VOWS

Formed initially as a recording endeavor by Jeff Pupa and James Hencken in 2010 inside Neshanic Station, New Jersey, indie pop outfit Vows emerged from the duo’s shared passion for home studios. The pair crafted a batch of relaxed, subtly psychedelic indie and folk-pop numbers they called Winter’s Grave, issuing the collection themselves in 2011. The project soon reached NPR and earned placement on Second Stage. Heartened by that notice, Pupa and Hencken brought in several friends to perform the material onstage and to lay down their next album, Stranger Things, which surfaced in 2013. A handful of singles and two EPs appeared the following year while the group’s bright, off-kilter aesthetic kept shifting. Their third full-length, Soon Enough, arrived in 2015 after sessions split between Vermont and New Jersey, revealing lush psych-pop hues akin to those of Foxygen and Temples.