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American Vanity is a band looking to make waves as they prepare for the release of their debut album. Before their headlining set at the Stache in Grand Rapids, MI, on March 28, I had a chance to sit down with the band to talk about their career, future, and more.

As I was being guided through the maze that makes up The Intersection by the band’s manager, Kelly, I was unsure of what awaited me in the green room. For a group that has seen as success and experienced the exposure they’ve had at such a young age, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if they had a cockiness that many would have in their situation. Instead, I was greeted by a group of funny, down-to-earth musicians who don’t take themselves too seriously but also have a clear vision of their new sound and message.

What follows is the transcript of the conversation with drummer Carter Dennis, bassist and vocalist Virginia Franks, lead guitarist Luke Vanchure, and vocalist and guitarist Luke Hoffman.

The Interview

Interviewer: Tell us about the band.

Luke H: We are American Vanity. We are an alt-rock band based out of…Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Interviewer: And you guys have been around 3-4 years now?

Carter: 6.

Virginia: But Luke Hoffman is new…er. I can’t even really say “new” anymore because he’s been here for over a year now.

Luke H: So we had, obviously, our prior band Burn the Jukebox and we toured off of that. Then we made the switch to American Vanity. We see it as a whole different ball game. Two different kinds of music.

Luke V: …an era.

Luke H: Yeah, it’s more of exactly what we want to be. Not really trying to appeal to the audience anymore. We’re trying to find our way with our music and hope that something sticks.

Carter: More refined to our tastes.

Virgina: Yes.

Luke H: Because I think that’s the best thing. Once you start playing music for you, that makes you happy, that’s when you enjoy it more.

Interviewer: You guys mentioned the band name change…Why did you feel now was the best time to do that? Was that mostly because of kind of moving towards your own style?

Virginia: I would say it’s definitely because…we decided to do it when we decided we wanted to go a way different direction in the originals we were producing and it was around the time we decided “okay, we’re gonna come out with an album and it’s all this new stuff we haven’t done before” and we were like…okay, name change is a good idea now.

Luke H: For me, specifically, not that I was scared. But staying through the former band name, I think it was going from a band that does covers…I didn’t want it to….(Interviewer note: At this point, the DJ that was performing in one of the other rooms of the venue started sound checking and the entire room started vibrating from the bass)…I think it was an easy way to separate us from a cover band that has originals from an original band. We still throw covers in there…(louder bass) we wanted to be a full original band. We’re still playing some covers as we go, but as we start releasing the original music, we’re going to start tapering it out.

Interviewer: Once you build your own catalog of music more?

Carter: We’re going into this new era and it’s all puzzle pieces of building our new set. Going into more originals.

Luke H: Edgier too. We’ve grown up a little more.

Interviewer: …it makes sense now that you’re in a new phase of life, kind of take that step and move in a new direction. You guys announced that what, right at the beginning of the year?

Band: Yeah, January 1st.

Luke H: We played our last show as Burn the Jukebox on New Years.

Carter: We wanted to do where “new year, everything changes.”

Luke H: It was a weird feeling too, because we knew it was our last show, but nobody knew it. But like, we’re all the same people and we still play in a band together. But it was such a weird, weird flip going one band to the other.

Carter: Do you remember the video I took from the New Years show? It’s not out because I never released it, but I have a video of us playing behind the drums and we’re playing “Everlong,” which is a song about ending stuff, right. And Virginia looks, in the video you could see Virginia look at me with a sad face like…

Carter and Virginia: *Makes crying sounds*

Carter: …because this is, not the end obviously.

Interviewer: But that is a big step, even if it’s just a name change going from what you have been to now what you want to be…I definitely understand why that would be an emotional moment for you guys.

Luke: Name’s cooler anyway though…

Interviewer: (chuckling) That’s true!

Carter: I wouldn’t say it was like a sad thing.

Luke V: More excitement than anything.

Virginia: We were ready.

Interviewer: Speaking of the band name, what was the thought process behind American Vanity?

