Category Archives: obsessed

“I’m halfway out of New York / Half of me I left behind / If we’ve got something to save / Then now’s the time / Just give me a sign”

VHS Collection is a rock band from New York City that has gained a reputation for high energy live performances and a unique blend of rock, electronic, and disco influences.

VHS Collection’s songs have been streamed over 25 million times on Spotify and the band has seen festival performances at Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Bunbury Festival, and Okeechobee Festival in the last year.  VHS also sold out a headline show at Bowery Ballroom in February and Music Hall of Williamsburg in June, as well as LA’s Troubadour, in addition to sold-out club dates throughout the mid-west and throughout the west coast.  The band has released two EP’s to date and will release its first full-length record late this fall.

“Lean” the single off the band’s first EP hit #8 on the Spotify Viral Charts last January.  “Waiting on the Summer” the single off of the band’s 2^nd EP Stereo Hype hit #14 on the Spotify Viral Charts and has been streamed over 12mm times to date.  The “Waiting on the Summer Dave Edwards Remix” was also #1 on Hype Machine in April.

VHS Collection got their start in the winter of 2014 but the three members, James Bohannon, Conor Cook, and Nils Vanderlip have been playing music in one form or another together since they were kids.  Conor and James grew up across the street from each other in NYC and attended the same grade school where they began jamming on acoustic guitars; Nils and James met in high school, where they started their first band together and recorded an album.

Years later, with all three members back in NYC, VHS pulled together a collection of electronic-leaning rock-influenced bedroom recordings and posted them on Soundcloud.  Encouraged by the volume of hits the tracks received, VHS began performing a live set at friends’ parties and around NYC’s small clubs.  2015 saw multiple sold-out nights for VHS at the Lower East Side’s indie-rock launching pad, the Mercury Lounge.

2016 saw the band’s first major festival performances at Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, in addition to sold-out club dates on both coasts in addition support dates with Bloc Party and Powers.

VHS has remained independent and is self-managed. They are able to reach a growing audience via Spotify and other social media outlets without a label and have also built a live following by word of mouth.  The band sold out Bowery Ballroom and NYC’s 700 cap Music Hall of Williamsburg in the last 6 months and also played several major West Coast headline dates, including LA’s famous Troubadour.

VHS has created a writing process which is unique and serves them well.  It starts primarily with each member individually writing and producing dozens of bits and pieces of songs on their laptops.  The band spends months working on these initial song ideas virtually, sending each other files and collaborating via Dropbox.  Every few months, the band heads to a cabin in upstate New York where they lock themselves in for 7 days at a time to complete the songs during intense writing sessions.  During these sessions, the three members collaborate on every element of the song, with each member playing various instruments on the tracks.  The band then weeds out the best of these home produced tracks to bring into the studio.