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.”

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 tra... (+) expand

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.”

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."

Coyle Girelli (Vocals)
Mat Steel (Guitar)
Mark Heaton (Keys/Guitar)
Jon Langford (Bass)
Mal Taylor (Drums) (-) collapse