Virginia: So, the name kind of sits with our message of. We want people to not feel pressured to…do anything because people…this is a terrible way of putting it. Start over. Our message is: We want people to ignore outside opinions that they don’t need from the internet. We want people to be themselves and be okay with it because I feel like in today’s culture, everybody is obsessed with “do you like me? Do you like me? Do you like me?” And it…doesn’t have to be like that. I think the happiest life you’re gonna live is doing what makes you happy.

Luke H: It’s like, it’s important to believe in…your own opinion. Also proving that you can kind of…to kind of live for yourself. Going from our previous band, I don’t…half a billion views, and a shit ton of exposure, to like a little bit of a rocky start. But just living for, and playing for what we wanted to do instead of trying to please everybody.

Carter: I also feel like, personally, showing them who we are. At least for me…I’ll go out and say it…I’m a nut (laughs). I’ll sit down and realize I…like we’ll go play pool or whatever. Like I got this one cool shot and I jumped on my buddy. I don’t know. To me, it’s not that I don’t care what I come off as, but like I just…

Virginia: Just be happy doing you.

Carter: …that’s just how I am.

Interviewer: That’s a great message.

Luke H: I think a lot of people have these perceptions of who we are based off of who they see on social media. I think the band name was also just showing, literally, who we are. Take social media versus how we are in real life. It was different, but now I think we’re just trying to be ourselves. We did all of these tours for so long, now we’re just trying to do what we want to do and see who we can grab along the way.

Interviewer: Speaking of which, how is your first tour as American Vanity going?

Virginia: It is going really well. The show we’re at right now, in particular, has been the craziest venue I’ve that I’ve ever been at in my entire life. There’s so much stuff going on. Steel Panther is in the back room, we’re in the front room..

Carter: There’s a rave going on.

Virgina: There’s a rave downstairs. It is insane. Coming next week, we’re about to announce some summer tour dates. And by some, I mean many.

Luke V: All over the US.

Luke H: The summer is packed…I’l give you a little preview. We’ve got some Chicago, some Florida, some Nashville. 

Luke V: Yeah, a lot of Ohio. So a lot of east coast, but we’re getting towards the midwest. And we’re going to be touring on the album, which is the coolest part.

Interviewer: That actually brings me to my next point. So you guys are recording your first album right now and you guys had two singles come out so far, which I’ll ask about in a minute. With this album, you guys are working with Matt Squire who had previously done work with Panic! At the Disco, All Time Low, Ariana Grande…like obviously some big name artists. 

Luke V: Taking Back Sundaaaay!

Interviewer: Oh yeah, Taking Back Sunday! So what’s the experience been like?

Carter: He’s our man!

Virginia: We got along so well. It was the craziest six- weeks in the studio of my entire life. He’s such a chill guy, but has such a great work ethic.

Luke V: Yeah, we planned it out day of…like what we were gonna do because it’s just better to know what you’re gonna do the next day. And, like, he would tell us what we’re doing first. We’re doing drums first…we take it in segments, basically.

Carter: He was so structured, but also..

Virginia/Luke V: So loose and fun.

Carter: But somehow he made it feel like…there was a small goal, but he didn’t make us feel like if we didn’t get this done, the albums not coming.

Luke V: We had downtime where we could just do whatever we want.

Virginia:  We got weekends off, so we got to explore some of…we recorded in Washington D.C., so we got to explore some of the Smithsonian Museums and we hung out with his production assistant…

Everyone: Jamesooooon!

Luke V: Mo money mo problems!

Luke H: If anything is taken from this interview, I wanna shout out Jameson. 

Luke V: He used to come to the crib that we were staying at and would just hang out with us and we laughed so much. He’s the smartest, funniest guy..but like so smart. It’s kind of insane.

Luke H: I just want to make a point here, I was like “oh, shit! We’re working with Matt Squire! This is a top-level dude. He’s worked with some pretty cool people!” I think right before then was August Burns Red. They were in there right before us. And then I was like, “oh shit, I wonder if we’re gonna be treated different based off of the level of band’s he’s seen. But, it was…he treated us so great.

Luke V: So much hospitality.

Luke H: And made it so much easier. We didn’t feel pressured into doing anything.

Carter: It’s the craziest thing. We just talked about it, but…we got to the studio. Day 1, right? And I have this thing where, like coming to a show, I wanna make sure X, Y, Z is done. I like to be on time. I try to get a good plan going.

