About Basic Vacation

Basic Vacation's music pulses with the dynamic chemistry between the band's three members, vocalist-guitarist Chris Greatti, bassist Jon Paul, and drummer Mike Montalbano, who have played in nearly a dozen previous bands between them. Chris (who grew up playing guitar and writing songs in Morrisville, PA) met Wellington, FL, native Jon (who took up bass in eighth grade and joined his school's jazz band) when the two got hired to perform with a New York solo artist. "After I moved to New York, I pretty much hounded Chris into starting a band," Jon says. The two began to jam together on their own in early 2012 and by Spring, Chris was taking a bus from Philly to Manhattan twice a week and sleeping on Jon's floor. "Actually, I slept on his roommate's dog's bed on the floor because there was nowhere else for me to crash," Chris explains. A few months later they asked Saddle Brook, NJ, native Mike (who began playing drums at five after falling in love with Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like A Lady") to join. "Since I met Chris, I remember thinking, 'Man, I need to be in a band with this guy,'" Mike recalls. The band members bonded over the classic rock artists they were raised listening to, like Led Zeppelin and Queen, '80s New Wave acts like Tears For Fears, Soft Cell, and Talk Talk, as well as bands with whom they feel a musical kinship, like The Killers, New Radicals, and Foster the People. On Wednesday October, 2014, Basic Vacation released a statement on their instagram page mentioning they had officially disbanded, but hinted at future musical endeavors from its members.