Essential 8: Blake Vaughn

Courtesy of the Artist

Hailing from Denton, Texas, singer-songwriter Blake Vaughn recently released his debut album, I Cannot Relate to a Thing But the Wind. Recorded at Mockingbird Sound, the ten tracks were all penned by Vaughn who has been writing since the ages of 12 or 13 after becoming infatuated with lyrically driven songwriters such as Townes Van Zandt. Here, Vaughn answers his Essential 8.

​Did you have a musical mentor?  If so, who was it and how did they influence you?
Maybe less a mentor than a musical confidant of sorts, but Alex Hastings, who engineered the whole thing, always had answers for questions I had pertaining to the recording process. I'm pretty much the least gadget saavy person in the world, and studio mixing boards just look like airplane cockpits to me, so it definitely felt like we were both performing eventhough it was my album. We found out pretty quickly we both had so much in common, influence-wise, so it was easy to trust him.

What’s the story behind your album’s title?
Aside from being the second track on the album, I guess I felt like it eluded to the varying subject matter. Most records are more cohesive, whereas with this being my debut and me already having amassed so much material to choose from I was just picking songs (old and new, sad and happy) that weren't related, to try and present some kind of balance.

Where do you draw inspiration from when writing? 
In every aspect of life purity and rawness are the things I'm attracted to. The art that has made the biggest impact on me has always been utmost honest and vulnerable. Everything on the table. I'm really into deconstructing conventional wisdom too, we could all live a lot more authentically if we thought for ourselves and did what was best for us individually.

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​When/where do you do your best writing?
Usually anywhere my singular focus is not writing. I do have those "sit down and write a song now" moments, but I make notes to myself throughout every day as ideas present themselves, and then I typically find time at the end of each week to transcribe all the bits and pieces into my notebook and tidy it all up.

I've also found that physical activity and creativity benefit one another. It's not unusual for me to think up songs while running.

Do you write about personal experience, the experience of others, observations, made-up stories, something else or a combination?
Personal experience is definitely my default perspective, but I hope to evolve from it and explore other perspectives as I get older. Right now it's just second nature to pour my own guts out.


What’s the best advice you have ever gotten from another musician?
I'm not sure if this counts, since it doesn't address me specifically, but I've kind of adopted Gillian Welch's "everything is free" as my mantra. It addresses how irrelevant success actually is when you love something. "We're gonna do it anyway, even if it doesn't pay", like "I've chosen to document my life in song because it's what drives me, and that's all the payment I'll ever need". I love how it liberates the artist.

What’s your dream venue and why?
A few years back I caught a documentary by happenstance on a public broadcasting channel where David Broza and Jackson Browne perform as the sun comes up over the fortress of Masada in Israel. I love sunrise, the newness and sheer potential of it all. I love just plucking my guitar and improvising lyrics early in the morning when I have nowhere to be, plus that natural atmosphere and it's formidable history is incredible.

Who would you love to collaborate with?
That would probably be Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. Their first few albums informed my writing so much. I'm always trying to balance personal and cultural issues, and I feel like he does both simultaneously. He keeps himself and his motives right under the microscope, even when covering universal themes. He digs into himself so deeply and expresses it so well. I'll always be a sucker for the philosopher with a guitar.

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