Fresh off her recent win at the OC Music Awards for best Country/Americana with her cleverly named band, Nicole Vaughn and Her Lovely Band, the 23-year-old Vaughn is a motivated musician who just won’t quit.

At the ripe old age of 11, Vaughn found her niche writing poetry, but it wasn’t until two years later that she first picked up a guitar and started turning her poetry into music.

It has only been three years since she decided to pursue a career in music, she revealed in a recent phone interview.

“I was working at a retail store and one day I just decided that I was sick of not doing what I love,” Vaughn said. “I thought, what am I doing here when I should be playing and performing music for people?”

Ever since making that decision, Vaughn has never looked back. Her incredibly fast pace has allowed her to accomplish two full-length albums and one EP with Her Lovely Band, and Vaughn shows no signs of slowing down.

The idea of Her Lovely Band came about in January of last year when Vaughn wanted to recreate her solo music live. In time, the five musicians began writing music together and ended up becoming a separate project entirely. Now, the band holds a special place in the heart of the Americana group’s lead vocalist.

“My heart right now is definitely with the band,” Vaughn said. “When it comes to a music career, the band will always be my main focus.”

Though Vaughn has found a new home with her band, she hasn’t completely thrown out the idea of pursuing her solo music.

“There will be songs that I write that won’t necessarily fit with the band. So, I’ll put those songs in my pocket and possibly release a solo album later on down the road,” the musician explained.

As for the extensive mix of sounds that make up the band’s music, Vaughn herself takes pride in the inability to place her band into a specific genre.

“I would just call us Americana because we aren’t going for a specific sound,” she said. “We’re more of a mash-up of everything from pop, rock, to country. We really just try and make good music in whatever genre we’re feeling.”

Recently, Nicole Vaughn and Her Lovely Band has been performing as the resident artist at the Constellation Room for the month of April. They’ve been playing newer songs (and some music off the band’s EP “Almost Lies”), and the vocalist couldn’t be happier with the way the audience has received the new material.

“It has been really fun to see people’s reactions to the new stuff we’ve been playing,” she said.

Just like every other artist, Nicole Vaughn and Her Lovely Band would love to get signed, but if it doesn’t work out that way music will still remain a central part of her life.

“If it (record deal) doesn’t happen, I’m sure we’ll all still be playing music,” Vaughn explained. “I’m not really sure yet what I would do, to be honest, because I haven’t really thought about my life without music.”

As for the near future of Nicole Vaughn and Her Lovely Band, the members plan on going back into the studio sometime in the summer to start working on its first full-length album. Along with the final days of the band’s residency at the Constellation Room, April 23 and April 30, the Americana act has one more show lined up at the Tiki Bar on May 5.

By Cassie Rossel for orangecounty.com

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.