User:Vachella/sandbox

Vachella
Samuel Maverick Cole, known professionally as Vachella, is an American musician, producer, and writer, born in Pontiac, Illinois.

Early Life
Samuel Maverick Cole was born on October 22, 1999 in Pontiac, IL. Being an unexpected baby, he was raised in a lower-middle class home up until age of six. Later he moved to Washington, IL, a small town near Peoria.

Sam had always been interested in music and when he was 7 he learned to play the guitar. He was more interested in Alternative Rock and other Rock music at this time, but he listened to a wide variety of music such as Nirvana, The Beatles, Beethoven, and Dean Martin. His favorite band, however, was (and still is) Van Halen. Sam had also been showing an interest in writing at this time and began writing short stories, poems, and songs. He even had some of his works published as a kid. When he was 10 he was introduced to rap by a friend in school and would often see kids free-styling, however, he still preferred other types of music.

On November 17th, 2013, his town was struck by a tornado killing 3 people and completely destroying 1,484 homes, including his own. Losing almost everything he had, he was taken in by a friend along with another family. There were up to 11 people in the house at times with 3 different families in it. Living out of garbage bags, he slept on his friend's couch for a month, until he finally moved to Peoria, IL where he lived for a year. While living in Peoria, he was surrounded by rap music and started liking it a lot more. This is when he started making his own songs. After his home was rebuilt, he moved back to Washington where he attended Washington Community High School.

Music Career
Sam had always wanted to be a musician and dreamed of becoming a punk rock star. As a hobby, however, he freestyled with his friends and one of them pointed out how good he was. Sam loved poetry, mainly Edgar Allen Poe, and got into rap in high school saying, “Rap allows me to be more poetic and use more words to illustrate what I'm trying to convey.” He decided to create rap songs for fun and went under the name Samsinite.

In 2018 he started to take music seriously and adopted the name Vachella. The name comes from Vachellia Tortilis, an umbrella thorn acacia tree. He came up with it because of a story he had heard about the “Tree of Ténéré,” and how it was the loneliest tree in the entire world, located in Africa. He took the name, Vachellia, and dropped the 'i' to get Vachella.

Family
Samuel was raised as an only child by Donald (Father) and Shanon Cole (Mother). Music has been present throughout his whole family. His uncle, Jack Stege, plays lead guitar in a “party rock” band called Off the Wall in Springfield, IL. His grandmother's cousin, Bonnie Bramlett, was a part of the rock/soul duo, Delaney and Bonnie, where she occasionally played alongside rock legends George Harrison and Eric Clapton.