How does a band from a little town outside of Leeds end up going by the nam… Read Full Bio ↴How does a band from a little town outside of Leeds end up going by the name Your Vegas?
“It was one of our first songs,” says the band’s singer Coyle Girelli. “Your Vegas seemed to sum us up. It’s about escaping to a different place, wherever that is.”

Escape, along with brotherhood, is at the core of Your Vegas. Four of the five band members grew up in a small suburb of Leeds called Otley. Forming a band came naturally; according to Girelli. “There aren’t many people in Otley. You find three other people near the same age into music, you’re probably going to meet up and form a band.”

At first, the concept of escape simply meant finding a sound. The group started out as a grungy, Nirvana-influenced group, but that slowly changed. A keyboardist was added; the music opened up. “Making a racket turned into thinking about songs,” says guitarist Mat Steel, who offers up U2 and Depeche Mode as influences (as for contemporaries, he mentions Coldplay and The Killers).

With its sound taking shape, “escape” now meant hitting the road. The band released a few indie singles and started touring the UK in a tiny van. “Up and down the motorway, doing what we call the toilet tours,” says Coyle, referencing the bars, universities and small clubs that dot the countryside. “We’d hit islands off of Scotland, and then go all the way down to Plymouth. We even hit up the Scottish highlands--there were these small towns that no one ever plays, where the town’s ancestors had settled thousands of years ago, and their families never left. It was good fun.”

Fun or not, the band found themselves wanting to take the next step. Once a proposed major label deal fell through, a bold new plan took shape--Girelli would leave the country and move to New York. “At first, I came over to play some acoustic shows and see some friends,” says the singer. “But it was really apparent that New York had so much to offer.”

Oddly enough, even with his support crew back home, Your Vegas was starting to find its niche. Crowds grew bigger. Major labels started coming around. The rest of the band came over for a few weeks, and after noticing the buzz, promptly flew back home, “sold everything” (according to guitarist Steel) and relocated permanently to the States, shacking up together in Hell’s Kitchen.

“That wasn’t a hard decision,” says Steel. “We stick together – it’s like brothers from another mother, that kind of thing. And we all wanted to do the same thing—write great, uplifting tunes and play for as many people as we can, and hopefully make people happy. We finally found the opportunity to do that by moving to the States.”

With a label deal in hand, Your Vegas started recording their album with David Bendeth (Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Paramore) last April. “When we started talking musical influences and how we wanted a big sound, he just got it,” says Steel. The band, meanwhile, continued to slave over new material. Girelli would write the skeleton of each track on an acoustic guitar, and then bring in what he had to the band, which would tinker with it in the group’s rehearsal room. “It has to work live,” says Steel. “And even then, there’s a lot of back and forth. We spend a lot of time on each song.”

The epic sound on “A Town and Two Cities,” and its attention to detail, is readily apparent in the final mixes. “It Makes My Heart Break” is simply an epic ballad, while “In My Head” features both a wall of guitar noise and some gorgeous pop harmony. Although the songs on the record are unabashedly anthems, the meaning behind them is far more insular for Coyle. “The lyrics, they’re personal to me in many ways, even if I’m writing from another person’s point of view,” he says, pointing to the song “Birds of Paradise.” Says the singer: “That’s about two life-long friends, and one who goes to war and dies while being far, far away. Even though it’s a song about war and death, there are aspects of it that are autobiographical.”

As for the album title, it directly reflects the band’s past and present. “We grew up in a small town, and then spent a lot of time in Leeds – which is an amazing city for musicians,” says Coyle. "Then we came here to the States, and that was our last inspiration before recording the album. So I guess it’s about our journey, in a town and two cities."

(www.YourVegasMusic.com) - Official Website

www.yourvegasfanforum.com - Official fan forum

www.myspace.com/YourVegas - Myspace profile

Aurora
Your Vegas Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Glitterballs and disco halls
and all that you can bare
In mini skirts and shoes that hurt
they're giving it away
So come over here,
come over here for
vodka lemonade
Come over here

come over here
It's time to feel betrayed

The world is turning just for us
Aurora, Aurora
The world is turning just for us
Aurora, Aurora
You convince yourself
that you will never be loved

Morning stars, we talk for hours
about Van Gogh and Klimt
We did it in style did it in style,
we did it in the end

The world is turning just for us
Aurora, Aurora
The world is turning just for us
Aurora, Aurora
You convince yourself
that you will never be loved
And you parade yourself like cats
lying in the sun
You've seen the hotel rooms,
you've seen the firefly moons,
You've seen the flowers that
bloom, you've seen love,
Seen love, seen love ...

The world is turning just for us
Aurora, Aurora
The world is turning just for us
Aurora, Aurora
You convince yourself
that you will never be loved
And you parade yourself like cats
lying in the sun

Oh you convince yourself that you
will never be loved

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Your Vegas's song "Aurora" paint a vivid picture of a world of excess and self-destructive behavior. The first verse describes the scene of "glitterballs and disco halls" where people are dressed in mini skirts and high heels, giving themselves away to whoever wants them. The singer implores someone to come over for a vodka lemonade, but warns them that it's time to feel betrayed. This sets the tone for the rest of the song, which is a reflection on the singer's own feelings of inadequacy and lack of love.

The second verse takes on a somewhat different tone, as the singer describes a conversation with someone about art and talks of doing things "in style" and "in the end." However, the chorus brings us back to the main theme - the singer convinces themselves that they will never be loved, and they parade themselves like cats lying in the sun. This suggests that even in moments of apparent intellectual depth and sophistication, the underlying feelings of insecurity and worthlessness remain.

The repetition of the line "the world is turning just for us" in the chorus provides a sense of both grandiosity and isolation - the idea that the world spins around them, but in the end, they are alone with their own thoughts and feelings.

Overall, "Aurora" is a powerful and evocative song about the human urge for connection and validation, and the ways in which we sometimes seek those things in unhealthy or destructive ways.

Line by Line Meaning

Glitterballs and disco halls
The bright lights and loud music of the club scene

and all that you can bare
People dressed in revealing clothing

In mini skirts and shoes that hurt
Women wearing uncomfortable but fashionable clothing

they're giving it away
People engaging in promiscuous behavior

So come over here,
Invitation to join the party

come over here for vodka lemonade
Drinking and partying

Come over here
Continued invitation

It's time to feel betrayed
The consequences of reckless behavior

The world is turning just for us
The temporary illusion of being the center of attention

Aurora, Aurora
Title repetition for emphasis

You convince yourself
Self-doubt and negative self-talk