Interviewer:  Very Type A…

Carter: Yeah! So…we get there. We pull up, I can’t find the studio. We see him walking down the street. I’m like “What’s up Matt? How we doing? Where do we load in?” He’s like…”Bro, why are you yelling at me?” (Laughs). So from that day…he has such a fun vibe.

Luke V: Just joke around with each other…

Virginia: We went out to eat, I’m pretty sure he’s been to Target with us.

Luke V: Oh my god. He saw me at a Target because I was trying to get ice. So, I saw him on his phone and I’m like, “Matt, what’s up dude?” And he’s like “dude, what’s up?!” And I’m like “aww man, there’s no ice here.” And he’s like “Oh, you need ice? I can take you to the store!”

Carter: I remember you pulling up in Matt’s Tesla!

Virginia: Wait! That happened?

Luke V: My girlfriend at the time, well not the time…she still is my girlfriend (band laughs). But, like at the time she was with me is what I meant to say, she was with me there, you know what I mean? And she got in the car with me as well and she thought Matt was the coolest dude ever.

Virginia: Wait. Nobody told me that.

Carter: Long story short, he’s one of our…

Virginia: 10 out of 10!

Carter: He’s a great guy and one my best friends…hopefully!

Luke H: Yeah, we still talk to him…

Virginia: We still hang out with Jameson…a couple months ago.

Luke V: He took us to a show..we got to see Rain City Drive, Beauty School Dropout.

Carter: Summer School tour?

Luke: Yeah, Summer School tour. He got us passes.

Virginia: The Savannah Bananas were there.

Interviewer: Oh nice! Did you guys get to go to the game?

Luke H: No! Weird shit happened. They had two male players on the Savannah Bananas dressed in cheerleader uniforms on stage dancing. It was awesome.

Interviewer: So as far as the album, you guys have had two singles come out: “Lifeline” and “Poison in Your Cup.” And, what I thought was really cool because I grew up in the era of Carson Daly and Total Request live and of that on tv. I love the music videos and how you guys approached those. So how did…where did those ideas come from and how did…was that something you went in knowing you wanted to do or was that something that evolved out of the process of putting those together?

Luke H: I think the biggest thing I’m going to shout out, obviously we had influence on what we wanted to do structure wise for the music videos, but our management, our marketing, specifically our main manager was so great in putting it all together. And we knew the message behind the song, but we had some trouble figuring how we wanted to put it into a music video. But our manager, she was…she helped us along the way.

Luke V:  Especially “Poison in Your Cup.” It’s very blatantly, you can tell its…

Luke H: Anti-establishment, kind of…

Luke V: It’s like kind of like a thing for women, it shows the struggle women have.

Virginia: What we can say is there will be a music video for every song on the album and we’re super excited because I’m sure we’ll be filming the next one soon.

Carter: I was literally just talking to my parents like oh, you know, I’m not going to give any hints, but I was like “hey, I can’t wait to go to X,Y,Z because that’s where we’re filming our music video.

Virginia: And every music video is so fun to film. Like we order…we DoorDash and we get to wear crazy clothes sometimes…I get to wear crazy clothes sometimes. It was so cool for our last music video, the set was so elaborate which was so fun. It’s a really great experience, and it’s honestly one of my favorite parts of this release pattern is we get to make these awesome videos that go with it. I’m always so excited to show my friends like “look what we made.”

Interviewer: Because that’s pretty new for you guys, right? The videos you used to make were mostly you guys in your…I don’t know if it was like a basement playing the covers. Definitely a big jump going from that to full-fledged music videos.

Virginia: And I’m a film major in college, so this is like super exciting for me because I’m like oh my god, this is also what I want to do. So it’s fun.

Interviewer: So are you nerding out on set with everything going on?

Virginia: Yeah, I’m like “ah, this is great!” And I show my film teachers, “look at what we did!”

Interviewer: I hope you guys get extra credit for that!

Virgina: That would be great!

Carter: I’d be surprised if you don’t.

Virginia: Honestly…doable.

Interviewer: So going back to the album itself, what has been your creative process for this album? Because this is the first time you guys are really tackling your originals.

