Van She

Fri 24th Jul, 2009 in Features

My first exposure to Van She came at Manning Bar in Sydney. Despite having only heard their name in passing, I had a few preconceptions. The word – œelectro’, love it or hate it, followed them around. However, as the mellow tones and melodic strumming of Memory Man beamed across the room, it seemed not all was how it appeared on the shiny package.

It was a slightly confusing introduction, but one that was easy to get used to. Van She’s debut album, V, sounded much more rock/pop despite being categorised by most record stores as electronica. The mistake is easy to make, as the remixes of Van She Tech have found their way into every Sydney club night for the past few years.

When I spoke to Nick Routledge he instantly understood my uncertainty. “At heart, we have always sort of sounded electro. When we play live we don’t sound like that. In our head it’s not such a big change. We were being managed by a company that had engineers that wanted to push us in a rock direction. We sat back and thought the manager thinks best and just played what they wanted us to play. Now we are no longer working with them. It’s lot better for us, as they had no idea what we wanted.”

At the behest of Modular, V was remixed and re-released as the comically titled Ze Vemixes. Nick is adamant that the release does not herald any new direction for the band, but was simply an interesting project that they decided to take on. “We naturally play synths every day and we are quite comfortable doing it. Our record label said it would be a good idea to remix our record. So that was a point they raised. We had six weeks to do and it seemed like a logical choice.” In essence Van She is taking on the sound originally intended by its members. Ze Vemixes is an indication of what is to come.

To go with the remixed album, Van She have also refreshed their live set to suit Ze Vemixes. “It’s actually a lot more comfortable,” Nick explains. “I guess we wanted to change from the typical band set up. We were all getting really bored with it. It just felt a bit mediocre.”

Now Van She are set to hit the Coaster Festival in September after the manic Ze Vemixes national tour. “We are probably gonna play the Ze Vemixes show because it’s the most fun. But we will probably play a mixture of that and our original set.”

Nick was tight lipped on future releases, but made it clear that as Van She returns to its electronic roots the musicianship of live performances will have to be maintained with the use of analogue gear. “We have been working on stuff all the time. When I think of electro, I cringe. It makes me think of spandex. Our music has changed a lot as we have developed as people.

“We spend a lot of time behind mixing desks so our writing is a lot more production-oriented. We used to have trouble going from the studio to the stage. It’s just all about planning. Our ultimate goal is to try and limit the digital information and to have it all analogue, both in the studio and live.”

Van She play Coaster Festival at Gosford Showgrounds on Saturday 12 September, proudly presented by FasterLouder. Check out the line-up so far.