Van Go Go: The Southwest Michigan Band Getting LA’s Attention

Finally, something good to come out of 2020. Old friends put the band back together and it clicked. Van Go Go is getting ink in the rock press in Los Angeles.

It's the same old story: a few dudes get together and form a band, but inevitably breakup because it doesn't quite work out. This saga may have a happy ending yet. Van Go Go got together in 2008 in Michigan and jammed for a while, but then a couple of the guys got burned out and moved to Florida. Fast-forward to 2020- Coronavirus, quarantine, Zoom and the universe convened to get Nathan Mackinder, Jason Schaller, Paxton Olney and Jonah Brockman excited about their music again.

We just want to have fun and let the music take us where it wants us to go. We used to do this because we wanted to be rock stars that write good music and today we want to simply write good music for people to enjoy.

-Jason Schaller, Van Go Go

They're not the only ones who believe in Van Go Go. The band got an excellent writeup in the Los Angeles Tribune. The author of the article is Axel Tillmann. No, not the Axel from Guns N' Roses, but he does have a connection to the rock scene. Tillmann was the manager of the band Accept back in the '80s. (I know you remember "Balls to the Wall.") He's now a serial entrepreneur and compares the early days of a rock band to launching a startup company. Tillmann thinks Van Go Go is doing all the right things and could go public.

The guys are so talented. I'm really lucky to be a part of all this. Fantastic songwriters, excellent musicians- it's really exciting to do this again.

-Paxton Olney, Van Go Go

You may recognize Paxton from the local music scene as the bass player in '80s cover band Hairmania. We spent a few minutes talking about the future of his new (old) band Van Go Go. The band took the four existing songs from 2008 and quickly added four more as the material came together quickly. Recorded at Pearl Sound Studios near Detroit, and produced by Chuck Alkazian (Pop Evil Tantric Asking Alexandria), the tunes are being mastered this week and Van Go Go's eight-song ep comes out digitally on April 2 with a vinyl release to follow. They hope to shop the tunes in L.A. and be back on concert stages rockin' your world very soon.

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Listen to the complete interview in the YouTube video below, and check out Van Go Go on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Instagram, facebook, iTunes and Bandcamp. Get all the links HERE.