10th July 2008, 10:00 WST


Last time I spoke to The Vines frontman Craig Nicholls, he was in a serious mood. On the eve of their performance at last year’s Blackjack festival at Claremont Showground and in the wake of his diagnosis with Asperger’s Syndrome — and the subsequent slowing down period for the band — he said the Sydney garage rockers wanted to focus on making good music.

“We want to put out an album a year,” Nicholls said. “Just be productive and do the stuff that counts and not get lost in the rock’n’roll circus.”

Today, however, singer/guitarist for the band that exploded on to the scene with 94 seconds of unhinged garage rock titled Highly Evolved back in 2002 is considerably more impish.

When faced with that quote from last year, he blurts: “I changed my mind actually. I’m more going for the superficial things and the art of it I don’t really care for.”

Cue laughter from the interviewer, Nicholls and rhythm guitarist Ryan Griffiths, who is along for the ride but lets his erratic friend do the talking. Perhaps he’s there to keep Nicholls on message. If that’s the case, he’s doing a poor job.

Either way, Nicholls and Griffiths are in the offices of their new record company, Sydney-based cool rock label Ivy League, to talk up Melodia, their fourth offering of post-grunge garage rock, 60s psychedelia and Beatles-esque pop-rock.

However, the singer sounds more like an extra from 1993 gangsta rap mockumentary CB4 than a globetrotting rock star, despite his faux British accent. “What’s up?” he hollers when we’re connected. “Yeah, represent Perth, boys. We’re on the Sydney side, keeping it real.”

Even in his playful pomp, it is possible to prise some insights about Melodia out of Nicholls.

I suggest the album has a lot of similarities to their 2002 debut Highly Evolved. Track one Get Out has the same explosive energy as Get Free, Kara Jayne possesses the narcoleptic swoon of Mary Jane (not to mention the similar title) and He’s a Rocker throbs to the stop-start punk pulse of Highly Evolved. The band even returned to Los Angeles to work with Rob Schnapf, who produced the debut and unfocused 2004 follow-up Winning Days.

“That’s it, bro,” Nicholls says. “You’re the one who’s got it. Other people don’t know what the f… is going on but you have pointed out, straight off the bat, and I want to congratulate you right there. This is actually the real follow-up to Highly Evolved. I could go in depth about songwriting and time and space and travel and a whole bunch of stuff but it’s meant to be, and it’s where we left off on the first few tracks (of Highly Evolved). We wanted to follow the idea through for the whole album and I think we did it.”

Nicholls, who writes all The Vines’ songs, likes to return to familiar sounds and textures to the extent that the third instalment of woozy acoustic pop number Autumn Shade shows up on Melodia. He likens it to Claude Monet’s Haystacks series and says he revisits the song “because it’s a nice image and I’ve got a few Autumn Shade canvasses left. It means something to me.”

There are a few slight sound shifts among the 14 tracks that made the new album after the band demoed 20 tunes. Manger possesses menacing Led Zep-style rhythms, Jamola is a metal-infused instrumental and the excellent Orange Amber is power pop reminiscent of the La’s and Big Star.

Nicholls and Griffiths say the band have been listening to The Red Walls, Radiohead, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Paul McCartney, Super Furry Animals and, especially, Perth group The Silents while writing and recording Melodia.

They add that the quartet, rounded out by drummer Hamish Rosser and bassist Brad Heald, who joined in the middle of 2006, are finally settled after the turmoil surrounding the departure of founding bassist Patrick Matthews (who now plays with Youth Group) and Nicholls’ public meltdown.

Did they ever feel like the Australian music industry had turned their back on the band? That they were being crumpled up and thrown into the too-hard basket?

“Kind of, yeah,” Nicholls says. “It felt like that for a while but I don’t think it was like that.

“I know I was always going to be writing songs. We weren’t that sure about touring but we’re going to do a bit of that now and gradually more with the album coming out. We’re just really happy to be around and make it to the fourth album.”

Much of Melodia was written before The Vines secured a deal with Ivy League after releasing their first three albums with Capitol. Band manager, Andy Kelly, is a co-owner of the label and part of the Winterman & Goldstein management firm that also represents Jet, Rocket Science and Neon.

Nicholls says that he has always written songs, whether he was working at McDonald’s or had an international record deal.

“I write songs no matter what. When I’m sleeping, I write songs. When I’m eating, I’m writing songs. I can’t stop,” he says. “I was always writing. It f…ing saved my life.”

Nicholls only stays serious for a short time: “We thought Capitol was a really good label but we thought it was time for a change. That, and we got dropped.” Griffiths guffaws.

The Vines have already showcased the new songs at New York venue the Bowery Ballroom — “Lucky there wasn’t a riot while we were playing,” the singer quips — and played a MySpace show in Melbourne last month. They have festival performances coming up at Fuji Rock in Japan and Byron Bay’s Splendour in the Grass, which should be followed by the band’s first decent national tour since last year’s Big Day Out.

The prospect of hitting the road and the uncertainty that entails clearly worries Nicholls. “It’s going to be really mad and I just hope we can make it through because we’re proud of the album,” he says. “We feel like on this album we’ve got a few more hits.

“We take it seriously, despite all the goofing off and all the amazing jokes that we say. It’s pretty serious to us.”

Melodia is out on Saturday.

SIMON COLLINS

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?Men...ContentID=83995

I can just see it how: Autumn Shade VIII
But really, I was a bit skeptical of there being a third AS but I really think it's beautiful!

rhythm guitarist Ryan Griffiths, who is along for the ride but lets his erratic friend do the talking. Perhaps he’s there to keep Nicholls on message. If that’s the case, he’s doing a poor job.



Good god, the boards are drowning in new articles! *yeeeee*

That would be brilliant! I can't decide which one I love the best, so I play them one after the other as a whole piece