Music Nation is a Music Video Competition for Independent Artists

. . . And along came Vanity Band

Chapter 1
With the creation of Vanity Band, principle member Joel Nass sought to finally realize his plans for an aesthetically continuous vintage pop act. And though the conditions in his home town of Green Bay, Wisconsin are hardly fit for the cultivation of relevant art, time has shown him to be a young man not so easily dissuaded. Working to find a means of communication fit for poignant social expression and yet palatable as entertainment, young Master Nass describes his current efforts blithely saying, "I fancy myself the wayward child of Norah Jones and Tom Petty, who one day was kidnapped by Jack White and sadly never ransomed."

Chapter 2
That human drama aside, Joel Nass and his newly realized Vanity Band continue to arrange and record from the pile of scrawlings he collected over the past two years, years spent away from music proper but hardly out from under the dualistic hand of Apollo. Returning to his parents' basement and a closet full of intermittently functional equipment, Joel had to beg, barrow, and pray his way through the recording of "One I'd Like." Conversely, he found many of the contacts he had made while playing with his previous band, Win Dynasty, ready, willing, and able to assist in all phases of his new project, from tracking to mastering. In a similar fashion, the song's video was a ragtag yet gratifyingly collaborative effort. Putting an emphasis on style and substance over glossy production seems compulsory at present, still, in doing so, Vanity Band hope to foster instinct intent on finding the most due approach, means be damned.

Chapter 3
Vanity Band are certainly pleased with their first offering, "One I'd Like", pleased, too, with the response it has received. Yet no one is quite ready to claim they've arrived, Joel least of all. A shortage of resources has never stopped Joel from making music, but even he'll admit it's been a hindrance to recording his songs the way he'd like, "There's no lack of ideas knocking about the ol' noggin, unfortunately habitually selling off my music equipment to pay the bills can put a damper on recording. If a change isn't in the stars, though, the basement, my songs, and a beat up guitar will surely do for a while longer."

Musical Styles

• Pop
• Indie
• Acoustic
• Folk
• Singer-Songwriter
• Vintage

Influences

• Jeff Buckley
• Coldplay
• Tom Petty
• Libertines
• Oasis
• Norah Jones
• The Kinks
• The White Stripes