It has been said before that time travel was a pipe dream, impossible, a crazy Einstein theory but today, thanks to the wonder of the internet, there is a growing consensus that it may be very possible but what if this space can prove it's not only possible but for a few hours now and it's quite probable?
Well, there is an Upstate New York based band that on any given day or night can be one's transport back in time; six decades back in time.
Recently, musician, screen printer, illustrator and Aquarius founder Dunja Von Stoddard spoke of how she put this collective unit/experience together, her childhood, today's social media climate and more in advance of their upcoming June 14 appearance at The Seafarer inn Highlands, NJ.
"I started Aquarius because I was raised on a hippie farm in Upstate New York and I grew up with artist parents and '60s and '70s music was on their record player all of the time," began a very upbeat Dunja. "They had a lot of Bohemian type people and artists hanging out constantly;I guess it was a little bit of a commune. They just had the dogma of hippieness and Bohemian; '70s and growing your own food and getting back to the earth, a lot of music and freedom, passing around the hookah and that kind of vibe. They were just people and artists hanging out on the farm and that kind of vibe and that freedom, that hippy experience really is part of who I am. I still believe in that kind of lifestyle and the music was such a huge part of it for me and it's really just much more human and messy and authentic to me than what the world has become with our digital entry lifestyle in so many ways where everything is very perfected. We're kind of missing the messiness and the community spirit where music brought people together more and this band has kind of become an extension of how I grew up and that world feels very real to me; it's not just like looking at different historical bands and the history of the '60s, for me it's very real and lived. That's how Aquarius started for me, I started a female fronted Tom Petty band about six years ago and I love that band too but with Aquarius, I felt like I was missing something that felt something like my roots and spoke to me even more than the classic rock of the last few decades. So, the '60s and early '70s for me is really like my roots, my history and what connects me to music and records. That's basically how Aquarius started, I just really wanted that connection to my roots. I didn't know if it was gonna appeal to different generations of people and it has been such an amazing surprise that even people in their 20s and 30s come to our shows, love it and know the music. Somehow the songs of the '60s are like the roots of rock 'n' roll and still so alive in our culture and that has been really fascinating. We had a show at Whiskey A-Go-Go with Strawberry Alarm Clock and there were 20 and 30 year olds singing along to all of the songs and that was extremely inspiring. There was a young couple who were at that show who are bi-coastal and they came to Off The Rails for a show and they knew all of the '60s songs and of course we have people who were in their 20s when the '60s happened and they've come to me with tears in their eyes because it brought them back because they have so many memories and connections with the songs from their own lives. So, it has been a really amazing experience to see how varied our audience is."
The not so odd thing about music is that it absolutely has the ability to allow all of us as individuals our own unique time travel experience. Does anyone remember the song from a certain summer? Perhaps from a movie soundtrack? What was playing on the radio or stereo during your first romantic experience? Maybe a song that reminds you of a loved one who is no longer with us? Birth of a child? The capabilities of taking all of us back most definitely do exist and Dunja, let's just say she wants to help fill a void and Aquarius is her way of starting to do so.
"I grew up in Upstate New York near Vermont and now I live in the Hudson Valley near Woodstock. I was so connected to the music; I see bands all the time and I felt like there are not a lot of '60s bands out there and I definitely feel like there is definitely a resurgence of '60s and '70s fashion and vintage fashion happening. I follow people on Instagram and there is a huge resurgence in London and I've seen it in Ireland, Australia and a little bit here in the United States in like different pockets. I feel like we're craving something; I'm not trying to recreate the '60s, I'm trying to bring something from it to the present, some of the things that I think we're lacking and still missing, creating or lacking in our current generation."
The current band lineup includes three females and three males and when asked how she formed the unit and how it plays out during band differences of opinion, Dunja was quick to answer.
