Exclusive Interview with 'VEHICLES'

Cody Cloud didn’t mean to imply transportation when he gave his band the moniker VEHICLES in 2006. Instead, he meant metamorphosis. Songs are the vehicles that connect musicians, friends, and family, and the concept behind VEHICLES is that multiple voices can converge to provide emotionally transformative experiences and connections. This Wichita-based band has always thrived on performing live. The band’s reputation for bringing it live has been cemented during the past 15 years of touring the United States, despite the lineup changing over the years as friends joined, left, and returned.

The music of the VEHICLES is basic yet dramatic, melancholy yet hopeful. The bass and drums are pounding a solid foundation of bump as the guitars sing and the keyboards change moods. The vocals soar and calm down like a herd of cranes migrating.
Cody Cloud, the band’s lead singer and guitarist, wrote the songs, and guitarist/vocalist Isaac Pearson, bassist Tony Hull, pianist Cale Gubitz, and drummer Thayne Coleman added the finishing touches.
VEHICLES will unleash two years of pandemic angst along with the imminent release of their new album Belief in Habits. While striving to make peace with past traumas and looking to the future through the eyes of a painter, the album is full of loneliness, grief, and uncertainty. Check out the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you all come from and how it all got started?

VEHICLES: We are a band from Wichita, KS, but have played regionally and toured nationally for the past ten years. Vehicles was started by Cody Cloud and drummer Kerry Bainum in 2005. The band has seen a cast of members come and go through the years but this musical core has remained. The band took its name from this rotating cast of members, the musicians could change but the songs remained vehicles with changing passengers.

2. Did you guys have any formal training or are you self-taught?

VEHICLES: This is different member to member. I’d say 50/50. Cody (songwriter for the group) has taken piano lessons from his grandmother when he was younger, but no formal training beyond that experience. Kerry (drummer) went to college for music education. Musicians who have played in Vehicles have been auditioned with “how they fit into the sound” more than “how technical their playing is”.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘VEHICLES’?

VEHICLES: Cody (songwriter) I grew up in a strict religious family and my first secular musical influences came to me on bootlegged tapes from my friends at church. They would give me tapes of Digital Underground, Easy-E, and U2. When I started working and made my own money, I would always buy at least two new CD’s every paycheck. My first/favorite influences were U2 – Achtung Baby, Nirvana – Nevermind, R.E.M. – Automatic for the People and Duran Duran – Ordinary World

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

VEHICLES: Vehicles has a rich, full live sound and we try to capture that in the studio. Over the years people have said of our live shows and records: This sounds like a more rocking Death Cab for Cutie or This sounds like a U2 if they played like they gave a shit. We have had comparisons to The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen.

I (Cody) personally like these descriptions because art is subjective and I have no problem with how people who listen to us attach their own meanings. For me, I describe Vehicles as earnest, emotional, and in the moment.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as INDIE?

**VEHICLES**: I (Cody), I think of the U2 song Ultraviolet light where Bono sings “when I was all messed up and had opera in my head…” That emotional and musical crescendo is what I’m always trying to reach. Ha.
I think as the band has aged; we have gotten better at being ourselves. We know what we are good at and what we struggle with. We have also become better at taking criticism from each other, which has made us better. When we met Andrew Bair, who produced and played keys on our last two records, we really locked in on a creative relationship what has been very helpful in our development musically.

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative and entertainment?

VEHICLES: I think music like any art, should express some emotion that an audience can relate to. Obviously, an artist’s own experience is going to inform their own, and their arts, level of insight. I (Cody) am a marriage and family therapist and in my job, I hear people discuss their attachments and their authenticity. In most people, they will sacrifice their authenticity to stay attached. I would hope our music communicates a feeling of community and authenticity. I feel the most authentic in my life when I get to play music and I hope I communicate that to the people who watch us. As far as political or cultural issues, we are too divided and no one seems interested in compromising which leads to poor mental health. I want my music to contribute to safe, authentic, coming together feelings without exclusion.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

VEHICLES: Any music/art scene is tough. I’ll just say that. I get fulfilment from creating and playing live. I enjoy the people I get to meet and play with, that part of music is fulfilling to me.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

VEHICLES: I (Cody) tend to be attracted to a bottom-up approach to songwriting. I write a number of guitar or synth lines I think could be songs, but if I can’t find a solid bass hook as a foundation for these lines, the song never really finds its legs. Luckily, we have Tony Hull laying down some great foundational bass lines. Once I have a solid groove laid, I will find a good melody and then lyrics come last. Everything needs to complement the groove or hook of the song.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

VEHICLES: We seem to be a band that exists in our own universe. I like that we have a sound that is unique. I think the most difficult thing we’ve had to endure is when people/venue owners/” taste makers” won’t give us a chance to prove ourselves. To not even get chance is pretty soul crushing.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

VEHICLES: We are proud of the tours we have played and the bands we have played with. We have played SXSW a number of times and music festivals in New York City. We are also proud of our longevity. We have more tours in us and we are excited to make more music.