Van She have been around for forever and a day – yet they’re only just starting to come to greater attention around the globe with the release of their debut album, V, garnering adulation on blogs from here to seemingly everywhere.
The band first appeared with an EP three years ago, but the time and care taken crafting their debut has allowed them to create something that, frontman Nick Routledge believes, will hold them in good stead for the future.
It’s just as well – with labelmates Wolfmother breaking up/becoming a band in name only (frontman Andrew Stockdale is the only one continuing on as part of the group in the wake of their acrimonious split post-Splendour in the Grass), Van She suddenly have a whole lot more pressure on the release of their album, which is similarly coming out via the hip Modular label.
“I haven’t spoken to them since they played,” he says cautiously, picking his words, “and I’m not really one to gossip, so I don’t like all that hoo-ha.”
But, given that their label’s flagship band have broken up, does it put any extra pressure on V to perform well commercially? “I don’t know about from a label’s perspective,” Nick avers, “but from an artist’s perspective it doesn’t really put any pressure on me whatsoever. It puts pressure on me as a person when I see those guys [the label bosses] and I say, ‘Hey, sorry to hear about what’s happened’, but the end of Wolfmother is such a huge story and it’s the end of a great period, but…”
He pauses, before summing it up: “Life goes on, so who gives a fuck. Albums are albums and they’re either significant or they’re not. For me, being in Van She, it’s not significant – we do what we do and we’re totally different so there’s not really any pressure.”
When it came time to make V, the band worked with noted English producer Jim Abbiss, with the band heading to the United Kingdom to work on it. The original plan was actually to work with French electro producers Cassius, but the timing wasn’t quite right and that plan was abandoned. Instead, the band worked with a far more standard pop-rock producer to create V, lending it a far heavier, more ‘live’ sound than was originally envisioned.
“I’d liked what he had done,” Nick explains of their eventual choice of producer, “even though what he had done was different to what we were doing. We butted heads for the first few weeks, but we went into [the Kinks] Ray Davies’ studio, Konk, and just recorded. By the end of it we were best mates.”
The end result is a shimmering electro-pop feast tinged with an occasional harder edge, with guitars and keyboards meshed together as one. Obviously if the album had been made with Cassius it would have sounded completely different. “It’s like eating at a different restaurant,” Nick surmises. A French one, no doubt.
Unsurprisingly, V draws comparisons with the likes of Phoenix, a French pop group who make similarly immediate music with a distinctly synth-heavy bent. “Our first album is like pop meets krautrock,” Nick beams proudly, “and because we took such a long time to get it out and do it [right] it’s really diverse.”
The opening cut, Memory Man, begins the album with a very cinematic sensibility, coming on all Radiohead-like and full of moody sonic dreamscapes. “We wrote a bunch of songs over a three year period where over six months we’d be into psychedelic stuff, like Pink Floyd, and quite cinematic soundtracks, then we’d get into poppy French house period, and then quite a grungy period listening to My Bloody Valentine,” Nick explains as to how they’ve come up with the varied ideas captured on V.
“The album title, V, stands for ‘Video’ because most of the songs and some of the track titles reference movies directly,” he explains. “A song like Virgin Suicides is a direct reference to the movie by Sofia Coppola. It’s such a great movie and had such a great feel to it.”
Why look to film for inspiration – do you see Van She as a very cinematic enterprise? “Yeah, definitely,” he enthuses. “I grew up watching movies – I don’t have a TV connection so I’ll rent seven movies a week and that’s my visual staple, and I’ve done that for the last five years of my life. A lot of what we [as a band] first connected on was music in movies.”
Van She’s V is out now, with the band launching it around the nation. Check out the dates below.
Thu Aug 28th – Brisbane – The Met
Fri ay Aug 29th – Coolangatta – Coolangatta Hotel
Sat Aug 30th – Coffs Habour – Coffs Hotel
Sun Aug 31st – Geelong – Club 4 Play
Wed Sep 3rd – Wyong – Chilli Lounge
Thu Sep 4th – Manly – Manly Fisho’s
Fri Sep 5th – Adelaide – Fowlers
Sat Sep 6th – Perth – The Capital
Sun Sep 7th – Fremantle – Fly By Night Club
Wed Sep 10th – Moorooduc – Peninsula Lounge
Thu Sep 11th – Ballarat – Karova Lounge
Fri Sep 12th – Melbourne – The Prince
Sat Sep 13th – Launceston – Reality
Sun Sep 14th – Hobart – Curlys
Thu Sep 18th – Newcastle – Cambridge Hotel
Fri Sep 19th – Sydney – The Forum
Sat Sep 20th – Parramatta – The Roxy
Sun Sep 21st – Maitland – Hunter Valley Brewery
Wed Sep 24th – Canberra – Anu Uni
Thu Sep 25th – Wollongong – Woolongong Uni
Fri Sep 26th – Carringbah – Bizzos’
