On The Road To SXSW With Vanaprasta: Day 1

Whether you’ve already attended SXSW’s annual music festival or not, there is no doubt that it’s an exciting time. It’s especially exciting for everyone who experiences it for his or her first time and I was lucky enough to tag along with a band who was going through this moment during their career.

As promised, BeatCrave has been on the road with Los Angeles band Vanaprasta and we have caught some pretty memorable experiences on video for you. However, we couldn’t catch everything on a camera so check a quick recap out of what all went down on the ride down to Las Cruces, New Mexico so far!

The plan on the itinerary which my only female companion on the trip was nice enough to plan for all the boys stated 11 am as a departure from Los Angeles. That would have happened if band member, Ben (aka as just Smiley), didn’t have his car towed last week. As we waited for one band member to get out of the hell that is the DMV, we all entertained ourselves at the apartment with flashy music videos from The Lonely Island and chilled out with their cat, Nicklebee.

When we finally rounded up everyone in our massive white Ford van, we had the five members of Vanaprasta (Steven, Taylor, Cameron, Collin, and Ben), their engineer Chad, and one of their very loyal and responsible (thank God), girlfriends. Although the van had gotten a new transmission since it had broken down back in December on the way to Portland, Oregon, the boys weren’t taking chances on this trip. Time equaled money and although it was already ten past 1 PM, everyone decided to take a trip to AutoZone for some radiator fluid just to be safe.

It was nearly 2 pm by the time we were finally taking up space on the freeway with our typical band van, but with Chad in the driver’s seat we were in good hands. In excitement, the band talked about which parties they had RSVPed to, what bands they were excited to see and how they were going to fit everything into the schedule. Soon, the ride soothed us all down as the road has its hypnotizing ways, so we all had to keep busy. While Chad and Gillian chatted up in the front, everyone grabbed a book or joined an assembly line to hand-make their EPs, Forming The Shapes. Make sure you grab one during the festival!

As you’ll see in the video below, the only place we stopped by to sit down and eat was Burger Box where we got some decently priced burgers and “boxes o’chicken.” Although Steve mentioned how hard it was to eat certain foods with his incredibly thick beard, he was satisfied enough to take his turn driving for the rest of the trip afterward. During this time we stopped by at some pretty sketchy places and we begun to take everything as a possible opening story for a journey turned horror film with us as the stars. However, when we stopped by a convenience store in Casa Blanca, we happened to meet up with another band named Geographer who was also headed to SXSW.

Driving through the night all the way through Arizona until we reached New Mexico wasn’t a bad time either. Aziz Ansari entertained us and Taylor took on his alias as Deejay Badeejay and played some great electronic tunes that helped the ride go enjoyably smooth. The night ended with a trip to IHOP at 3 AM.

Take a look at some of the things that happened with our trip in Vanaprasta’s band below in the video!

BeatCrave Goes On The Road To SXSW With Vanaprasta: Day 1 from BeatCrave on Vimeo.

What do you think of Vanaprasta’s first day? Make sure to check back for their second day on the road to SXSW!