Name: Paul Vinson
Age: 19
Hometown: Pensacola, Fla.
The idea seemed outrageous, but through hard work, Paul Vinson was able to make touring along the East Coast a reality. By performing in friends’ dorm rooms, he was able to experience a snippet of what touring is like and got a taste of the college lifestyle. In this interview, we get some insight on how tour went for the aspiring musician.
Her Campus (HC): How did the idea of a Dorm Tour come to mind?
Paul Vison (PV): Well, it started as a joke. I wasn’t going to college and I was joking around one day my senior year of high school saying, “well I can go to fourteen colleges!” It was a joke of a dream. It started to become a reality when John Mayer announced he was playing in Philadelphia. I routed the trip around his tour and got it funded through GoFundMe. I got in contact with a lot of my friends and they were able to pull some strings where I would perform in a dorm and stay with them. I’m really fortunate for how well everything worked out the way it did.
HC: What was the best and worst part of touring?
PV: The best part, by far, was meeting all the people. Every school we went to, we were emerged in a different friend group and we got to experience a piece of different college lifestyles through the friends we were staying with. The worst part was for sure the food. After one week of eating fast food we were feeling disgusting and were dying to get a home cooked meal. Luckily in Nashville, we stayed with my aunt and she cooked food for us and it was the best thing ever. I can’t eat at Zaxby’s anymore just because of this tour.
HC: Any crazy stories worth sharing?
PV: I’m trying to think of some good ones, because there definitely are. I’m trying to think of something appropriate to tell. New York was wild, we met a couple famous people in New York. The drummer from The Black Keys, that was really interesting. Something that was just weird that happened, on our way back from Philadelphia and on our way to Chattanooga, we stopped in Virginia for Chick-Fil-A. We had to drive a good distance from the interstate to get to this Chick-Fil-A and we were in, what felt like, the middle of nowhere. We walk inside the restaurant, and I notice this guy staring me down. He never came up to us, but never stopped staring and when we left he like waved goodbye. Very creepy and just weird. So, two weeks later I get an Instagram DM from some dude asking if I was in a Chick-Fil-A in Clarksville, Virginia. Turns out, this guy was in a Facebook group for a school in Nashville and my name came up and that’s how the guy recognized me. It was cool to be recognized in a random small town in the middle of Virginia, but it was still a weird encounter for me. Now it makes sense but at first it was very alarming.
HC: What was your favorite school you played at?
PV: I have three for different reasons. I loved playing at Belmont because its in Nashville, and Nashville is like a second home to me. It was our biggest show, and everyone was welcoming and it was a blast. Another one was Alabama and FSU; I had a lot of friends travel to both of those shows and it was great getting to hang out with everyone.
HC: What musical artists influenced your EP?
PV: When I was writing, I was listening to a lot of John Mayer, Hosier and James Bay. Some weirder influences that tie in to making this EP are The Killers, and a band called Paper Route, also My Brothers and I.
HC: How did you like being in Tallahassee and visiting the FSU campus?
PV: I loved being there. I was the most excited to visit Tallahassee, it was the last night of the tour and it was a really great way to end it. We had the best food there, the best coffee, that show was the most intimate and I knew the most people. We visited some parks and got to experience more of a college life at FSU. I really loved being there and hope I can make it back again one day.
HC: When can we expect new music?
PV: Man, I hate this question and I get it all the time. I want my next project to be bigger than then EP I just released. I don’t have a set date, but I’m always writing and working on new sounds. So, expect something in the near future, but I don’t have a date to give you.
There you have it, folks! Be sure to check out Paul’s EP, “Leaving Home” here.