Nation of Two

The guitar and drums duo Nation of Two was formed seven years ago in Seattle by Darius Morrison and Lauren Vignec. They learned how to play their instruments, sing, and write songs together and they have become each other’s major musical influence. Their patron saint is the inimitable high priestess, Nina Simone. Like her and like their other favorite musicians (the ferocious seventy-five year old drummer Elvin Jones and the beautiful firestorm PJ Harvey) they aim to create music that sounds the way they always wanted music to sound.

Darius, a female-to-male transgender Asia-American Queer, could have been cast as an outsider everywhere. Instead he has drawn strength from and given support to several diverse communities (feminist musicians, queer positive performance artists, Asian American activists, and artists of all stripes who respect his passion and commitment). Lauren seems to identify most strongly with musicians a generation (or two or three) older than herself. They have learned the lessons of the past from those who lived them (they are not trying to recreate some romanticized era). They are quite unapologetic about who they are, and they do not need to tokenize themselves or their music.

“The Kingdom” is their first CD and though they might be a new band to most, they have been together for some time and they are going to be around for quite a while. They genuinely hope you like their music.

You will find their CD’s in the local NW section or perhaps the Rock section of most major music stores.