Luke H: This is our favorite question to ask…Okay should we just go in steps? Who wants to go first? Okay, so we practice…I don’t know, twice a week and we have dedicated days to writing. Literally, everything happens in Carter’s basement.

Carter: The home base is my basement.

Luke H: We’ll come in with some riffs and then just flush everything out. Like us three, we’re all hitting different notes until we find a little riff.

Carter: It sounds like Guitar Center for about four minutes. So it sounds like Guitar Center. Maybe I’m playing drums, so it sounds nuts. And then, boom! Someone will have a riff. Like Vanchure would start playing and boom, I hear something that’s not just noodling. And then honestly, I feel like it goes from that.

Luke V: Yeah, just build off of it.

Interviewer: So it’s very organic?

Virginia: And then after about 4 or 6 weeks of that, we end up with 25 full demos of stuff to pick from. And then for this album specifically, it’s like okay…here’s 25 demos, but we have to pick ten.

Luke V: And out of the 25 demoes, we had more I think…like some simple riffs and stuff.

Carter: I think we were close to 34 or something…

Luke H: It was so hard because a lot of the stuff, I was like…I try not to get attached to stuff I write, but I was like dude, a lot of these are really good! So if they don’t make the record, I’m going to be sad.

Virginia: Like all those demos that didn’t make it, we still have them. We could go back to them right now and be like, oh remember this?

Carter: I was looking…we were traveling. We just played in Texas, and I was looking through my phone, and I look on my voice memo app, and…I have an iPhone, and on the Voice Memo app, I don’t name any of the voice memos…so it’s just like one, two, three guitar riffs to full-on songs. I just have this stack. Yeah, and I don’t use my phone to record stuff one.

Virginia: Yeah, it’s usually mine. And then sometimes we’ll be filming TikTok’s and not trying to write, but usually it’s Luke Vanchure who ends up playing something. So then, Carter and I combined have at least 20 videos of Luke Vanchure playing ten seconds of a riff. And we’re like, okay, save it for later!

Luke H: Oh, dude, we had a crazy good, whole song flushed out last week. We thought we hit record.

Luke V: Oh wait, that was the one I was thinking about.

Luke H: We were trying to send it over to the Voice Memos. It was like we have to figure out what we’re doing in that.

Luke V: Remember at the end it goes into half time and then it’s full time?

Carter: I thought that was number one though?…We’re getting WAY off topic.

Interviewer: No, that’s alright!

Luke H: It was just a really cool riff…really liked it. Hope it’s there.

Virginia: It was a great riff.

Luke H: Oh, they’re getting a sneak peak! (As Luke Vanchure is playing a riff in the background).

Luke V: That wasn’t it, that wasn’t it!

Carter: So pretty much, we sit in my basement, a little bit of noodling, something clicks a little bit and then we build off of it. And then we’ll practice it a few times, write words.

Luke V: …record it.

Luke H: Maybe I’ll go write some lyrics.

Virginia: Yeah, and that happens in my basement.

Interviewer: So that’s the one thing that comes out of his (Carter) basement.

Virginia: Yeah, words happen in my basement. Sometimes it’s at two o’clock in the morning, sometimes it’s at three o’clock in the afternoon. It’s just really whenever the time’s right. Super fun. There’s usually two or three drafts of the lyrics before the final copy. But they’re really fun, and then we like to find stories whether they’re from our lives or other people’s lives and adapt them so they make them…so they’re relatable! And it makes them personal and fun.

Interviewer: So, you guys have talked about your tour. What would be a dream band of yours to tour with.

Virginia: We’ve never gotten this question!

Luke H: Carter, start! You know mine.

Carter: A band that I would live to tour with, but no longer together. But one of my favorite bands in the world, Issues, they’re out of Atlanta and…I’ve gotten so much from them, which is very cool. But, I think, recently, I’ve been really into the band The Story So Far.

Interviewer: Oh yeah!

Carter: And I feel like we could…I feel like the stuff we put out, it could…I think it could work. So I would probably say them off the top of my head.

Virginia: I’m gonna say…Sleeping with Sirens just because…

Luke H: Kellin Quinn!

