The Vines
Andrew P Street salutes the return of local heroes, The Vines
Four years ago it all seemed over for The Vines. While touring behind their underperforming second album Winning Days, notoriously mercurial frontman Craig Nicholls had a very public breakdown on stage at the Annandale Hotel, insulting radio station Triple M (who were recording the show for broadcast) and punching a photographer (who pressed charges), while bassist Patrick Matthews walked off stage and out of the band.
Nicholls was subsequently diagnosed with mild autism and the band announced that they would cease their heavy touring schedule. Cue the release of Vision Valley, which failed to match even the diminished returns of its predecessor, before the band's US label Capitol (distributed locally through EMI) let the band go after a contract-fulfilling Best Of.
However, things turned around in 2006 with the news that the band were doing gigs again, including berths at Splendour In The Grass, Homebake and Big Day Out. Now venerable indie Ivy League is releasing their fourth album, Melodia.
"We rehearsed these songs quite a lot before we went in to record them," explains amiable drummer Hamish Rosser. "We had a lot of the songs for about a year, and when we weren't on tour we were in the rehearsal room working on the parts. We just ran over them a lot of times so that when we hit the studio we were really prepared for it."
Was this a particular strategy to give Nicholls a clear-cut routine?
"It was just a healthy work ethic," he shrugs. "I mean, if Craig had his way we'd put out an album every year, but these days with the record business a label wants an album you can tour for a couple of years. But he's already got new songs ready for the next album and he wants to start recording again."
It wasn't an easy process either. "We went to LA to record with our producer Rob [Schnapf] but it turned out that Craig had overstayed on a tourist visa when were making [2002 debut] Highly Evolved, and that came up as a bit of a black flag because we didn't have proper work visas this time," Rosser chuckles. "So he got detained for five or six hours at the airport and eventually they granted him 30 days - and they said we couldn't do any work, which of course we did. We got most of the basic tracks completed and then we went back to finish things off once we got all the US paperwork done. And even though we went back with the proper work visa he still got pulled aside and quizzed the next two times we went back. As I'm sure you're aware US immigration is pretty gnarly," he sighs. "You're better off just digging a tunnel from Mexico."
He's also enthusiastic about life with an independent label after the frustrations of working in a multinational.
"Yeah, Capitol just didn't always get it. I remember the first single for the last album [‘Don't Listen To The Radio'] they went and had the single remixed by some LA dude for ten or 20 grand, and it sounded pretty much exactly the same anyway. So we were going ‘Er, why'd you do that?'" he laughs. "But I'm sure the guy who made the decision has since been fired, along with everyone else from the label. Capitol's pretty much gone. It's all been absorbed and merged - everyone that was at the label when we were there has gone - even the president. Ivy League, they know us well. They know what works best for us and understand us and let us do our thing."
Melodia is out now through Ivy League. Read Time Out's review