Age Nowhere’s sound pulls at the roots of the winding roads just north of Dayton, OH where singer/songwriter Paul Monnin and twin guitarists Dan and Matt Spaugy grew up and later reunited to form the band. Their 2019 debut Airport Sounds captures the band’s first foray on their “Cosmic American Music” journey, blending hazy honky tonk with solid Midwestern rock and roll. Their follow-up effort, titled Age Nowhere Strikes Again! and due out later this year, takes on a more traditional country sound but is not without its sonic twists and turns.
Since forming in 2017, the band has supported national and regional artists such as The Steel Wheels, Jeremy Pinnell, William Matheny, Justin Wells, and Young Heirlooms on their stops in the area and become a fixture on the rootsier end of Dayton’s thriving rock scene.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the band’s new single “She Took My Heart,” a mellow honky tonk number that balances a classic country sound with the pop-inflected folk of fellow Ohioan David Mayfield. The band keeps a steady and loping groove with plenty of twangy and even fuzzed out guitar to reference some of their favorite country players. There are also some damn fine guitar solos, which showcases the dynamic between the Spaugy brothers while also complementing Paul Monnin’s easy-going vocal style.
Paul Monnin describes the inspiration behind the song:
“I wrote this song a number of years ago while I was living in Colorado. I was working at a pizzeria as a cook. One day, while I was slicing mozzarella cheese with another cook, he told me a story about an estranged loved one who had up-and-left him one night. That afternoon, I got really drunk and watched the episode of American Dad! in which Roger the alien establishes a honky tonk in the attic of their house and discovers the true meaning of country music. It’s a true story. That’s the sequence of events that inspired me to write this song.
“It sounds dumb; but that episode of American Dad! and my coworker’s story played a huge part in helping me find my voice as a country singer. I was in a pretty sorry state those days. I was drunk all the time. Broke. Didn’t have a car. Didn’t have a whole lot to look forward to. The sequence of events that took place that day helped me re-frame my experiences and come to terms with myself. It’s goofy as hell, but it helped me become more vulnerable as a songwriter.”
Listen to the tune and read our chat with the band below…
There’s a definitive “classic country” feeling to this single. Were you listening to a lot of older country music at the time you were writing this song?
“I was. I didn’t give it much thought at the time, though. Nothing about it. I wrote the song in one sitting. It took maybe two hours. The whole thing hit me all at once. I immediately had a title, a premise, and a speaker. When I found a melody, I just picked three chords and stuck with them.”
This song grew from an interaction with a coworker in Colorado. Did that help the lyrics for this song feel personal and organic?
“In a way, I guess. It’s a really goofy song at its core. It’s organic, but it’s only obliquely personal. I know how it feels to be left by someone and feel powerless. That’s the feeling I’ve always got from the song. My coworker’s story was pretty personal, though. The song paraphrases and borrows from his story more so than recreates it, but he was really heartfelt and descriptive.”
It’s okay if you don’t want to reveal your secrets. But, how in the hell did you get the tone for the guitar solo? It sounds fantastic!
“The first solo is performed by Matt Spaugy on a Bass VI, so it’s an octave lower in pitch than a standard guitar. That’s why it’s so low and growly sounding. He and Patrick [Himes] ran it through a fuzz pedal into a mid-60’s Fender Bandmaster. They wanted to achieve a sound similar to Grady Martin’s fuzz tone on the old Marty Robbins song ‘Don’t Worry.’ Matt and Dan showed me that track a long time ago and we’ve always loved the sound. It’s unique.”
Dayton, OH is known as a hub of rock and roll and indie. How do you feel you fit into the scene there?
“Dayton’s a rock and roll town in many ways, but it’s still the land of funk. There’s a scene for everything. Lots of hard rock and indie rock, for sure, but there’s also more progressive and psychedelic stuff. There’s a cool hip-hop scene here. I know a few surf-rock acts. Make a spectacle, sell tickets, and put it on stage. People in Dayton will be there. I try not to think too much about where we ‘fit.’ Everyone in town is really cool. It’s a very inclusive music scene and arts community. Most people don’t think about this being country or that being rock or whatever. We just do what we love and try to have fun with it.”
Is this single indicative of an album coming soon? What’s next for Age Nowhere?
“This is the second single from our upcoming second album, Age Nowhere Strikes Again! The album’s due out this fall on Dayton’s Magnaphone Records. We’re going to taking presales for vinyl and CDs soon. We’re not really sure what’s next, to be honest. Our album release celebration will be the band’s first show in two years. We’re going to keep making new music, though, and playing shows whenever and wherever we get the opportunity. We’re going to push this record a little bit, and we’ll see what happens from there.”
Photo by Cate Ronan, LLC
