YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The songs on The Vindys’ upcoming album, “Trap Door,” sound big.
Each has a full-bodied arrangement that makes every moment count.
Piano and synthetic sounds are used to embellish passages or add flair to a moment. “Ooh La La” starts with a Motown-style guitar intro and then glides into background strings.
Other songs use snapping fingers, a strutting bass line or echoing background vocals to set the mood, embellish an instrumental piece or highlight a turn of phrase.
It’s the type of magic that’s added during the production phase, usually after the music is laid down. And it results in a record where every beat brings something fresh.
In short, the impetus in making “Trap Door” was to go big. The goal is to engross new fans – and maybe impress the higher-ups in the music industry.
The album will be released April 10.
Jackie Popovec, the band’s frontwoman, singer and chief songwriter, explains how it happened.
“This time around, I took the reins and went ‘in-box,’ as opposed to perfecting the songs out in public,” she says. “I went into the studio and wanted to create in a box, and see what kind of record we could come out with in that way.”
Popovec worked with Michael Estok, who owns and operates Court Street Recording in Canfield, to produce the record.
“With Michael behind the board, we homed in on parts and pieces and made it dynamically effective,” Popovec says.
She then hired Grammy nominees Ryan Nasci as the mixing engineer, and Dan Millice as mastering engineer. Both are industry pros with roots in the Mahoning Valley.
“Ryan blew us away with his production style,” Popovec says. “He made us sound so much bigger.”
Because running The Vindys is Popovec’s full-time job, she put in countless hours to elevate each song.
“It’s a team effort,” she says. The conversation would become “what if we do something here, or maybe play a little bit of a different sound on the synth here?,” she says. “We experimented with different tiny little sounds that made it sound even bigger than our nine-piece band, which is huge to begin with.”
Will longtime Vindys fans love the new album’s big sound and loaded arrangements? The early indication from folks who have heard the new material is a resounding yes.
“People that have listened to us in the past have been saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is something I want to listen to over and over again,’” Popovec says. “That is what I wanted. I wanted something that you could nitpick, but enjoy sonically, especially now that people are really into high-fidelity headphones and sonic landscapes. That was important to us.”
John Anthony, the Vindys lead guitarist and co-founder of the band with Popovec, says the new record has a style that is new.
“It’s a lot different than our last couple of albums because not only is it fuller, but there’s a stronger pop element to it,” he says. “We touched on pop on some of our other records, or maybe just grazed on it with a solo in the pop realm – maybe like on the song ‘If I Want.’ But this album is much more forward-facing pop, with rock elements scattered throughout.”
Vindys fans will have some familiarity with the new album because four of the songs were released as singles in the last two years: “Ooh La La,” “Elton Glasses,” “Electric” and “Black Magic.”
Those first two seem like hits-in-waiting, and “Electric” could be right behind them.
A fourth – and as yet unreleased – cut from the upcoming album, “Hero,” comes across like a Pat Benatar smash.
The band also released “Same Stars” from the new album as a single just two weeks ago.
Translating to the Stage
Because the new songs were beefed up in the studio, it’s all but impossible to play them exactly the same way during shows. But that’s not what the band wants to do anyway.
“We’re trying to figure out the best way to not emulate what’s going on on the record, to make sure that the live show is not matching the record, but instead takes it to a different level and makes it more interesting than before,” Popovec says.
They’re extending this treatment to their older songs as well. “We’re going into shows saying, ‘don’t forget that new jam part we’re going to go into’,” she says, as an example.
With the band no longer chasing its recorded sound during concerts, each member is bringing something new to the package.
“We’re like, okay, the album is freaking fire,” Popovec says. “What are we going to do to surpass that energy? Because I don’t want to use backing tracks. We have done that in the past, and I am not hip to it. So, our keyboard player is adding a synth keyboard… I’m trying to make it a different experience from the album, in the best way possible.”
The new approach has reenergized the band, and it’s showing during rehearsals.
