Most Akins students know Carlos Vanwees as a science teacher who teaches biology and environmental systems.
What many don’t know is that he is a multi-instrumentalist musician who plays live concerts with two Austin-based bands: the Steph Cash Band and Jac with no K. Working as a science teacher is not what motivated him to move to Austin. Instead, he wanted to live in the city known as the “Live Music Capital of the World” so he could get involved in the live music scene.
Since moving to Austin in 2020, he has played with various bands and even gone on tour to play concerts in other cities. The Eagle’s Eye sat down for an interview with him to learn about his music career.

The Eagle’s Eye: So what is the name of the band you play in?

Carlos Vanwees: The two main bands that I play in are Steph Cash Band. It’s a country band, and then the other band is Jac with no K.

EE: Oh, wow, oh, that’s actually kind of cool.

CV: Yeah, it’s clever. It’s confusing, but yeah, that is cool.

EE: What type of music do you play? Like, style?

CV: The Steph Cash band is country. It’s like typical country music, and then Jac with no K is kind of blues, Americana, like folky blues, kind of with a little indie in there.

EE: So, yeah, you enjoy it?

CV: Yeah, I love it. It’s part of the reason why I moved to Austin.

EE: How long have you been in the band, and how long have you been playing the instrument?

CV: I have been in the bands for about four years now, since I moved to Austin right before COVID, and then obviously COVID closed everything down. And then after COVID is when I started playing with them. So yeah, about four years now. And then, how long have I played music? Started playing violin when I was five years old, pretty much my whole life.

EE: Do you use the violin as a fiddle?

CV: Yes. As a fiddle. that’s right. I play guitar. I played pedal steel. I play bass, mandolin, French horn.

EE: What do you enjoy about the band?

CV: What do I enjoy most about the band is just, I think, really, being on stage and like, just seeing people in the crowd, dancing and having fun just to have a good time. Like seeing, knowing that, we are, like the entertainment and really, just like providing that for them. It’s cool. It’s really cool. And the music too. It just those are the styles of music that I like personally. And the people. Those are my best friends.

EE: Where have you been for your because we heard you went on tour, right?

CV: Yes, I’ve been on tours up through the East Coast and Midwest. I’ve played in New York City, Manhattan, Philly, Pittsburgh, Michigan, Ohio, up there, played in Tennessee at Bonnaroo this past year, and the Country Music Awards, CMA festival. I’ve been to Mississippi. All over Texas. Just lots of different places.

EE: So you get to travel, like, a lot?

CV: I wouldn’t say a lot, a lot, but every now and then, yeah. Like, I’ll get to travel outside of the state and do bigger things, but a lot of it’s really centralized in like in Texas, between Austin, like San Antonio, Dallas.

EE: Are there any conflicts between being a teacher and a musician? So do they get in the way of each other?

CV: Not really as much as people think it would there every now and then I’ll have to take off work for gigs to travel. It’s mostly the out-of-town gigs that sometimes do, but those are mostly weekends. So if anything, it’s like a half day on a Friday or a Monday coming back. But not really, no, because most of the shows are on nights and weekends. So it still manages to work with work schedule, so that’s nice yeah. I don’t sleep a lot.

EE: Does your band record music and put it on streaming services?

CV: Yes, we do. Both on both the bands that I play with are on Spotify and Apple Music and YouTube and all the other streaming services that exist that I don’t even know of. But yeah, they’re on Spotify and the big ones.

EE: What do you want to accomplish as a musician?

CV: I would just like to keep having it as a big part of my life. I would like to have played 10 of the bigger shows and things. That’s always the goal is to get to that level. But I think realistically right now is just kind of keep doing what I’m doing, and keep getting my name out there as a musician.

EE: Would you ever want to be a musician full-time, if the opportunity happened?

CV: I enjoy teaching, but if the opportunity presents itself and it’s the right opportunity, then, yes, if it’s the right opportunity.

EE: How long would you want to keep on doing this? Would you want to play music forever?

CV: As long as I can, yeah. It’s definitely something I foresee always being in my life, yeah.