Victoria Vaughn graduated from Vancouver Island University two years ago and the Nanaimo-based singer is reflecting on her fledgling adulthood on her new EP.
Last week Vaughn released Growing Pains, a six-song collaboration with local DJ and producer Austin Penner, who goes by AP.
“Basically they’re songs that I have written over the last three years of transitioning from being a university student to being an adult,” Vaughn said. “A full-fledged adult with bills and responsibilities that come with being on your own and independent.”
They recorded the EP in Penner’s no-frills home studio.
“We don’t even have a booth or anything like that,” Vaughn said. “He’s right beside me and he hits record.”
Vaughn and Penner have been working together for the past two years. She said she’ll write a song on guitar or piano and bring it to Penner who will then “vibe with it” and add his own house music and R&B influences.
“It’s funny because it took us a while to really find that middle ground of ‘where can you take your experiences and where can I take my experiences to create something together?'” she said.
Along with the EP, Vaughn has also released a music video for her single, Self Care. She said the songs on Growing Pains touch on “manoeuvring adult relationships, the relationships with yourself and self-acceptance and the ability to let go and move on,” topics that can be tough to write about.
“It can be difficult because you have to really look at yourself and be vulnerable and accept this is what you’re feeling, is this OK or is this not OK and then how can you process this and then how can you move on?” she said. “And so it’s just a lot of looking in the mirror and acknowledging who you are as a person.”
Growing Pains is available here.
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