Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Bails Mccance - Bass
Dillon Vanzandt -guitar/vocals
Trey Miles - Vocals
Conor Kinkade - Drums
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to American Spirits? How long has the band been around?
Dillon was in a band called (launchpad macquack) an alternative band in the toledo scene in 2010-2012, the rest of the guys had never played a show before so this was a brand new experience for most of us. we started the band in early april of 2017 and its been a whirlwind ever since.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
The name comes from the cigarettes, at the inception of the band the name came up jokingly because Dillon had a pack of american spirits and the name just stuck. we had considered changing it early on but we stuck with it, it fits us well though.
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
the songwriting process is a collaborative effort between everyone. trey writes most of the lyrics and Dillon writes most of the melodies, early on it was a lot of jamming and seeing what works but i think we have refined the way we do things for the better!
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
Coming from all really different backgrounds there are a lot of different influences on all of us, Dillon and Trey are very heavily influenced by Nirvana, Cage the Elephant and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bails is really into Aussie Rock like Violent Soho, The Dune Rats, and Conor grew up on Brand New and City lights. all of us really like Free Throw and PuP and just emotional dynamic driven music as a whole.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …
Bails drinks a lot of chocolate milk and Dillon usually drinks coffee, but mostly just beer and lots of cigarettes, i think our only ritual is that Conor forgets to close his tab at every bar we play.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
The turnout at all of our shows we recently had over 150 people at our diy venue the summit shack for our ep release which is just crazy for a spot that holds half of that, we can’t thank our fans enough for continuously showing up and supporting us,
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
i think citizen would be amazing to tour with their fans are so devoted and they are local guys, when we first started the band the goal was to get on a tour with them they actually were practicing in the studio next to ours when we recorded the Ep. As for the past there are so many amazing artists that we would’ve loved to hangout with so its hard to choose just one, PUP if your reading this take us on tour with you.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Keep an eye out, we are hitting a bunch of new cities in the coming months and we want to see you there, thank you so much for taking the time to listen - Dillon