LISTEN: Vaines Drops Groovy Rendition of PVRIS’ “Stay Gold”
LISTEN: Vaines Drops Groovy Rendition of PVRIS’ “Stay Gold”
It’s just as worthy of the acclaim the original received.
Words By: Bre Offenberger
Vaines, an alt-pop artist and multi-instrumentalist on the rise, has released his own reimagining of PVRIS‘ “Stay Gold.” Though it contains many of the same elements of the original, Vaines adds a dash here and there to make it even more atmospheric and — more importantly — his own.
In the original, PVRIS frontwoman Lynn Gunn pushes past the wavy synths with her angelic, soft vocals to thank her significant other for staying with her through the rough patches. The chorus erupts into a synth-pop wonderland, mixed with subdued guitars, as she reveals her only true wish: for her partner to be able to avoid all the troubles of life for the rest of theirs. Besides a brief moment of distorted bass and voice manipulation to further her compliments, it stays as a synth-heavy track the rest of the way.
In Vaines‘ version, the opening is a bit more airy, with the sound of computer mouse clicks surrounding misty, airy synths. His vocals are slightly less soft than Gunn’s, but they provide just as much sentiment. Vaines bursts into the chorus with a heavier presence of guitars backing him, and his voice is immensely more manipulated, which actually benefits him in that it bears a lot of resemblance to Gunn’s vocal delivery in the original chorus. The distorted instant returns in the cover, proving that Vaines didn’t want to change an already great track — he just wanted to enhance it.
Of the cover, Vaines shares: “I’ve been a fan of PVRIS for a long time and I think Use Me was my favorite record of 2020. I don’t really do covers but when I heard ‘Stay Gold,’ I had one of those ‘fuck, why didn’t I make this’ moments. It’s such a cool track and covering it was a fun way to explore how my sound could mesh with one of my favorite artists.”
Vaines‘ pursuit to the music industry began as soon as his dad gave him a guitar when he was 12 years old. He quickly realized he didn’t want to be confined to a band but, rather, go down a solo route and write for himself. He moved to Los Angeles in 2017 with $200 in studio equipment and began writing music of all sorts — leading him to today, where he’s growing more and earning loads of Spotify streams by the minute. Fans of everyone from Jet Black Alley Cat to Super Whatevr will find something to love in Vaines, a name that’ll reverberate through sold-out stadiums in no time.
