So Long Davey! Reveals Their Miami Vice

Despite their name there’s no reason to wave goodbye to So Long Davey! In fact, being that the band formed in 2007, many people are still waving their first hello to them. The San Diego quartet of singer David Vaughn, guitarist James Austin, drummer Michael Behymer, and bassist Filip Miucin, have been hopping on tours and giving people a dose of their glam infused dance rock for a couple of years now, and their latest release, The Fashion, spawned the single “Love Hurts,” which has surpassed the 10,000 views mark on YouTube.

Recently, I caught up with three-fourths of So Long Davey! and found out about their origins, their lead singer’s unique look, and how an obsession with Dexter led to them being swarmed by Miami police.

Adam Bernard: You guys came onto the scene in 2007, but when did you officially start as a band and what was the process of finding your sound like?
David: James and I met in ’06. We both really liked music and wanted to play music, so we became friends that way. All of us pretty much met on MySpace. It just kind of felt like one of those fated, it makes sense, sort of organic processes that rarely happen in a life. Through writing I realized I don’t want to write music with somebody and not have them part of the feature, and James, at the point, didn’t really mind writing music and having it go under my name, but I wanted it to be something we created together, and then to have like a brother situation where we were all playing music together. That’s when we found Michael, who was just graduating from San Diego State and wanted to be in a rock band and forget about his Psychology degree. That’s how it’s been ever since. We have our influences from newer bands like Fall Out Boy and Say Anything, who we love and played with, but even James and I were just singing along with The Beatles and talking about all the instrumentation and all that stuff, so I think our roots run far before any of us were born, to stuff that’s super current and really new, and we’re always on the same page, so that makes it nice.

AB: I notice you said you met on MySpace. With the news that News Corp. is getting fed up with the site’s downturn, MySpace might be gone pretty soon. If and when MySpace goes away is that going to be like losing a nightclub, or is it going to be like losing a pair of underwear?
David: I think a year ago I ran across the first comment that James ever left on my page and it was really interesting and cool, but I don’t know. Personally, it’s kind of one of those time capsule things. We didn’t really have a place to showcase our music and at the time MySpace was the best available option. I feel like bands are being discovered by new fans more on YouTube than on MySpace these days. I think for musicians MySpace was an ideal spot, and I understand some of our fans have a type of stigma behind thinking about MySpace, so that also becomes complicated because a lot of them have moved on to other social networking sites. I’d like to take a screen capture of our page if we find out it’s going away. I want to remember what it’s like. That is definitely where our band grew up. It’s definitely where our first fans found us and how we made a lot of friends with a lot of other bands who we played with in the past. Right now, though, bands, no matter how popular they are, aren’t really getting played on MySpace, so I don’t really think it’s necessarily going to be something we’ll completely miss.

AB: You mentioned building a fan base there. Is your hometown of San Diego a good place for glam infused dance rock?
David: I would say no. I think we’re very much involved in the pop punk scene in San Diego, and a lot of bands we love playing with and who we’re friends with in the area share a lot of the same fans, but they’re not glam infused dance rock at all, they’re not glam, they’re not really dancey, a lot of it’s like a post Blink 182, post Fall Out Boy kind of vibe. I was looking at the definition of what New Wave was and it really describes our band. It’s a band that evolved in the punk scene, but definitely to the left, but plays all the same shows and has maybe even the same fan base. I think that’s what we are. I don’t know what generation, or what wave, of New Wave, but we really don’t play with bands that are like us.

AB: You are instantly recognizable, as you have a very unique look. How did you come to develop that look and what does it represent for you?
David: I always had my hair short and my mom always wanted me to grow it out. When I was finding what kind of music I wanted to do I went to a Lenny Kravitz concert in ‘02 with some high school friends and he was so cool. He had the biggest fro I’d ever seen in my life and I told my friends “I want to do that, I want to grow my hair out and just let it do its thing and just be wild.” I did that for a long time, but I didn’t feel like it was my personality. Everyone was associating me with old school R&B and I felt more rock. I wanted to do something different, so I started clipping it up. We were on tour in Florida at one point and I was complaining (about it). We had one more show and I said “as soon as we get back to San Diego I’m cutting the sides off. I hope it stands up on its own.” I went back and called my barber lady and she shaved the sides of my head off and it actually stood up, so I was happy about that {laughs}. The makeup, I have W magazines and random crap that I like to read. It’s very glamorous. I just like doing stuff that makes it seem fun, and that’s what our message is. I don’t think anything is supposed to be overtly sexual, or anything but overtly fun.

