The Vines
by Andrew Tijs
With the hubbub that usually surrounds enfant terrible Craig Nicholls and his band of urchins The Vines, the release of album number four Melodia has seemed virtually underground so far. There's been no huge controversies and no slew of singles apart from the typically dopey and addictive He's A Rocker. That said, Nicholls is as perplexing as ever.
"We were on holidays, taking it easy," Nicholls explains at the start of our short and, at times, ungainly conversation. Plus, I assume, you spent some of that entire year off, you know, writing a new album? "We were doing that along the way, I guess."
At least this is understandable, since Melodia is typical of the succinct style of the band. The music has always seemed so compact and simple for The Vines. Again, only one song tops three minutes long as they alternate between their trademarks: effortless rage rockers and dreamy pastoral romps. It's not rocket science. It's rock and roll.
Craig agrees, "It is easy for us." He reasons that being an artist is a permanent holiday, but I'm suspicious of his tone. Can we take this next line as matter-of-fact as it sounded? "That's one of the attractions of being an artist; you get to be stuck up, arrogant, opinioned."
So where do I get off, I attempt to joke, I'm not an artist. "Sorry about that," Nicholls deadpans. "We are."
As much as he says the band have been taking the work seriously, it's true that "waking up at six in the morning's not necessarily going to make you a better singer or a better songwriter." On the last album, the likeable Vision Valley, Nicholls says there was no big plan. Record. Play a couple of shows. "But with this we're going to be doing more shows. With this album. That we've got coming out. In a month or so."
Nicholls use of the word ‘we’ is not arbitrary, either. Despite liner notes attributing all the songwriting to him, The Vines are not something to be regarded wholly as Nicholls' baby – it’s a real band in every sense of the word. "Well, I'm not a solo artist. I don't play the drums. When I say 'we' I just mean the band. Or when I say 'I', I might be meaning the whole band. I'm not good at talking, but I'm good at writing songs.”
Much like The Strokes at the time, when The Vines emerged they were too damn confident, too immediately hyped and successful to appreciate baggage-free. Still, it’s difficult to help loving the wild-eyed mayhem of songs like Highly Evolved and Get Free. Nicholls, however, is not concerned with the chequered history of the band, nor the haters out there who might suggest The Vines never paid their dues.
"That's cool," Nicholls says. "That's what I was saying before, I wasn't joking. You play in a band, and you're an artist, that's the beauty of it. You get to have complete control of what you do and how you do it and approach it. The way I approach playing in a band, because I do write the majority of the songs, just didn't seem you should tour the band so much. You should have songs, write songs, work on that. Demo. Record ourselves. So we were working a lot on that and seemed to come out of nowhere. Playing live wasn't a big thing but it became a big thing because the songs kinda made it happen for us. "
While 2004's Winning Days didn’t enjoy anywhere near the critical acclaim of their debut, by Vision Valley (2006) many were ready to retroactively embrace them for their joyously naïve energy. The man knows how to write a blistering punk tune. And a luscious ballad. Their premature Capitol Records "best of" released a few months ago has been receiving glowing reviews from the same outlets who snidely dismissed the whole albums. Even the haters have to admit that The Vines write genius singles.
Nicholls is still prickly about the criticism. He reminds me of Melodia's press release, noting that UK upstarts Arctic Monkeys and Lightspeed Champion both cite them as influences. "I don't know how many others have done that," he scolds. "And they're really important, regardless of what people say. People who are in bands and make music know what good music is. And for us to do what we've done, it's good music and if people hate it I think that's hilarious and immature. I don't understand how you would hate someone for playing good music unless it was that off-putting. We've sold a couple of million albums. Some people like it so it's good enough for us."
Yet many younger people must be hearing The Vines with little knowledge of the initial chart-storming and stage-smashing, so their view might not be tainted. "I'm not sure of the intellectual side of that. I just know that what we've done, if people want to hate us and have that knee-jerk reaction, it's amusing to me. They haven't toured America and seen Europe and been successful. If that's what people don't like then it's a great example of something for you to realise and not me to point out. I'm just an artist, I'm not a politician."
So, by album number four, is the pressure off now? "Yeah," Nicholls says quickly. "There never really was any pressure. From people saying stuff and everything about us… I'm kinda weird, I know that. A completely normal artist would be dull. I think there's room in the world for us."
"The only hard part is the interviews, explaining the album and because our story is kinda different from most Australian bands."
Given the wild history of The Vines live shows and Nicholls’ past reputation for temperamental performances to say the least, some might have thought last week's MySpace Secret Show for the new album could be deemed almost uneventful…before the frontman gleefully destroyed the drumkit with his guitar, that is. More a display of rock’n’roll abandon that any previous tantrum-throwing, it’s obvious he and the band are in a different more productive space now. Yet when recalling their notorious Letterman "meltdown", Nicholls blankly states: "I'm most proud of that performance than anything else we've done on TV."
Because the singer let himself get caught up in the moment? "I guess so. It wasn't planned. I was backstage crawling around with food all over me and out of it because I was in a completely foreign land. New York's all concrete and I'm used to trees. Big city life isn't for me. But I'm really proud of that. How many times do you see people go on there and reproduce the CD? You become almost immune to it. We didn't plan it, we just really didn't care. Just like brats, I'm a brat. The songwriting is there. We've done good stuff and we're doing really good stuff. So that all to me doesn't really count for much."
For an admittedly suburban boy, it might've been a danger heading back to Hollywood to record Melodica after Vision Valley's comforting Sydney sessions. "I didn't really party or go out," Nicholls shrugs. "It's cool to work there because everything's at arm's reach. I mean you can get a lot of good stuff here but we knew the producer wasn't going to come here."
That producer was Rob Schnapf, responsible for letting the harmonies blossom while preventing complete chaos on their first two albums. After getting Vision Valley out of the way, the choice to return to Schnapf was one that suits their revived enthusiasm for touring and promoting an album full scale. Also, his work on Melodia returns to that razor's edge balancing act between sweet and salty where The Vines are at their best. Returning to that studio "was really emotional, actually," Nicholls muses.
Could he feel the ghosts of the first couple of albums? "I could definitely feel something."
As the band plan the full scale promotion for album number four, Nicholls is dealing well with his Asperger's Syndrome, the condition behind some of his more infamous interactions with the press. "I'm handling it pretty well," he says, explaining he is currently forgoing any mediation, instead choosing to keep himself calm and give himself room. "I try to cope with it the best I can. It's not too much of a mad schedule but we'll definitely be playing around and going overseas. I'm feeling good about it."
Likewise, the singer is philosophical about any possibility that it might flare up in the kind of sticky situations the music industry is renowned for. "I don't want to make things uncomfortable for anyone. I understand it's my personality. But I've been dealing with it pretty well. Making the album, going to America. We did a small American tour while we were over there and it went well. So I'm feeling really positive. I'm sure I can get some space if I need it. I'm really looking forward to playing these new songs and looking forward to fans of the band getting this new album and checking it out."
Even considering the controversy that swirls around The Vines, for them it should be as simple as that.
Source:
http://www.beat.com.au/article.php?id=1425
"Yet when recalling their notorious Letterman "meltdown", Nicholls blankly states: "I'm most proud of that performance than anything else we've done on TV." heh 
