The Rouge

Some scars are forever, some fade with time.

For the members of the Rouge, who all have matching cigarette-burn scars on their arms, it doesn't matter how long the mark stays, as long as the feeling of camaraderie that caused them to do it in the first place lasts forever.

The guys — guitarist/vocalist Joshua Vaught, bassist Jack Egan, guitarist Adam Call and drummer Steve Voss — all consider themselves brothers and live together in a house two blocks from the hi-dive in the Baker neighborhood. That particular club and the bands playing there partially inspired the Rouge to start in the first place.

"When Jack and I first moved to Denver," recalls Vaught, who relocated from Colorado Springs, "we went to a Born in the Flood show at the hi-dive. The place was packed, and the energy was electric. It made me realize that there's no other place in the world I want to be, because Denver is where it's at. Born in the Flood are the reason we wanted to move here."

"Nathaniel Ratliff," adds Egan, "is the epitome of writing music that means something and letting other people feel it."

Duly inspired, the pair started a band of their own called Holiday Run. At first, making music wasn't as glamorous as they had hoped. "We were living in a tent in our buddy's back yard 'cause we couldn't find a place to live," Vaught relates. "Then Holiday Run fell apart at the seams. We found Steve and Adam and started the Rouge pretty much out of nothing."

Although the act formed just over a year ago, already it has garnered its fair share of attention, from an increasing number of fans, to Indie 101.5, which is currently spotlighting the band as artist of the month, to a nomination for a Westword Music Showcase award this year in the indie-pop category. As much as the band appreciates the nod, the members bristle at the "pop" designation. "From day one," Egan points out, "we always wanted to play rock and roll. Everything is sub-genres now, but I really hope people know that we believe what we're singing about and that we just play rock and roll."

"We love the way that rock can connect everyone," Vaught interjects. "We want to rock that line of writing pop tunes with the drive, the emotion and the energy rush of what real rock brings. "

Narrowcasting aside, the "pop" handle may actually be too shallow of a term for the Rouge. Sure, the hooks are there, but there's a notable depth in the lyrical content that's inspired and borrowed from classic literary pieces. The title track of their latest effort, Heat & Light, for instance, ends with a line from the Dylan Thomas poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." As the song peaks, Vaught sings "Rage against the dying light" with a passion generally not associated with status-quo pop music.

Similar literary references abound with this band. Heat's original working title was Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent, an obvious nod to Shakespeare. Deciding that it didn't match the mood of what they were trying to convey, however, the guys opted to move in a different direction. "The worst thing you want," notes Egan, "is a person to listen to your album and feel worse about things than they did before."

Indeed. Just the same, the band also realized that its discontent wasn't necessarily as bad as others'. "We're eating, we have jobs, we get to play music with dudes we love," declares Vaught. "We wanted to humble ourselves and realize that this is the best situation we could possibly be in."

For the eventual title of its record, the Rouge found inspiration in familiar places. "We had the honor of going to Nathaniel Ratliff's wedding," Egan recalls. "Joe Pope's toast to Nathaniel was all based on a poem around the subject of heat and light. It was like, 'May I love with heat and light, may I live with heat and light, may I die with heat and light, our children be born in heat and light.' It was really beautiful."

"We all believe in the power that words hold," Call muses. "We wanted something that vibrated right in the kind of energy and goals we wanted the album to bring."

As it happened, though, the band's first recordings were not as bright or as hot as they felt they should be. "We tried to go the cheap route and went to a friend of a friend's studio," Egan explains. "It didn't work. We felt like what we had was flat and didn't communicate any emotion."

Disappointed with the output of its initial sessions, the group was pointed in the direction of Chris Fogal's Black in Bluhm studio and were surprised to find "the best studio experience I could have hoped for," Vaught enthuses. Subsequently, Fogal and the outfit re-tracked the entire EP in three days and noticed one glaring change upon completion. "The biggest thing that changed," notes Egan with a laugh, "is we actually got what we wanted." One of the reasons for that was because the Park Hill studio had such a relaxed vibe — maybe even a little too relaxed at times.
"We all showed up at like ten i - Westword

The Rouge has spent their time since early 2008 waiting for the right moment to finally break out big. While not enough can be said of their Summer ’08 release of The Summer Voices, it was more of a soft opening for the band with little-to-no promotion and a “toe in the water” test to see if an audience would embrace the four indie-Rock gentlemen. Now, with the recent release of their new five-song EP Heat and Light, The Rouge has the momentum to jump ranks and declare themselves a Colorado powerhouse.