AB: Speaking of fun, you’ve been on a number of very fun tours with high profile bands. What are some of the wilder stories you’re legally allowed to tell me from those times on the road?
James: David and I are both very big fans of Dexter. We used IMDB and looked up the actual address of the apartment of the show. We got really excited when we were in Miami because we found it. We drove over there, basically thinking we’re being slick, snuck in from the side, hopped over a couple of fences, and ended up in the courtyard of the Dexter apartment complex. Michael was there, too. We walked up to the apartment, ever so casually, and David and I took a picture in front of the door all happy. It was like a minute, minute and a half
David: Not even.
James: We walked down the stairs and someone who lived in the apartment complex tried to stop us.
Michael: He put his hand on my stomach and I was like don’t touch me!
James: He was trying to stop us from leaving the premises. We just walked away from the guy and ran to our car. Three blocks later we were swarmed by Miami metro police who thought that we were breaking into an apartment. The funny thing about the entire thing is nobody knew what Dexter was. We were explaining to the cops, “look, we’re from San Diego, we just wanted to see this TV show apartment, so we took this picture in front of it.” We had all of our IDs taken, hanging our heads in shame while people were driving by us, and it was all stemming from the fact that we just wanted to see this apartment from a TV show.
David: Even the guy who lived there had no idea that they had this whole television show about the apartment that's above his apartment.
James: It was one of those things where the first cop that asked us had no clue, but radios in to the other guy like “they were seeing the show Dexter.” “You don’t know what Dexter is? It’s a really cool show.” “Oh, so they’re telling the truth?” So basically we’re not legally allowed to set foot on the property that is the Dexter apartments.
David: We’re not legally allowed to be there ever again or we’ll be arrested for trespassing.

AB: So you’re really screwed if they ever invite you to do a scene. You’ll have to do it on a soundstage.
David: I think we’re gonna have to be like, you have to recreate the set in Hollywood, because I don’t really know if we’re allowed in Miami.

AB: Wow, so you’re allowed in Miami even less than the Jersey Shore kids.
David: {laughs} We’re hoodlums.

AB: I see you’re also pretty gangster on the internet, as you do your thing on Twitter. Unlike a lot of artists you actually follow quite a few people. Is this a true fan interaction thing for you?
David: We followed you today, we saw your tweet. We’re kind of Twitter whores. I’m probably the biggest one. I love it because everybody says whatever they want, whenever they want to say it, and they re-tweet all of the other absurd things everybody else says. As a band, in general, we’re very upfront with what we think, there’s not a lot of reservation, so I think it’s a natural process for us to love Twitter. We have a cool people list and anybody who promotes us belongs on that list. We get a lot of cool fan props and people love telling people about us. I feel like that’s our new home for social networking. I feel really connected to our fans that way. We can read what they’re doing and they can read what we’re doing, and we can comment on their stuff and they can comment on our stuff. We’re not a closed off band, we want to be friends with as many people who want to be friends with us. I’m just glad people want to know what we’re doing. And we have rules. We know not to get political. We encouraged people to vote, but we don’t want to say who we voted for. Another rule is you don’t take naked pictures of yourself on your phone.

AB: That’s a good rule more people need to learn.
David: We’re kind of glad some people didn’t follow that rule, though {laughs}. We won’t say anybody’s name.

AB: Finally, what can listeners expect next from So Long Davey!?
David: Our number one focus is getting on tour. We’ve done a lot of sporadic touring, but it’s been a while since we’ve gotten in the van and done the long haul. That’s gonna be a huge thing for us. There’s definitely going to be new music from us next year and there’s definitely going to be touring from us across the US. Hopefully we’ll get out even beyond that because we definitely have fans in Europe.

Story originally ran on SubstreamMusicPress.com.