that Native Spirit is born.
Fast-forward to March 2016. After playing as Native Spirit for about a year, the band has decided to change its name to Vacation Manor to avoid confusion with two other bands they came across with the same name. Its March 13 show at Jammin’ Java will be its first under the new moniker.
“It was just getting confusing. Other peoples’ tour dates were showing up on our website and stuff. At that point we didn’t know if we were going to [have] legal confusion. So just, like, practically, we were thinking now would be the best time to change the name rather than hopefully if we ever have a larger following later,” Towles says.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the band’s set to release its debut EP, Girl, Say, this spring. The online fundraising campaign managed to raise more than $9,725 in just one month to fund the EP’s recording in Nashville.
The EP is a departure from the band’s earlier Americana-rock sound. It’s more indie-pop, according to Spearman.
“It’s such a collaboration of so many of our influences. I think ‘A Toast and a Spirit’ [the group’s first single] was a really good segue into the sound that we’re going for on the EP,” Towles says. (The single is available on Spotify; listen here.)
In August, Towles moved to Lynchburg to attend Liberty for a semester; he’s since left to pursue music full-time. He, Young and Spearman remain in Lynchburg while Morales lives in Maryland, where he attends the University of Maryland. The band members alternate between practicing in Lynchburg and D.C., sending ideas back and forth in between rehearsals.
Spearman, who’s lived in Lynchburg for a little over a decade, says “The coolest thing about Lynchburg is the fact that it’s a college town and there are a lot of people who are like-minded here … It’s a very supportive community, as far as the arts go. Starting a band here, you can gain a really good following.”
While Towles mentions maybe relocating to Nashville someday, he says the band’s main focus in the near future is touring.
“[Relocating is] one of those things you don’t want to jump into without being completely ready. So we’re kind of savoring our time here while we can just because it’s so … We love it here. It’s a lot cheaper to live here, and it’s a really good town for building something,” he says.
Lightning Round
Favorite album:
Spearman: Currents, Tame Impala
Towles: Debris, Roman Candle
Favorite lyric you’ve written:
Towles: “Imagination takes me away to a place that’s somewhere in between what I want and who you really are.” (“Over the Ocean”)
Song you sing in the shower:
Spearman: I don’t sing.
Towles: “The Sound,” The 1975 or “Love Yourself,” Justin Bieber
Favorite place in the commonwealth:
Spearman: Mount Pleasant. That’s always fun. To go on a date or something, probably Charlottesville.
Towles: I gotta be honest, probably just Lynchburg. There are many places that are flashier, but in terms of, like, memories made here, this would probably have to be my favorite place in Virginia. If we’re talking about night out on the town, I really love Charlottesville, too, though.