Virginia: I love Kellin Quinn and I’ve been in a Sleeping with Sirens thing for the past four months..and Pierce the Veil, but…I feel like that would be such a fun vibe to mix up with. 

Carter: I could see it.

Virginia: I could see it, and that would be such an awesome experience.

Luke V: I’d probably say…that would be cool, but I think Saves the day probably. It’s a good…like in the early years is way more pop-punky..like it’s still good, it’s still pop-punky the whole way through, but as you keep progressing it gets a little more our style so I feel like it’d work.

Luke H: I’m just going to tell you. My favorite band of all time..so the band I want to tour with the most is this band called Big Wreck out of…

Interviewer: Oh, I love Big Wreck!

Luke H: Get out of here! No, get out of here!

Interviewer: That band is incredible!

Luke H: Dude, okay, so that is my favorite band. Wait, just give some background about this band. 

Carter: You don’t understand. From day one, I’ll leave…I used to be really bad. I used to be that person that would obsess over something, right? But from day one, all Luke Hoffman talks about is Big Wreck. And it’s good.

Luke H: I would say it’s “good.” But Big Wreck, dude, Ian Thornley…crazy band to tour with. Also Beauty School Dropout, big pop energy, big rock energy. Big Wreck specifically, so…Ian Thornley man…

Interviewer: Yeah, Ian Thornley is unbelievable.

Luke H: We went to a guitar shop. They had a bunch of…so he signed a Suhr and they had a bunch of Suhr guitars that I was looking for, but they, I couldn’t find it. That’s also my dream guitar…an Ian Thornley.

Luke V: I just got this today (referencing his white/gold Les Paul).

Interviewer: You know what? I actually clocked that a little bit ago, that is a beautiful guitar.

Luke V: Thank you. Yeah, it’s beautiful.

Luke H: But, yeah. Big Wreck

Luke V: One of my big inspirations, Jamie Rhoden from Title Fight plays this exact..

Luke H: I’ve dropped the Big Wreck bomb to every single interview we’ve ever had. Nobody has ever gotten it.

Virginia: I don’t think there’s ever been an interview where he doesn’t talk about it.

(Band manager walks into the room)

Luke H: Kelly, we’re on voice memos, but he knows Big Wreck!

Kelly: No way!

Interviewer: I feel like I earned some street credit with that.

Luke V: Yeah, you guys are gonna hug after.

Luke H: Alright, I got it off track.

Interviewer: No, that’s fine. And really that was my last question because we already talked about my last question which was what’s next, which was the tour and the album.

Luke V: Touring off of 17.

Interviewer: Oh, have you guys announced the release date for that yet?

Band: July 17.

Virginia: Which is like…17, 17…can’t wait.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s gotta be a good feeling to know that’s coming up ahead.

Luke V: And there’s more to be book, for sure. Which is the cool part about it. We’re gonna be busy this summer, but it’s gonna be exciting.

Carter: I think for me, obviously, writing the music, you know record…all very fun. But one of my favorite things is today. We’re out a show, we’re playing. We get to show the world what we are. That’s one of my favorite things.

Viriginia: We are so happy. We get to see a bunch of cool stuff that we’ve never seen, like, I don’t know if I would ever wound up in Michigan in I wasn’t in the band. I mean..maybe.

Carter: I might have….but like you said though, there’s places like, I never thought we would be in, we’ve been there.

Virginia: We got to go to Vegas!

Carter: Vegas, L.A., Texas…

Luke V: Florida

Interviewer: Where’d you guys play in Texas?

Band: Austin!

Luke H: We played South by Southwest with Spin Mag…through Spin Mag and Typify. Check out Typify.

Carter: I think I’m actually wearing my Spin Mag shirt today.

Virginia: I think we’ve all been wearing our Spin Mag shirts at least once a day.

Interviewer: So shout out to Spin Mag.

Carter: It’s truly, like…we get to travel and see so much cool stuff.

You can find more about the band and upcoming tour dates at https://thisisamericanvanity.com and on social media @thisisamericanvanity. Their debut album, 17, drops on July 17th, 2026 and features lead singles “Lifeline” and “Poison In Your Cup.”