"The guys know to just say yes to the girls, the girls are in charge," she said with a loud laugh. "I am in the "Tom Pretties" originally with Karen and Dana and so it was the three of us and it was an all female band and I was feeling like I wanted guys in the room and wanted their perspective and to play with them. I didn't want to just have a gimmick like an all female band. So, the whole world of musicians and possibilities tripled and it was really word of mouth because we're near Woodstock, a musical Mecca and once we found Tobias an incredible drummer who knows a lot of people; I think I got Will our bass player through Facebook and Justin our guitarist is in another band with our drummer. When we all got together, we said, "Learn these 10 songs" and then we played through those songs together for the first time and it was magical. I looked around and said, "That went really well, you guys want to be in the band? Do you want to stick around?" It has just been so incredible and the easiest; I don't know if it's because we're playing songs from the '60s but we really are a harmonious band. We've become really close, we took the trip to Los Angeles to play the Whiskey A-Go-Go and we have each other's back in our daily lives too. We've become really fast friends, we feel like family and it has been great living with this feeling of the '60s in the band itself. We're reliving that kind of self-expression and we're very free with each other, we're all fun and loose and so it has been a really great experience."
Selling the product and getting their audiences to "Immerse" themselves is the goal of their shows so Dunja and her band mates not only play the part but look and act the part as well.
"We spend a lot of time on the details. I want it to be like an experience, it's immersive but it's still loose and fun. So, you can come and dance or just sing to the songs or you can get really pulled into it. I want people to feel the joy, the connection, the shared experience and I want them to feel immersed in all of that vibe that was happening in the '60s. So, I go shopping for vintage clothes all the time, I have a Vox Continental organ, our bass player plays a P Bass we play as authentic to the music and instruments as we can. We have trippy projections, vintage telephones and we have little phone conversations in between. We have costume changes because we go from the mom and pop early '60s into the Vietnam era and the vibe changes, the music changes, we have our go-go boots because we do a little surf stuff, we hand out Hawaiian leis, we have a lot of dancing because we want people to feel free and loose in the audience. We want people to feel like they can have some individual style and a lot of people get dressed up when they come to the shows, we have vintage pop-ups; it's really fun for people to have a fun night out and cut loose a bit. We tend to dress up in our '60s clothes and handout flyers and posters. We spent our whole time in Los Angeles in '60s clothes and it was such a contrast to what fashion has become now; self-expression through clothing is not really a thing as much as it was back then so we really stood out. I think it was really fun for people to see how different you can look with your clothing and so I want the ability to have people cut loose and either immerse in the songs or the whole experience."
In a day and age where the '60's music is fading from terrestrial radio or the lines are blurring between what's "Classic Rock" or "Oldies," Dunja feels strongly that the music and show they produce appeals to 20 and/or 30 somethings because "Of" the music itself and its power to transcend generations.
"My intuition is that there is something in the music itself," she stated with confidence. "The songs are so relatable and so immediate; I think there is something about the songs themselves that are appealing to people of all ages. I also think it has to do with the humanness of the songs. A lot of the songs are about the human experience which is very relatable whether it's political or trying to get to a place of freedom or self-expression. I saw a short interview with Eric Burdon and he was in his 20s when he was in The Animals and he was talking about how he was just trying to express himself and some of his angst and his feelings and I think that still appeals to 20 and 30 year olds. Especially nowadays, possibly because of social media, I think that teens, 20 and 30 year olds are feeling so much more self-conscious that they can't have as much self-expression because everything is filmed, watched, shared and that might be why there is not as much self-expression in clothing or style; when I grew up, the weirder the better. That's certainly not the experience these days; I have a 14 year old and he just wants to fit in, everyone wants to fit in and not stand out. So, now it's the complete opposite and I think people might be craving that again on some level even if they won't admit it because it might get shared on social media but I do think people are missing that. I also think there is something in the songs that connects people so I don't know."
June 14 at The Seafarer in Highlands, NJ is the chance to experience your own personal time travel so until then, just forget about "The dawning of the age of Aquarius" because Aquarius is already here.
To discover more about Aquarius, please visit
https://psychedelicscene.com/2026/05/05/interview-dunja-vonstoddard-of-aquarius/
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
