While he was on tour around the country, I spoke to a tired Jim Finn, the man on the keys, bass guitar and backing vocals from Sydney’s explosive electro-rock crew Art Vs Science. Like The Presets before them, Art Vs Science are growing in popularity with each song they release – and they don’t even have a full length album out yet! We chat about the new Magic Fountain EP, the video, Splendour, their upcoming stop at Coaster Festival (this weekend!!!) and recent international tour!
You guys haven’t really stopped on this tour, have you?
No! Sunday was our first day off. I think I slept for 16 hours. We’re needing a lot of sleep on this tour.
But you’re having a great time?
Oh definitely. The sleep deprivation is only brought on by ourselves… wanting to go out after the shows and continue the night! There’s really no one else to blame… we’re on tour – where’s the fun in going to bed after a show?
So you’re playing almost exlusively to sold out shows on this tour – how are they treating you? I imagine they’re losing their shit and having a great time?
They are, it’s fantastic! I’m amazed with the response, especially to “The Magic Fountain” (our new single), because when we put that song out – well, it’s a bit intense, a bit different – we weren’t really sure how people would take it. And the reponse we’ve been getting – they’ve been losing their minds as soon as we start playing that song. It’s been really exciting to see those reactions that we’re getting. And everyone’s really enthuastic about the rest of the songs as well. It makes it really fun, easy to do the tour.
Let’s talk now about the new single. It is indeed much more intense than what we’re used to… what led you guys down that road?
I think the initial idea for the song came about when we were at Parklife, just watching a lot of the dance acts, and there was some DJ acts there as well. I think we’d seen Empire of the Sun, and a few others, with this whole mystical theme about them. And from that we said “we should have a song that chants MAGIC… MAGIC… MAGIC – but Magic what? FOUNTAIN! MAGIC FOUNTAIN! That sounds pretty cool. Let’s write a song around that.” And then when we got back (from the Parklife show), we started jamming with this riff.
We knew there was some coolness in the riff, but we didn’t quite have it right. Then when I was doing making some coffee for Dan and Dan, Dan started doing this thing called sidechaining, which is where the kick is so big that is squashes out the bass, and then the bass washes back in after the kick drops out. But we were actually doing this manually by turning the filter down on the keyboard. We thought it sounded cool because it’s what DJs do. But instead of sounding like this… *makes DJ sound effects* is sounds like this… *Makes keyboard soundeffects* (ed note: this is why we need podcasts, isn’t it?).
And the video is amazing, too – how did that come about, and where did you find that amazing old guy?
*laughs* Well Alex Roberts, the guy who directed the clip, he also directed the “Parlez, Vous Francais?” film clip. He’s just got a really creative mind, he’s very much in line with the way we think creatively. So he told us his idea for the Magic Fountain clip and we thought it sounded awesome! I think the old guy is an actor, originally from Poland, who immigrated 10 or 20 years ago, and we were chatting in the car as we went from one location to the next for the shoot, and it was really quite hard to understand him. So we were all listening, trying to piece together what he was saying. Things about the KGB, and fleeing Poland. We couldn’t really understand, so we just smiled and nodded. But he was a really nice guy, and looked really cool in the film clip – fit the part!
And you used a few recognisable spots for Sydney locals…
Yeah, Paddington, Sydney, near the school over in Surry Hills.
A fun shoot?
Yeah. Well it was actually different to the “Parlez, Vous Francais?” one because we weren’t actually there for a lot of it. We trusted Alex’s vision, we knew it would be awesome, so we didn’t really have to be there. Let him do what he wanted. Although we have a cameo as workmen at one point. We did a little dance, and you can tell it’s us, because we’re no where near as good as the other dancers.
And this time around, now that we’ve got a bit more success, people seem to know our band a bit. So we put out a call to dance schools, asking if anyone wanted to be a part of the clip, and some people who knew our band said yes, and were really enthusiasic and happy to be a part of it for free, so we could keep the budget down!
Let’s look back now to Splendour 2010 – every year you play it just gets bigger and bigger for you guys. I mean 2008 was really where it all started for you thanks to Triple J Unearthed. So how was the experience this year?
It was really fun, amazing ot get to play at nightime as well. Because when we play our own tour, we’re playing at 1030ish, so everyone’s had a few drinks and a bit rowdy. But then we usually play festivals areound 3 or 4 – so it’s early afternoon and people aren’t as crazy as they are in the nighttime. So it was really cool to play to, i guess, the drunker people at a festival *laughs*! And to see the change, and how excited everyone is. Because I know what we’re like at a festival. At 3 we’re still hungover fromn the night before, but by the time the sun sets, we’re well and truly ready to party.
You’ve got a few big festival shows coming up too! Coaster Festival is just around the corner, for starters.
Yeah that’s going to be totally cool.
It’s your first time playing it isn’t is?
Yeah, we’ve never played it before. But I’ve known about it and heard about it and seen the lineup in past years, and always thought it’d be awesome to get to play it. And now this year we get to! So we’re really looking forward to it.
And what can we expect at the show? Any surprises up your sleeve?
I think if there were any plans, I’d have to keep them top secret. We don’t like to reveal too much about our shows, until we’re on the stage. I think we’ll be trying out some of our new songs though, but I’m sure you can expect to hear some of the well known ones as well. But other than that I think we like to keep it fairly quiet to keep those surprises safe up our sleeves!
You recently completed your first overseas tour – how did that go?
It was really fun! We played one show in LA, which was cool because we got to play at this club called Whiskey a Go Go, which is where Motley Crew and Guns and Roses and The Doors and all these amazing bands have played. But it was playing to a bunch of industry people, who don’t really get into it the way we’re used to crowds. So that was kind of fun to play there. But then we went to the UK and played a bunch of shows in London. We played three shows at the Camden Crawl (festival), and our own headline show in London. We got a bunch of our old friends who had moved over there to come and see us. And we even got to play with Groove Armarda in Brighton.
I didn’t hear about that! That’s wicked.
Yeah it was cool. And the first show we did in London was part of the Camden Crawl and unannounced, so we went into this pub full of British people. And that was cool, because we didn’t want to go over and play to Australians, because we can do that here. So it was really cool to play to a bunch of British people who’d never heard us before.
Didn’t know what to expect. it was really funny to watch them sipping on their beers, going, what the hell is this!? But we got a lot of them cheering and dancing by the end of it, so it was cool to try and win some new fans. We really went back to how we started out – thinking before the show “let’s try to impress this crowd and blow people away and try to get some new fans”.
So before we depart, we have to talk about the upcoming full length. Last time we spoke I believe you were calling it “Human Powered Animals”?
We actually don’t know what we’re calling it yet! That’s just the name of one of the songs we’ve been working on. So that’s something we’ve still got to work out. But I think we’re aiming for a February or March release. Last time we were aiming for July *laughs* and we all know that didn’t work out. So hopefully our aim is a little better this time.
Don’t miss Art Vs Science when they hit up Coaster Festival in Gosford this weekend, September 25th! Tickets, as of writing this article, are still available. And if you miss that, they’ll no doubt be around all summer – with Field Day, on New Years Day in Sydney, one of the shows confirmed so far!
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Field Day Tickets can be purchased here: http://bit.ly/eS4VNe
New Years Day, Sydney Domain, Midday – 11pm
More information about Field Day can be found here: http://www.fuzzy.com.au/
