Today we’d like to introduce you to Autumn Vagle.
Hi Autumn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
So, there are five members of our band, Keep for Cheap, though it all started as a musical collaboration between Autumn Vagle and Kate Malanaphy. Autumn and Kate met in the fall of 2017 in the Hamline University A Cappella Choir, where they both sang (Ted Tiedemann, who plays guitar in the band, also sang in this choir, though he didn’t join until the following year.) We were both altos with a side project of songwriting, so we began jamming together in Autumn’s college basement and became fast friends. With the growing friendship came a growing passion for making something out of the musical project that we started because it sounded really good. Robert “Bert” Northrup also attended Hamline U and played in another band, and Kate knew him from their days in School of Rock together. Everyone in KFC besides myself (Autumn) did School of Rock, an afterschool program for youth wanting to be rock stars, essentially, and that seems to be a common thread in the local music scene. Bert joined the band at the start of 2018, and we played a couple of shows as a trio. Then, our previous drummer Lydia Williams joined the band, but this fall, she left us to go live on a farm! I can’t blame her for that. In the fall of 2018, though, Ted Tiedemann joined our group, and we were a complete quintet. Our drummer now is Grace Berg.
We played many basement shows, small bar stages, and the like when we first started. We started as a pretty straightforward indie rock band but soon began to fall into our classic prairie rock sound, which happened organically. All five of us have varying music tastes. Hence, as we started to get to know one another better, blending our musical inspirations and techniques and becoming more collaborative in our songwriting, we leaned into the twangy, indie-folk rock sound that was coming to life. By playing more shows and joining the Lost and Found Touring team, which secured us a manager and booking agent, we started to get bigger opportunities and made a name for ourselves in the Twin Cities.
Now, we just released our debut album ‘Bundle’ and went on our first tour to the East Coast! We’re still small, though mighty, but are very excited for what our future has in store.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being in a small, independent band that makes indie music is tough. At first, we were all full-time college students who each were overly involved in academic and other feats, juggling being musicians in multiple bands. There are five of us, so scheduling anything is always a real struggle. Pre-pandemic, we played way too many shows; like every other week, we’d play a show- sometimes even two in a week. This pushed us to burnout, which is why the forced break from Covid contained some silver linings for our group.
Also, to speak candidly, social media and ‘having a brand’ are currently the most important things in your career as a musician, and I think that can be hard and discouraging. We all love the music we create and love making it together, so having to translate that genuine passion into content for TikTok or something to feed the algorithm feels sad. It is impossible to make some noise about your ~awesome~ album in a landscape that is oversaturated with releases. Still, you have to find a way to do it because, as a small band, we don’t have the connections to prominent music journalists, Spotify curators, and others. We have to build the brand all by ourselves. Unfortunately, no one will pay attention if you don’t have the follower count.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Keep for Cheap’s special blend of indie, country, rock, and pop has a little something for everyone. Their debut album ‘Bundle’ pines over queer love and passing youth, exults the wonders of the natural world and begs for connection wherever they can make it. Playing what they call “prairie-rock,” the Minnesota 5-piece, will make you feel like a kid, then break your heart without skipping a beat.
That’s our basic bio, but we specialize in making emotional music that is told through twangy instrumentals and hard-hitting melodies. We are young, which gives us a refreshing take on how to be in a band. We keep it light and like to have fun; I think that shines in our music. We want our fans and listeners to have fun, too!
Our sound is unique, and so is our songwriting style. Our songs are written by two queer femmes who are reflective, treating their songwriting as a way to work through inner emotions. So, our songs are genuine and heartfelt.
We are a queer band playing alternative country music also sets us apart. I know we don’t play strictly country music, but we are trying to make country-music spaces safe for everyone, especially young queer people, since they haven’t been historical. Everywhere we go, we bring our identities, and I think simply holding our space and singing our gay country love songs is powerful.
We are most proud of our debut album ‘Bundle’ as that is what we’ve been working towards for years. We adore and pour our heart and soul into all eight songs on the album. From punk rock to folk fans, there is something for everyone in ‘Bundle,’ which we think is pretty neat!
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
We stay authentic to ourselves, what we believe in, and want out of this world. Being a musician makes it easy to fall into a path of just wanting to do it for fame and glory, regardless of whether that is on a big or small scale. We don’t want to follow the “pop hit” formula and make something that sounds like everything else. We want to make music that we care about, that comes from within. If that means not as many people will ‘get it, that’s fine! As long as we are genuine, I think that matters most. That, and having fun! We all have full-time jobs, and if doing music starts to feel like a second job, that is no good. Sometimes it does, and we must reevaluate and take things off our plate if we need to. We want to stay happy, authentic humans because we believe the best and truest art can come from that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.keepforcheap.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keepforcheap/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keepforcheap
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/keepforcheap
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC75Ms2W7_Q_bfn2cVLhTJ-Q
- Other: https://keepforcheap.bandcamp.com/
Image Credits
Callie Marino Bethunni Schreiner Morgan Winston
