Volk Makes a Thunderous Entrance With 'Welcome to Cashville' [Fresh Vid]

For American bands, the European tour is a holy grail; Nashville two-piece Volk did it twice before even playing a gig on U.S. soil. Guitarist-vocalist Chris Lowe met singer-drummer Eleot Reich at an open mic in Berlin in 2013. Lowe, from Texas, was teaching English and history at an international school. Reich, a Californian, was finishing her B.F.A. in theater from NYU at its satellite campus there. Each had been writing songs on the side. Fast friends, they co-founded Volk — a portmanteau of “folk” and “voltage” — to vent their frustration at live music losing its foothold fast to trivia and DJ nights.

Catching the touring bug from a pair of econo-jamming European runs, the duo returned to the States in 2016 intent to pursue a career in rock. Stopping over briefly in Lowe’s Texas hometown to save up, Volk settled on Nashville as its new HQ. They’ve issued two EPs since (most recently 2018’s Average American Band) but have kept a relatively low profile locally, honing their sound on the road — a sonically malleable mix of singer-songwriter balladry, heavy-duty riffage and old-school country theatrics that plays equally well in cafes, breweries and dive bars.

“Welcome to Cashville” opens Volk’s long-gestating full-length debut, also called Cashville, for Indianapolis’s Romanus Records. Both mission statement and origin story, “Welcome” charts the group’s course from crashing German techno clubs to finding their way in Music City and keeping up the fight for live, loud rock ’n’ roll. A six-minute blitzkrieg of AC/DC guitar squall, feisty dual vocals and raucous drumming, with a WWF-style intro from Romanus head Chris Banta and a coda shouting out spiritual forebears Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt, it does not hesitate to use every tool at its disposal in its aims to get the listener on board.

The Scene bundled up on a chilly Friday night to join Reich and Lowe in the backyard of their East Nashville duplex for a fireside chat about the new single and Volk’s journey as a band. The Cashville LP comes out March 13. In the meantime, we bring you the “Welcome to Cashville” music video, directed by Patrick Pierson; watch it below. 

What music shaped each of you?

Chris Lowe, guitar and vocals: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles concert my mom took me to when I was seven. Driving around listening to Slayer, Pantera, Nirvana, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin with my brother in his blue Oldsmobile. Quitting taking guitar lessons as soon as I got the hang of the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” chords. [laughs]

Eleot Reich, vocals and drums: The first CD I bought was Alicia Keys’ Songs in A Minor. I got so tied up in the drama in her vocals and delivery. Jet was my first full-on band obsession. Live music excited me, but I never saw myself doing it. I was into performing and directing theater, which was what I studied at NYU. My hurdle with music had always been technical. I knew I could write lyrics.

CL: I’d always just thought of myself as a guitarist. I had to teach myself to write songs. It was in Berlin where I really learned about my home — guys from Texas like Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Gregory Alan Isakov. 

ER: Right before we met, I was deep-diving into lo-fi Detroit bands from the late ’80s and early ’90s like The Gories and Dirtbombs. I was inspired, and still am, by that in-your-face, fuck-you-all rawness.

Were the White Stripes a gateway?

ER: For sure. The White Stripes didn’t come out of nowhere. I read a lot about what had been going on before them and what inspired Jack White, which led me to Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, early blues recordings. I’m drawn to imperfection in music. My first “kit” in Volk was a piece of wood I used to stomp on. [laughs]

CL: The Berliners actually loved that stage of Volk. But there weren’t a lot of rock venues. We were city-dwellers — neither of us had a car — but we did do two tours before we left. The first one was sad — four out of seven shows got canceled — but the second gave us a taste of how awesome touring could be. 

ER: Chris had begun to figure out the booking game, and a friend of ours offered to drive us in exchange for letting him open. It was two weeks, and we actually made enough to be able to pay him €500.

How did Volk choose Nashville as its next home base?

CL: Logistics. We thought about Austin, but for me that city is like a favorite ex-girlfriend. It’s an awesome time, and you have great, fond memories, but now she has a corporate job and it’s really expensive to live in her neighborhood. The food is still unparalleled, though. We lived with my dad in Palestine, Texas, when we first arrived because we were broke.

ER: I waitressed at Applebee’s for two months. [laughs] 

CL: I love Texas, but it’s only good for touring if you just want to tour Texas. To get out, you pay the Texas tax. As a DIY band, geographically, Nashville can’t be beat. 

The pageantry of Volk’s stage show, the hats, boots, sequins, fringe… I had a feeling one or both of you had a performing-arts background.

ER: Absolutely. I can’t avoid it. 

CL: It’s a role I play. The guy onstage is who I want to be — this Dwight Yoakam-Angus Young-Buddy Guy thing.

ER: Chris will go back into the audience with his glasses on after a set and no one will recognize him. 

It’s kind of a classic-country move for the first song on the first album to tell the artist’s story — which “Welcome to Cashville” does.

CL: The original title was “Fuck You Berlin.” The song has changed over time, but the general theme — live music getting forced out, rock ’n’ roll dying — has stayed the same. 

ER: Venues like The Springwater where you can crank it and experiment are priceless. We were losing them in Berlin, and now we’re losing them again due to COVID. 

CL: And it was rough before. 

ER: Maybe it can be an anthem for a new beginning. Punching through this shit. 

CL: That moment where we’re all so fed up with something that we just explode… that’s something only rebellious rock ’n’ roll can capture.