TWEN band members Ian Jones and Jane Fitzsimmons on the beach in St. Johns County | Mego Lockett, submitted
Published on October 27, 2025 at 4:44 pm
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A pop-rock group led by a married couple traveling the country in their camper van says Vilano Beach and Jacksonville played a pivotal role in their forthcoming album’s production.
Ever since they became “nomadic,” as Jane Fitzsimmons puts it, she and her partner — in life and in music — Ian Jones have tried to spend their winters in Florida. The two, who front the DIY band TWEN, built their camper during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and saw it as the perfect opportunity to return to a place they came to love while touring with their band.
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“The second we finished it, January 2021, we beelined to St. Augustine, Florida, because that was like our dream of, ‘We’re gonna be there,’” Fitzsimmons tells Jacksonville Today.
From Vilano Beach with love
Fitzsimmons says a friend asked if she and Jones would be interested in looking after her home (and cat) in Vilano Beach. They jumped on the opportunity to write and record the forthcoming Fate Euphoric, their third full-length album, there.
“For about two months, that’s where we finished the record and just went to the beach every day, and it was just a beautiful time,” Fitzsimmons says. “I wish I was there right now.”
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It’s not the first time the Sunshine State has been a part of TWEN’s music — in 2023, the band released a beach-infused song called “SeaStar” inspired by time the two spent at Indian Rocks Beach near St. Petersburg.
The band fell in love with the First Coast after a tour stop at grilled cheese pub Sarbez! in St. Augustine when they were just “a baby band,” Fitzsimmons says.
“The culture in St. Augustine is so surprising to me as well because it sometimes feels like a Nashville equivalent, but only in the best way, in the sense that you hear live music all over Downtown,” she says. “You don’t see that everywhere. And it’s like that beach bum, you know, off-the-beaten-track kind of person that I think we connect with.”
A special place in Jacksonville
In addition to Vilano Beach, a Jacksonville landmark played a part in the development of TWEN’s new album, too.
The band visited Jacksonville while touring earlier this year to play a show at Kona Skatepark, which opened in 1977 and is considered the oldest operating commercial skate park in the country.
In addition to performing at the venue tucked inside of the skate park, the band shot a music video for their new song “Godlike” that includes local skaters and other people who attended TWEN’s Jacksonville show.
That song is about feeling powerless amid the heightening political tensions of the 2020s, they say.
TWEN, named for a German slang term for people in their twenties, has a sound that’s at once modern and nostalgic. Per the band, it’s “1965, 1995 and 2025 all at the same time.”
Fate Euphoric will be available on music streaming platforms Nov. 4. In addition to vocals, guitar and songwriting from Fitzsimmons and Jones, the album features Asher Horton on guitar, Camden Pink on bass and Forrest Raup on drums.
