Most audiophiles are probably familiar with VAC/Valve Amplification Company, and you may have met Kevin Hayes, VAC’s owner, and president. He’s the man behind products like the recently introduced VAC Statement 450i iQ integrated amplifier. Darlene Monteiro-Hayes, Kevin’s wife, is very much a part of the VAC team contributing more than you might imagine.
Darlene and I have visited at audio shows and developed a friendship, so she was at the top of my list to interview when I started the Women in Audio series. What I didn’t know was that this incredibly smart and talented woman has quite a story that’s prepared her for what she does at VAC today. Kevin, you found a gem when you met Darlene!
Darlene is very much a self-made individual who took advantage of opportunities and was determined to make something of her life. As the oldest child in her multi-cultural family, she was raised in public housing by a single mom. She says she told herself, “There’s got to be something more out there.” A gifted art student, she started working at 16. With her talent in art, she spent a number of years working in graphics and advertising for a major newspaper. At one point in her life, she owned her own advertising company. She’s also had a second career as a certified nurse’s assistant (CNA) and earned two associate’s degrees in the medical field.
Meeting Kevin
Kevin and Darlene met through a friend at their church. In fact, they actually met twice, and as Kevin says, “Thank God for second chances.” Darlene says, “A friend of mine introduced us, and we had a couple of dates. It just didn’t click.” About 10 years later the same friend re-introduced them by asking Kevin, “Do you remember Darlene?” He said no, but Darlene laughing admits she did have a completely different hairstyle. After this second meeting, she says she knew within a month that they were going to get married.
One funny story she told me about their early days occurred the first time Kevin came over to her house. She was learning to play the piano and her musician friends had recommended that she buy a professional quality boom box because with it she would be able to hear what a piano really sounds like. At that time she really didn’t know what Kevin did for a living. “I did know he worked in music, but I didn’t know what it was that he did. I knew he was responsible, and I wasn’t concerned about his employment.” She says he took one look at the boom box and asked her about it. She explained that was how she listened to music. She says, “He looked at me and just about turned his head. It was like he was thinking, I have to teach her.”
Working at VAC
After they married, Kevin asked her to come to work for the company saying, “Darlene, you have a background in all the computer programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, MAC, etc. I need you.” She says she had friends who asked her if she was out of her mind when she made the decision to work at VAC with Kevin. In fact, it took her a solid year to get her head and her heart aligned to make that move.
At VAC, Darlene is responsible for the company’s marketing. She does all of the documentation for the amps and the technical drawings, graphics, and advertising working with programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign on a MAC platform to create full-color illustrations. “I actually draw the insides and work with all the techs and assemblers to build each amp so that we can have a visual representation of the product to send to someone.” She is also learning web programs to be able to work on the company’s website. Laughing she says, “I’m relatively inexpensive. I’m a cheap date.”
Learning the Audio Business
While Darlene is confident she has the skills and ideas to help the business, she says, “I told Kevin I don’t want to be the lead. I don’t like being the focal person. I can be the nucleus and have things rotate around me and I enjoy that. So this fits us perfectly.”
VAC is still a very much an artisan environment with about 10 employees. At first, she says, working in this environment felt like someone had picked her up and thrown her in the water and yelled, “Swim.” Now she says it’s amazing just to watch the process.
Talking to her and watching her eyes light up, I can tell Darlene has a real love for what she’s a part of these days. “The people that make these electronics place so much love into this equipment. I look at these designs all the time, and I touch the equipment, and I can feel how nice it is. I can feel the care that went into it and the excitement. When I first touched Kevin’s amps, they felt like silk, and when I looked at his technical drawings they were incredible,” she says.
The Audio Business
Her love for music has also changed. “I’m learning every day. I didn’t know music sounded like it does with a good amp and speakers and everything else. When it works perfectly, it sings. There’s a song, a ballet, you can feel it and see it. Before, I thought my little boom box was real.” Thinking back she added, “The first time I listened to Kevin’s amp, we were listening to Nat King Cole, and I never knew his voice was so beautiful.”
Describing their latest product, the VAC Statement 450i iQ integrated amp that was released this past year and that we covered in our RMAF 2018 posts here, she says, “When they put that together it was like their baby was born. I was sitting in front of this, and I was watching this thing being built slowly and things being taken apart because it didn’t sound quite right. It was just incredible. This is all a labor of love throughout the whole process.”
Summing up our conversation, Darlene says, “Kevin is VAC. I’m only there to help him.” But she also adds that she enjoys meeting the people at audio shows and other events. “I like finding out what their needs are. I would like to have VAC explode throughout the world. People are starting to notice us.”
Thanks, Darlene, for sharing your story. And for The Audio Beatnik readers, the next time you see Darlene at a show, say hello. I’m so glad that I’ve gotten to know this incredible lady!
