On the Road with Bobby

The singer-songwriter Bobby Vacant started writing music in Chicago in 1999 with the Donovan-inspired and all-too-self-destructive folk-punk band, The Nothings. The Nothings one-and-only EP, The Nothings Suck, was never officially released.

After leaving Chicago for Europe in 2001, Vacant began a post-millennium project called Dull New Word. As the dark and poetry-driven songs took shape, Vacant began recording on analog 4-track tape and started sending these seminal tracks to Luxotone Records in Chicago. Luxotone, a fledgling label at the time, soon began producing and arranging the material with local Chicago band The Weary. The debut album renamed Tear Back The Night was released on Luxotone in 2009.  

In 2010 Vacant formed a new band with bassist and singer The Worn. The next project Virginia Neon soon took shape. The new songs were just as haunting as before but this time paying homage to the neon-fused streets of Reno, Nevada. With a wealth of inspiration from Jackson C. Frank, Elliot Smith, and Frank Black, Vacant brought on producer Tyko Runesson to record, produce and arrange the new album, this with additional help from The Jesus Taco. Virginia Neon releases on Weak in March, 2012.

 

Photos by Pia Brodmann