Brooklyn band Van Vreeland performs at the Knitting Factory on 4/21.
Photo by Sam Blieden
A new local band is bringing a unique blend of rock and country vibes to Brooklyn’s music scene.
Van Vreeland is a soft rock/country band that formed right here in Brooklyn. The band is made up of Katie Vreeland on vocals, Spenser Naess on lead guitar, Cooper Naess on drums, and Shane Preece on bass.
“We’ve all been playing music in our own worlds for a very long time. During the pandemic, one of my friends introduced me to one of her friends and I was trying to put a band together. It was really hard to find people who are available drummers in Brooklyn,” said Vreeland. “My new friend said ‘My boyfriend’s brother is a drummer, they want to start a country band.’ So I met them eventually, maybe a few months later and we were talking about music and, myself, Cooper, his brother Spencer, we just got together and started jamming one day and the rest was sort of history.”
As you might have expected, the name “Van Vreeland” is derived from Vreeland’s last name. The band name comes from an old nickname that Vreeland had in high school.
“My cross country and track coach, who was also an English teacher, would call me ‘Van Vreeland’ because it’s super Dutch,” said Vreeland. “I’ve also always been a fan of Van Zant, Van Morrison. I was kind of like, let me go with this.”
According to Vreeland, finding the band’s sound didn’t take too long, especially considering they wanted to have an alt-country sort of twang to the soft rock vibes. Vreeland told amNewYork Metro that some of the band’s influences include artists such as Fleetwood Mac and Tracy Chapman, and the band as a whole are huge fans of the Grateful Dead and Neil Young.
“There’s a fine balance that I personally as a musician and sort of the songwriter of the band, I’m trying to balance this line between that country pop songwriting with solid the…
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