Worth Knowing, Worth Going is Style Weekly’s spotlight on emerging artists poised to make waves in and around Richmond. This time, we spoke with multi-instrumental singer-songwriter Caroline Vain, who has frequented Richmond stages in recent years, providing expert accompaniment for the likes of Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants, Deau Eyes and Villages. In February, she shared her first EP under her own name—four songs filled with great poise and detail, precisely in keeping with her performance style. She’ll celebrate that eponymous debut with a release show at Révéler on Tuesday, April 15.
Style Weekly: How did you get your start as a musician?
Caroline Vain: I’ve been playing violin since the age of five. I started playing classical, and then around 16, I started getting tired of the four-hour rehearsals and developed an interest in bluegrass and folk music. Around that same time, I was trying to teach myself guitar and write my own songs just for fun. Then towards the end of high school, I moved to England with my family, and there I started to get more into playing English and Irish folk music. And then I attended London College of Music… I started training in some jazz violin there, and vocals, and I’ve just progressively tried to learn more as I’ve got along, and open myself up to more genres and train myself in guitar and voice. It’s gotten me where I am now.
Who helped shape the direction your sound has taken so far?
Part of me is really influenced by the music that my parents liked listening to growing up— folk revival singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and some classic rock. But now I’m very influenced by the music taste of some of my closest friends and my bandmates, and currently they’re having a big influence on expanding the way that I write songs, and practicing my instruments more, and seeing what doors that will open up for me.
The first time I heard “Sense of Sincerity” you were performing it solo on violin. How did the more built-out arrangement for the studio version take shape?
For a long time, I was just playing it completely by myself, and the arrangement changed over time when I incorporated the band and we worked it out together. I absolutely love how it turned out on the EP. I’m really proud of that one… People have given me different suggestions on what they think I should do with it when I record it, and I’ve had a few people hear it in just-violin-and-vocals format, and they imagine it as a pop song, because it has that movement and rhythm. So that was always kind of funny to hear—the way that different people interpreted it when it was so bare.
What are some of your favorite gigs that you’ve played so far?
I loved playing Friday Cheers last year with both Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants and Villages. I really enjoyed playing at Ashland Theatre back in the fall with two of my band members. It was a really nice theater show where people were sitting and listening, and we got to be on a bigger stage. And I had a lot of fun at FloydFest last year too, with Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants, and we won the On the Rise competition for that last year, so that was really cool.
What are you especially looking forward to about this show?
The show is just a great way for me, personally, to bookend this era for myself. I’ve been wanting to release an EP for a really long time, but I waited until I had the right resources and the right people to work with, and it all serendipitously fell together over the last year. So the show is going to involve, of course, the songs from the EP, but [also] some of my favorite songs that have influenced my writing and a new song or two that will lead us into the next chapter of where myself and the band are trying to go with our music.
What else is on the horizon that we should keep an eye out for?
The band will be performing at Friday Cheers this year on May 23 for RVA Music Night. We’re really excited about that. And other than that, I think we’ll probably just be trying to release some more live footage of us playing, get some cool videos recorded and be writing and recording and hopefully releasing some more music soon.
Caroline Vain will perform at Révéler on Tuesday, April 15. Tiara & Andrew will also perform. Doors open at 6 p.m. and music starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at revelerexperiences.com. To hear and purchase Caroline Vain’s debut EP, visit carolinevain.com.
