It’s been almost a decade since their debut album ‘Highly Evolved’ crashed onto the music scene and forced the rock world to prick up its ears. But during that time, The Vines have become almost as well known for their well documented misfortunes as for their cranking sound - a sound widely regarded as having re-lit the fire in the belly of Aussie rock.
Now, after a ten year rollercoaster ride of heady ups (gracing the cover of Rolling Stone, top 10 albums in the US, UK, Japan and Australia, album sales in the millions), and dismal downs (cancelled gigs and a love/hate relationship with local and international press that nearly derailed the band), The Vines are back. But this time they’re doing things a little differently, stripping back the sound that defined them and experimenting with an electro-tinged dance flavour.
We sat down with lead singer Craig Nicholls and bassist Brad Heald to talk retrospect, what they really think of The Strokes, and why the Future is Primitive.
MTV: So tell us about your new album ‘Future Primitive’?
Craig: Yeah its our fifth album, and we did it with Chris Colona from The Bumblebees. We're really happy with it.
MTV: We hear you’ve branched into more a dance music feel?
Craig: Yeah, working with Chris and his knowledge of making dance music, we were able to use some cool effects.
Brad: It’s a bit of a spacier sort of futuristic sound, but still song based. We have The Vines songs in there that have always been influenced by the 60's bands so both of those sounds exist.
MTV: So will you continue with that dance influenced sound in the future?
Craig: Its hard to say where we are going in the future. For now we’re doing more of a mix…
Brad: It will always be a guitar sort of based band, but we do like experimenting with different sonic things, and mucking round with sounds and stuff. But I don't think we will be a full blown out dance band, or go to Ibiza and play shows there! I think that's where we're at at the moment, but who knows.
Craig: I don't. (laughs)
MTV: Your first single off this album 'Gimmie Love' clocks in at about 1.50 so can we expect more short fast loud tracks? What’s the motive behind that?
Craig: On the album a lot of the songs are around two minutes, there’s a few 3.5 minute songs but yeah, were just keeping it very simple with a lot of the songs. The motive behind the shorter songs is that there is no motive, it's an unconscious thing, just our style.
MTV: What was it like getting back in the studio?
Craig: Getting back in the studio was great and the process was really quick so that was nice, and it was a good time…
Brad: We were very prepared as well, we demoed the songs quite a bit originally with Chris, so instantly from the kick off we had a good relationship with him so we got the songs done. Because we knew Chris so well, we had time to spend on making them sound extra good, like extra special and add different sort of spacey sounds and stuff which was cool.
MTV: Are you ready to take your tour overseas?
Craig: Yeah we've got a lot of tours coming up and we’re looking forward to that. We’re preparing for our tours by just rehearsing and thinking about the things that we don't want to do as opposed to the things we do want to do because we want to keep it fresh.
MTV: In the early 2000s you and bands such as The Strokes and The Hives were billed as “the saviours of rock”. What did you make of all the hype?
Craig: Well I thought it was pretty accurate yeah, (laughs) i thought obviously about what i was doing and my ambitions, and i thought The Strokes were really good, so I thought it was nice that people were paying attention to bands again and that we were one of them.
MTV: What do you think of the new Strokes album?
Craig: The new Strokes album is really great, I think it's really cool that they're back together.
MTV: You guys have been together for a decade - what advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time?
Craig: I would say … I don't know what I would say! I thought everything went pretty well and i wouldn't want to change anything, so i would probably ignore myself if i went back in time.
Brad: Yeah it would be pretty scary to see a ghost of yourself so i would probably not scare myself.
The Vines new album ‘Future Primitive’ is out now! Have you had a listen? Let us know what you think by commenting below!
In the meantime, check out more from the Aussie rockers in the video below…
Now, after a ten year rollercoaster ride of heady ups (gracing the cover of Rolling Stone, top 10 albums in the US, UK, Japan and Australia, album sales in the millions), and dismal downs (cancelled gigs and a love/hate relationship with local and international press that nearly derailed the band), The Vines are back. But this time they’re doing things a little differently, stripping back the sound that defined them and experimenting with an electro-tinged dance flavour.
We sat down with lead singer Craig Nicholls and bassist Brad Heald to talk retrospect, what they really think of The Strokes, and why the Future is Primitive.
MTV: So tell us about your new album ‘Future Primitive’?
Craig: Yeah its our fifth album, and we did it with Chris Colona from The Bumblebees. We're really happy with it.
MTV: We hear you’ve branched into more a dance music feel?
Craig: Yeah, working with Chris and his knowledge of making dance music, we were able to use some cool effects.
Brad: It’s a bit of a spacier sort of futuristic sound, but still song based. We have The Vines songs in there that have always been influenced by the 60's bands so both of those sounds exist.
MTV: So will you continue with that dance influenced sound in the future?
Craig: Its hard to say where we are going in the future. For now we’re doing more of a mix…
Brad: It will always be a guitar sort of based band, but we do like experimenting with different sonic things, and mucking round with sounds and stuff. But I don't think we will be a full blown out dance band, or go to Ibiza and play shows there! I think that's where we're at at the moment, but who knows.
Craig: I don't. (laughs)
MTV: Your first single off this album 'Gimmie Love' clocks in at about 1.50 so can we expect more short fast loud tracks? What’s the motive behind that?
Craig: On the album a lot of the songs are around two minutes, there’s a few 3.5 minute songs but yeah, were just keeping it very simple with a lot of the songs. The motive behind the shorter songs is that there is no motive, it's an unconscious thing, just our style.
MTV: What was it like getting back in the studio?
Craig: Getting back in the studio was great and the process was really quick so that was nice, and it was a good time…
Brad: We were very prepared as well, we demoed the songs quite a bit originally with Chris, so instantly from the kick off we had a good relationship with him so we got the songs done. Because we knew Chris so well, we had time to spend on making them sound extra good, like extra special and add different sort of spacey sounds and stuff which was cool.
MTV: Are you ready to take your tour overseas?
Craig: Yeah we've got a lot of tours coming up and we’re looking forward to that. We’re preparing for our tours by just rehearsing and thinking about the things that we don't want to do as opposed to the things we do want to do because we want to keep it fresh.
MTV: In the early 2000s you and bands such as The Strokes and The Hives were billed as “the saviours of rock”. What did you make of all the hype?
Craig: Well I thought it was pretty accurate yeah, (laughs) i thought obviously about what i was doing and my ambitions, and i thought The Strokes were really good, so I thought it was nice that people were paying attention to bands again and that we were one of them.
MTV: What do you think of the new Strokes album?
Craig: The new Strokes album is really great, I think it's really cool that they're back together.
MTV: You guys have been together for a decade - what advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time?
Craig: I would say … I don't know what I would say! I thought everything went pretty well and i wouldn't want to change anything, so i would probably ignore myself if i went back in time.
Brad: Yeah it would be pretty scary to see a ghost of yourself so i would probably not scare myself.
The Vines new album ‘Future Primitive’ is out now! Have you had a listen? Let us know what you think by commenting below!
In the meantime, check out more from the Aussie rockers in the video below…
Copyright : MTV Australia
