Vansire

Two friends from Rochester, Minnesota, Josh Augustin and Sam Winemiller make dream pop under the name Vansire, a moniker picked from an online random word generator and borrowed from the marsh mongoose. Their partnership began at Century High School, where the pair first met on the drumline and kept playing together through concert band and pit orchestra. Signed to Spirit Goth Records, the duo has shaped a sound that moves from dream pop toward something more danceable and funk-tinged.

The project started in the summer of 2015, when Winemiller asked Augustin after drumline practice to form a band that sounded like Mac DeMarco. Their debut, Reflections and Reveries, arrived as a self-released album in August 2016, recorded in Winemiller's basement with his brother Issac on bass for some tracks. Angel Youth followed in April 2018 on Spirit Goth, produced and mastered by the pair, and was their first full-length to include outside collaborators. Later releases included the single Central Time with Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins and the After Fillmore County EP, which featured Philadelphia rapper Ivy Sole. The Modern Western World came out in May 2022, and the band has since released Taking Solace, their fourth studio album.