Rein Vaska ’25 began his musical career as a flutist in his middle school band, but soon after, he started playing the drums — the instrument he primarily plays today. “While playing the flute was very lyrical and pretty, I kind of missed the fun, energetic part of music,” Vaska said.
During his early drumming days in high school, Vaska would play on an electric drum set his father had bought him — first by “messing around” and teaching himself and later through formal lessons. Vaska further developed his drumming skills while working at a music summer camp in high school, where he started singing and learned to play other musical instruments, including the piano, bass, and guitar.
While Vaska would often play drums informally with friends, it wasn’t until his second year of high school that he joined his first band, called Metro. “When I joined [Metro], I was still relatively new at playing the drums, and my other bandmates were really good at their instruments,” he said. “But I grew so much as a musician being in the band and learned so much from them.” He and the other members of Metro would play shows in the San Francisco Bay Area throughout high school and compete in “battle of the bands” competitions in Palo Alto, Calif.
In addition to strengthening his drumming skills, Vaska’s time in Metro shaped his personal music taste. “Metro’s bass player, Joseph Cudahy, and I would drive around, and he would play me artists like Tame Impala and Yellow Days,” he said. “At the time, that was a big deal for me, to get exposed to this type of indie, psychedelic, dream-pop music. I didn’t even know that type of music existed before.”
This past summer, Vaska started a psychedelic-pop duo band, Montara, with Cudahy. “We spent all summer writing songs together, inspired by a dreamy, synth-pop sound,” he said. The duo recorded its songs in Vaska’s garage and spent the following months mixing them in Logic, a music creation software.
Montara released its eponymous debut album on Jan. 1. For the album, Vaska not only played the drums but also composed the score and wrote the lyrics in collaboration with Cudahy. “Our main goal for this album was to create a certain vibe in the music that sounds cool, nostalgic, and euphoric,” Vaska said of his vision for the record.“We focused first on creating that vibe, and then we focused on writing the lyrics.”
Vaska described the lyrics he wrote for the album as an introspective reflection on his past relationships. “I wanted to keep the lyrics vague enough to the extent that it wasn’t obvious who or what I was talking about, so it can be relatable to a lot of different people,” he said.
At the College, Vaska is majoring in music and psychology, disciplines that have allowed him to hone his musical knowledge and technique while applying them to musical projects like Montara. In addition, Vaska plays drums for jazz events on campus, teaches piano lessons for students in the Town, works for the College’s music department, and is the music director and a singer in the R&B a cappella group Purple Rain. He is also a Junior Advisor to the Class of 2027.
While Vaska is uncertain about the relationship he will have to music after graduating, he hopes it will be a part of his career in some form. “I can’t commit to being a professional musician right now,” he said. “But I can see myself doing something involving teaching music to others or combining music with psychology, such as being a music therapist.”
Even if Vaska’s career doesn’t involve music, he said that it will always play a big role in his personal life. “I think music is a cool art form in the sense that — as opposed to visual art, movies, or theatre — it could become the soundtrack to someone’s life,” he said. “When I find myself making music, I think a lot about how people will use it for their own lives and how I will use it for mine. I hope to continue making music for that reason — to create something that can embody people’s emotions, something that they can deeply relate to.”
