Backstory: Diva Vaughan Brown

I’ve been singing and dancing around the house since I was five years old. I grew up idolizing the irreplaceable Dolores O'Riordan, David Byrne, Tracy Chapman, Freddy Mercury, and Michael Jackson. Before I had a real microphone or stage though, I was partying in my tiny PJs on the basement platform my father had built. I had always dreamed of being a singer, but… I’m not exactly the best student, so it’s been an off-road journey.

I started writing vocal melodies with accompanying lyrics the same year I dropped out of middle school chorus. By the time I was sixteen, I was writing scrappy acoustic guitar tunes under those more developed materials. I played with a few groups during that time: Tasty Licks, Almost Hollow, Jeph’s Revenge, Airport Junkies, and A Room Full of Jonnies. I probably wrote sixty (very OK) songs during that period, now distilled and compiled under the name Vagrant Diva. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some pretty amazing collaborators, teachers, and mentors, and am glad to have captured some of it on record.

I started playing music with Andrew McVey a few years after I had kinda given up on songwriting — the same year I moved through the Baltimore hippy scene, and by complete happenstance met Caleb D’Aleo (Amorphic). Caleb had actually convinced me to pick up this estranged electric bass I had been lugging around for years — that is when things really started making sense. We would just play music for hours without a word. The bass became the first instrument that I could directly articulate on. Being able to connect my thoughts directly into instrumental melody was a massive milestone in my growth as a musician. Playing bass has made me a better guitarist and songwriter as well. So thanks to Henry Hins, wherever you are, for accidentally leaving your bass in my house almost 20 years ago.

In 2013, I ended my fifteen year absence from theatre in my audition for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society’s production of MURDERCASTLE. I stumbled into the leading role, a singing devil named H.H. Holmes, america’s first serial killer. I followed Murdercastle with performance roles in Grundlehammer, the Electric Pharaoh, and Brides of Tortuga. Working with Baltimore’s DIY theatre scene redefined my work ethic, introduced me to no small number of lifelong friends (including Jerz Durkin), and forged some of the happiest (and most stressful) memories of my career. I owe everything to the volunteers and staff at BROS, Single Carrot, and Stillpointe theatres. They’re the best — support local art!

Writing music with Patterson Trash has been as easy as a dream. Sure, we move slower than a dead snail, but the chemistry we share from those years of just playing music makes the process so care free and natural. We certainly don’t play the most complicated music in the world, but it is connected, and very authentically so. Connected through years of friendship, and I’m proud of that.

Most recently, we’ve been building really, really dumb videos for our tunes, and it has really invigorated a dormant hunger. It keeps me excited to keep creating with this group — you never know what’s coming around the bend.