Along with constantly reinventing herself, wearing faux dead swans and punching reporters in the face, Björk must have some musical clairvoyance, as she foresaw the success of alumnus Vince Scheuerman’s band, Army of Me.
“Björk found out about our band and wrote that song about us,” deadpans Scheuerman. In reality, the Icelandic pixie that is Björk released the single “Army of Me” in 1995, before the creation of Scheuerman’s band in 1999.
Vocalist Scheuerman admits the name was actually a result of drummer Dennis Manuel’s rejection of every other suggested moniker. Eventually, the band settled on “Army of Me” because Manuel happened to be a Björk fan.
“I liked how it sounded, and coming up with a cool band name that’s not taken is about the hardest thing to do,” Scheuerman says.
While studying at the university, childhood friends Scheuerman and original bass player John Hutchins met Manuel. Although Scheuerman’s days were jam-packed with classes, intramural soccer, band practice and his jobs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and The Washington Post, the mechanical engineering major says he enjoyed being part of the campus community.
“I liked that Maryland is so big and so diverse,” Scheuerman says. “Everyday I would walk up the engineering hill and I never saw the same person twice.”
Some of Scheuerman’s fondest memories of his time at the university were his experiences in a jazz vocals course taught by the husband-and-wife duo of pianist Ron Elliston and vocalist Ronnie Wells. The pair would teach 10 students at their home off-campus, and by the end of the semester, the class members would perform at a jazz club in Washington.
Scheuerman graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering – even though he can’t remember when, but thinks it may have been in December 1999 – and continued his job at NIST. But even as the success of his band grew – with Army of Me winning then-99.1 WHFS’ Big Break contest and scoring an opening slot on the station’s HFStival in 2001 and signing with Atlantic Records earlier this year – Scheuerman did not quit his job at NIST until a couple of months ago.
However, success did not come immediately for the band, and members have come and gone through the years for a variety of reasons, Scheuerman says.
“The biggest thing of being in a band and really wanting to do it as a career requires a lot of devotion,” he says. “You devote all your time to making your music, making it the best you can – you got to do it for yourself for a long time before you play for other people.”
The band began playing locally, in venues like the Black Cat and 9:30 Club, and up and down the East Coast, opening for various national bands that came through. These gigs opened opportunities for the band by exposing them to different crowds. From Matisyahu to OK Go, Scheuerman, Manuel and guitarist Brad Tursi had to impress audiences of all sizes and types – but Scheuerman refuses to stereotype the people they’ve performed for at shows.
“Just because you’re a Mae [a pop punk band they have toured with recently] fan doesn’t mean you don’t like other kinds of music,” he says. “We are fortunate to have something that appeals to different kinds of people.”
By merely looking at the bands Army of Me has played with, it is difficult to pinpoint the band’s exact sound.
“We’re a rock band, first and foremost,” Scheuerman says while trying to describe his band’s sound. “We definitely have influences: Jeff Buckley, U2, Wilco, Ryan Adams, Rufus Wainwright … Weezer and Sublime. We don’t sound like any other band.”
Whatever Army of Me’s sound may be, it caught the ear of local radio station DC101, which promptly put the band’s song “Come Down to D.C.” on regular rotation late last year.
Tentatively scheduled for release in January, Army of Me’s full-length album on Atlantic Records was recorded earlier this year. But in the meantime, an EP will be released Nov. 7 on Doghouse Records, featuring the songs “Watch for Snakes” and “Saved Your Life.”
But before Scheuerman and Army of Me depart on a tour with O.A.R., the vocalist asks for only one thing – one gig, specifically – from his alma mater.
“I went to and love the University of Maryland,” he says. “It would be a dream to play Art Attack.”
Contact reporter Nancy Chow at nanchow@umd.edu.