“We kind of were on autopilot the last few years, especially because the Pat Benatar tours required us to do the same exact show every single night,” Popovec says. “We knew the cues, and it was so comfortable. But now we’re uncomfortable, and that’s a good place to be. If you’re too comfortable, and just doing it over and over again, then you shouldn’t be doing it.”
The Vindys opened for Benatar on her last two North American tours in 2024 and 2025.
Anthony says translating the new songs into stage versions has become a recurring conversation.
Reimagining the tunes to work in a live environment but still sound “huge” means turning on the rock element, he says.
On their 2025 Benatar tour, the band used recorded tracks on songs like “Bugs” – which uses a pulsating beat to set the pace – to mimic the recorded version.
Those sound effects and beats will become history when the band hits the road this summer.
“With nine of us on stage, we want to shy away from that and go in a live direction and not be handcuffed to any background elements,” Anthony says. There’s going to be times when the horns will take over.
“It goes back to what Jackie and I have talked about regarding the roots of the band,” he says. “We’ll make these songs evolve over time, so we can allow extended outros or solos, and not have to worry about a background track.”
What Is Next
While the new album is almost here, The Vindys will wait a while before lining up tour dates. Anthony and his wife are expecting, and the band will take a month off after the child is born.
But they’re also keeping their options open so they can jump on the right opportunity when it arrives.
“I look at it like the freedom we have now is important, because… when that chance comes, you have to jump,” Popovec says. “I’m using my time wisely, not just twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the next opportunity. The opportunities will come. Every day I have 10 emails out, and maybe one will get back to me in a month or six months from now.”
In the meantime, some strategic travel plans are being lined up. The act will go to California this summer for shows, and also to New York and New Jersey.
The band attracted a lot of new fans during its tours with Benatar and wants to strengthen that link.
“We want to revisit some of the places that [Benatar] took us to, but on our own, and play our own show in small clubs and bars,” Popovec says. “We’ll see how much we stuck [with fans] in those cities. Because I see a lot of people buying our merchandise online from all over the country, and I’m looking at those numbers, and I’m saying, okay, maybe we’ll go have a show in D.C. Apparently, playing in front of five or six thousand people there [with the Benatar tour] did it for us.”
One thing the band really wants to do is get back to playing smaller rooms – rock-centric venues that don’t have fixed seats and attract crowds that are ready to move.
“I’m sort of over the theater thing,” Popovec says, referring to the mid-size and larger fixed-seat venues the band has been playing in recent years as a solo act and with Benatar.
“I want something different,” she says. “I want to feel alive again. Not that theaters don’t make me feel alive. I’m just trying to do something different. I’m trying to pivot. Last year I was trying to make The Vindys fill these spaces, like the Canton Palace theater, rooms with 2,000 or 2,500 capacity, and we weren’t.”
She’s looking for venues that max out at around 1,000 capacity, but knows there aren’t many.
“I am trying to find those places,” she says, pointing to venues like Penguin City Brewing in Youngstown, which will open its own 1,000 capacity standing-room only concert hall this spring.
With the rise of streaming – which produces little revenue – and the glut of music on the market, times are tough for a deserving band trying to reach the next level.
Popovec and The Vindys will keep up the attack.
“It’s a fight every day, but it’s something that I want to do, not because I love the business, but because I am obsessed with creating music and performing music,” she says. “That’s the lane that I chose. I want to be the change, and I want to be a part of the community that is music. Those things, unfortunately, come with it, but it’s the price I have to pay to create the music that I want.”
The band does have one local show on the docket.
It will play outdoors at The Record Connection in Pine Tree Place shopping plaza in McKinley Heights on Record Store Day, April 18.
The new album will be available to purchase as a CD at the show, but Popovec isn’t sure if the vinyl copies will be ready.
Still, there’s a chance.
“We’ll have CDs there, but maybe not vinyl,” she says. “I remember the 2017 Record Store Day [when the band also played at The Record Connection]. We got the vinyl copies of our new record literally the day before. So that could happen this time again. We’re hoping for a miracle.”
Pictured at top: John Anthony, Jackie Popovec and Rick Deak of The Vindys.