The Rouge began after Josh Vaught and Jack Egan, formerly of Holiday Run, moved to Denver and began working on forming a more appreciated band in a larger industry. Colorado Springs just didn’t have the type of exposure needed so they opted to try their hand up north. With the addition of Adam Call (keys/guitar) and Steve Voss (drums), The Rouge began to create an independent sound full of melodic drifts highlighted by Vaught’s powerful vocal tones. Their breakout hit “What You Get,” was recorded and produced by Patrick Meese and instantly created a fan base for the new group. It was the push they needed, and with it, released their first EP and began opening up for local staples like Born in the Flood, Meese, Single File and The Photo Atlas.

“We all head over to the practice studio, lock the door and talk about how everyone is doing, what types of feelings [or] emotions we are all personally going through, so that we're all on the same page. Then we start with the first musical idea anyone has and we vibe on that for a bit, if that inspires us then we develop it,” bassist Jack Egan says of their writing process. “We didn't put the old songs on the new recording because we felt that those songs stood together on their own. We wanted to convey something new using the Heat & Light EP as a display of our musical and personal progression.”

To carry their momentum even further, The Rouge has set up an early summer tour of the West Coast, which includes a four-day stay in Los Angeles to shoot a video with filmmaker Zach Kranzler for their album title track, “Heat and Light.” They have also been nominated in this year’s Westword Music Showcase for best indie Pop band and have been asked to play the Underground Music Showcase, which is a four-day festival in July sponsored by The Denver Post.

Heat and Light is available now through Max3.com and tracks can be sampled, or earlier EP downloaded, via their website. To see the complete interview with bassist Jack Egan, visit our new blog through the Colorado Music Buzz website. - Colorado Music Buzz

hen the Denver music scene seems ridden with bands that are pop focused, clearly some bands are being overlooked in the scene.

If that's the case, Web browsers should be searching for The Rouge, who seems to be giving the Denver scene the rock it is missing.

The band, which formed in 2008, has already made progress by playing venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheater and releasing a five song EP that should launch them nearly to Kings of Leon status.

"The Heat & Light EP" is a collection of songs telling stories. And whether or not the stories are specific to singer Joshua Vaught, they are easily identifiable to any listener.

Vaught's vocals are earnest yet haunting throughout the entire record. Despite lines like, "We could be the next big thing," on the album's title track, "Heat & Light," The Rouge isn't being conceited.

The next track, "Molly," is reminiscent of The Killers with enough drive to make you want to speed down the highway with windows down and speakers way up.

An overlookable track, "Six Shooter" starts with an almost awkward keyboard build that doesn't quite fit with the rest of the band's sound. The song does progress into something a little more dance-like and might detract from the straight up rock-and-roll sound listeners might expect from The Rouge.

The band's true genius shows in the song "Breakdown," in which guitarist Adam Call showcases not only a mastery of his instrument, but also a mastery of effects with his instrument. The song is a classic dive bar jam with grungy guitars and a searing riff that carries throughout the entire song comparable to the genius of the Foo Fighters.

The final track, "Timebomb," is another that could have been replaced, but is a good conclusion to the album. However, it doesn't quite live up to the songs that precede it.

Overall, for a band that has been together just more than a year, it seems like they have been together for almost a decade. The Rouge has the make up to become much more than just a local band. They have the talent and the sound to make their fans see red and want even more of this already successful Denver band.
- The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Wow. The Rouge really know how to seduce a girl. In the band's new video, "Heat And Light," lead singer Joshua Vaught turns a camera shy woman into a bra-clad wonder. Apparently, all it takes is a little flirting and a fake photo shoot. Dudes, take note. (And, ladies, if you'd like to paw at the band in-person, check out The Rouge's opening set for The Heyday this Saturday at the Gothic Theatre.)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=62294330 - The Onioin - A/V Club