Vaughn Stokes of Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats: Lighting Small Fires
Benjamin H. Smith
In a crowded field of bands, stoner, doom, psych, what have you, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats have always stood out with their superior songcraft and production, at once heavy and melodic, classic and new. Formed in 2010 by guitarist-singer-songwriter-sonic mastermind Kevin Starrs, Uncle Acid’s songs blend rock and metal influences of various vintages with ‘60s pop hooks, at times sounding like some dream team lineup of Tony, Geezer, George and Ringo. And while their records have the warm immediacy of the best old school recordings, their clarity and detail are completely up to date.
Vaughn Stokes has been with Uncle Acid since 2015, playing bass on The Night Creeper tour and 2018’s Wasteland album before moving over to guitar and backing vocals for subsequent tours. EarthQuaker spoke to Vaughn about his music and gear.
Benjamin Smith: How did you get started playing music?
Vaughn Stokes: I started singing in choirs when I was about 6. I always sang in church choirs. I loved it.
BS: Were you originally a bassist or guitarist?
VS: I started playing guitar when I was 11. I didn’t pick up the bass until I was 17. It seemed to me that every man and his dog played guitar and I wanted to work, so I bought a fretless jazz bass and played 2 to 9 hours a day until I was about 20.
BS: What was the first time you were cognizant of a particular guitar or bass sound and wanted to emulate it?
VS: My elementary school had a garage sale every year in the gym. In 6th grade I had a dollar in my pocket and I came across We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll, the Black Sabbath compilation album, which serendipitously had a $1 price tag on it. The plastic was cracked and the sleeve withered, but the CD played just fine. I convinced my mother to sign me up for guitar lessons later that day. My dad had a reissue Made in Mexico Telecaster and I took that down the road to my first lesson the following week. I spent the next year or so completely obsessed with Tony Iommi and learned every note off the album. I found a Sabbath fan site and spent time on there every day absorbing the lore and technique.
BS: What were you doing before you joined Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats?
VS: I spent several years in London, UK, playing in bands and getting into trouble. I never had any money but always felt rich. The musicians I met were incredible. Later on I spent a lot of time travelling throughout Canada and the United States by train, often spending nights in train stations and eating sandwiches passed around by charity organizations for the homeless. I developed a relationship with an older patron of the arts. Her name was Rose. I often sang her to sleep and spent many hours alone with her parrot, Spike, who enjoyed listening to the kalimba.
BS: How did you join Uncle Acid?
VS: I was friends with (former Uncle Acid drummer) Itamar Rubinger and (former guitarist/backing vocalist) Yotam Rubinger from back in my days in London. They let me know when they were holding auditions and encouraged me to try out.
BS: At what point did you move from bass to guitar?
VS: I switched to guitar shortly after we recorded Wasteland, which I played bass on.
BS: What was the hardest part of making the transition from bass to guitar?
VS: The hardest part of the transition was finding myself nearer to the front of the stage and noticing more eyes and cameras on me. I had become accustomed to lurking in the back.
BS: How involved are you in songwriting and writing parts for the band?
VS: I’m not very involved in that process. Kev (Kevin Starrs) fleshes out the vast majority on his own and then sends demos for us to play with. On Wasteland, I ended up interpreting many of his bass parts but for the most part keeping relatively true to the ideas he had initially laid down, or at least imagining what he was going for and playing that.
BS: What was your bass rig in Uncle Acid?
VS: I played a Nash ‘63 P-Bass copy usually through a Union LAB optical compressor with the ratio knob turned all the way down so it acted as more of a LA-3A preamp and then into a Strymon Deco with a little bit of tape saturation (left side), then into a standard SVT classic 8x10.
BS: And now that you’re playing guitar with the band, what are you using?
VS: This changes a little bit semi-regularly but at the moment it’s something like this; a Gibson ES-335 or a Tom Anderson HSS Strat into a Klon KTR overdrive, Lovepedal Tchula boost, an EQD Hoof or Cloven Hoof fuzz, Strymon El Capistan or EQD Ghost Echo then into some combination of a Victoria Tweed copy, DR Z, or Fender Super Reverb, and occasionally a Fender Hot Rod DeVille. I’ve only been on guitar with Kev for a year and a bit, so I’m still figuring out what I like the most as well as what works best for smaller and bigger stages. This next leg out east I’ll be trying out the Westwood Translucent Drive Manipulator, which I’m pretty sure will end up in a regular spot in my signal chain. I’ve got the Westwood going into the Night Wire Harmonic Tremolo and something magical is happening that I don’t understand.
BS: Having seen you guys play, I think it’s cool and interesting that even though Uncle Acid is loud and heavy you play small combo guitar amps live instead of big full stacks. What’s the reasoning behind this? What benefits do you find with smaller amps?
VS: They sound better for what we’re trying to do. We’re on ears so I'm able try to sculpt the tone I would want in a studio situation and apply that to our live shows.
BS: What’s on the horizon for Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats?
VS: Over this next year we’ll be doing another U.S. tour and playing festivals. Then we’ll begin work on the next album. In my free time I will be on an island off the coast of Western Canada with a guitar and a truck driving through the woods and lighting small fires.
Band photo by @madaoslo
DEVICES MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Benjamin Howard Smith is a writer and musician from Queens, New York. He plays guitar and sings for The Brought Low, writes true crime stories and reviews music documentaries. He uses and endorses Barry’s Irish Breakfast Tea.
