serious band
Van: I wasn't there when they called Lottie. Taissa gave me a ride home, but of course, she didn't leave right away. I had already known her before, had a bit of a crush on her, and after we really got together, we never separated.
It had been almost six months since that night, and I always thought the story about her singing with us was some collective delusion my bandmates had. Especially at a time when we needed a new vocalist the most.
Travis: The girls quit their jobs. That was when real hope was born—that we had enormous potential and could be huge. Something I had always believed, but they needed a little push.
Natalie took all her savings, bought a guitar, and moved in with me. At that point, I was renting a tiny one-bedroom, one-bathroom place. That way, we rehearsed three times more than before, but there was still a problem: we had no vocalist.
I know she had no real obligation to be with us, but everyone thought she'd join us. It was unfair but, you know when you need to put the blame somewhere or you just can't keep going?
Natalie: It was easy not having the obligation to sing and play when the band wasn’t a serious commitment. But the moment we started taking it seriously, I started feeling extremely guilty.
Even more so because Lottie had bailed on us. I cursed her in my head every time we had to rehearse.
Misty: At first, Travis managed to book some events and small gigs on his own. Weddings, birthdays... and more weddings and birthdays. We were barely hanging on, especially because, as a band, we had some original songs, but we couldn’t play them when the people paying us peanuts wanted to hear I Want to Know What Love Is and all those sappy ballads.
And personally, I couldn’t take it anymore. Especially because I was the one doing all the singing.
Van: Yeah. Misty fucking Quigley took over vocals. She volunteered, and we had no other option. We joke about it, but her singing was decent. So, thanks, Misty, for saving our asses.
After playing at least three weddings in one week, we decided we needed a manager. Travis just couldn’t handle it alone.
And that’s when my amazing wife showed up.
Taissa Turner (Van Palmer’s wife and former Aurora manager): My father pressured me a lot after high school.
"You have to major in Business Administration and take over my company," he used to say.
I can still hear the old man’s voice haunting me. Nowadays, it means nothing, but 19-year-old Taissa left the band that made her happy to focus on a life that wasn’t hers. I went to college and dropped out shortly after meeting Van. She gave me the courage to stand up to him.
In the end, I ended up managing a rock band. Guess the old man wasn’t entirely wrong about my career.
Natalie: Well, she got us out of weddings and into bigger bars, where we could play our own songs. It was so satisfying to perform our music for an audience. For me, it felt like every step we took only made me want to keep going with this madness even more.
Of course I still thought about Lottie sometimes. She was the big ‘what if’ of the band.
Travis: Even though she wasn’t in the band, Tai was the best addition we ever made to our team. After she came on board, we started climbing the bar scene... it felt like a fairy tale. First Wiskayok, then Asbury Park, Hoboken, Atlantic City. We started gaining recognition in the New Jersey rock scene, always in the right places. Then we got the chance to cross the Hudson River and do a residency in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Misty: The Williamsburg underground scene was booming at the time. It was really important for us to play there as an emerging band. We were rehearsing at Tai’s studio/loft before heading to New York when I gave an ultimatum.
I said, 'We need a lead vocalist.' Everyone looked at each other because they knew it was true. We were good, but if we had someone outstanding on vocals, we’d be unstoppable. I didn’t feel bad about stepping away from the spotlight; I wanted what was best for the band, and at that moment, that was what we needed.
Taissa: I suggested we hold some kind of audition. But we needed to get to New York as soon as possible, find a place for everyone to stay, and finalize details with the club.
Then Natalie said, 'Let’s do it there, then.'
Natalie: It was a big city, and I thought it would be much easier to find someone good enough. In the end, it didn’t make a difference because, for the first time in six months, Lottie Matthews showed up.
Jackie: How can I put this...
After that party, Travis started acting weird, especially since Lottie disappeared. We didn’t see her again in person. I heard Aurora was doing well, playing at the Stone Pony, becoming the talk of the town.
But I was worried about my best friend. I went to her house multiple times, but no one answered. I would spend hours ringing the doorbell then a housemaid would politely ask me to leave. Until one day, her idiot brother, annoyed by my persistence, finally told me.
Charles Matthews (Lottie’s brother): I didn’t hate Charlotte, but I saw how much trouble she caused our parents. The last straw was when she mixed those pills she was taking, completely lost it, smashed a store window, and broke into an Italian restaurant. The owner called the cops, but luckily, they knew our dad and recognized her. They said she was sitting at a table eating spaghetti and meatballs, and when they asked why she did it, she just said she was hungry. My dad had to do a lot of talking to keep him from pressing charges, not to mention paying for all the damages she caused. After that, we sent her to a resting retreat.
Jackie: Resting retreat, my ass. Six months without seeing her, and she shows up at my house, soaking wet and shivering. She didn’t remember what happened, but she had spent months locked away in some psychiatric institution. I had never been so furious. She just needed help, and they abandoned her like that? I never let her go back to that house again.
Travis: In New York, our audition kind of blew up—at least two hundred people signed up to try out for Aurora. Few were qualified, and for Natalie, none of them were.
Natalie: The problem was that the bar was set too high. There was only one person left, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I lit a cigarette and got ready to reject one more person. It sucked, of course. After the place was empty, we started packing up the rented mic cables.
Van: The door creaked open.
I didn’t know who it was at the time, I just said, 'The audition’s over, you’re late.'
Misty: Everyone looked at the door except Natalie, who kept wrapping up the rented gear.
It was Lottie. She looked thinner and paler than the last time I saw her, and more covered up too. Leather pants, a black tank top, and a guitar in hand.
Natalie: I only noticed who it was when she said, 'Can we still play together sometime?'
I remember being furious, like, 'Who does she think she is? So arrogant, thinking we were just waiting for her!' I just said, 'I hope you’re here for the audition. This is a serious band not a joke; you can’t just walk in whenever you feel like it.'
I was just pissed and didn’t think before speaking.
Travis: If Natalie had scared her off, I would’ve killed that girl right there.
But she just smiled and asked if she could start.
Natalie: She plucked the strings of her guitar and sang Pale Blue Eyes by the Velvet Underground. We knew right then it was just a formality because it was already her. It had always been her.