THE VANNS On Tour In Support Of ‘All That’s In My Head’

NSW South Coast four-piece The VANNS are back on the road and half way through their Australian tour. Armed with their new album, All That’s In My Head, the band are heading out for one of their biggest headline tours to date. Known for their dynamic live performances and emotionally charged songwriting, the band has continued to evolve their sound with this new chapter, produced by Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy). The album was recorded across two sessions, one in London following their UK tour, and the other back home in regional New South Wales, capturing the dual energy of life on the road and the comfort of familiar ground. Cameron Little talks to Hi Fi way more about the album.

Congratulations on the new album. It must be a really exciting time since the album came out early October?
Yeah, thank you, man. It’s very exciting, and keen to get on with the tour now and in to early next year.

Are you stoked getting such a high ARIA chart position as well. That must be like the cherry on top?
It does feel good hitting number, it’s a nice thing thing to get. It’s been great that people are liking it.

Were you guys hands-on with the making of the video, or was that up to others to do that?
Well, it was mainly Jaya Talbot, who kind of directed and filmed the whole thing. He’s, like, our general videographer, comes everywhere with us, but yeah, we just went down to Tassie for a week, and we’re just trying a bunch of things, and that’s how that turned out. Video clips are hard to make with a limited budget and make them any good. So, yeah, it’s cool to see that.

Did you approach making this album any differently from what you’ve done before when you’ve come to recording?
A: Yeah, well, we recorded half of it in London, which we’ve never made any music or recorded any music overseas, but Oscar Dawson, who produced the record, lives in London now. We did a UK tour, did two weeks there, recorded half of the album, and then earlier this year, we recorded it just down the road from where we live at a studio. With the last two albums we’ve made, we never record them in Wollongong. We went up to Byron Bay or Melbourne, so it was cool to do it, and go home at the end of the night.

A lot of people seem to work with Oscar these days. What was it about him that you thought he would bring to the making of this album?
I think it’s just because we’re pretty good mates with him at this point, and he kind of gets what we’re trying to do. He’s also guitarist first and foremost, I like that he’s left-handed, I’m a left-handed guitarist, so I get to use his guitars. It’s a level of trust and understanding we have with him, so it’s a pretty cruisy way to make a record with him.

Was it clear in your own mind what you wanted to do with the album, and where you wanted to take it sonically?
Yeah, we have a pretty good idea when we go into it, like. We rehearse it a fair bit before, we don’t just go in and everything happens in the studio, but we’re also open to whatever will happen.

Do you see a lot of progression, or how the sound have evolved between albums?
I think so. I don’t think it’s intentional, though. It’s not like we’re like, oh, we got to make something a bit funkier, it’s just literally whatever we’re writing at the time. I don’t believe we think too much about that. Maybe we should, but it’s whatever kind of comes out at the end. There’s no real concept we go in with that makes sense.

Does that come with just greater confidence and getting better as musicians and songwriters?
Yeah, I think so. I guess it’s similar to the last album, it was live, like, there’s overdubs and stuff, but the first album we ever did through the walls was very put together, if that makes sense. It was very, do the drums, get the drums right, and we’ll do the bass, rather than all play in a room together. I think you can hear it on the record.

Did everything go to plan? Was it relatively uncomplicated, or was there the usual sorts of challenges that come with making an album?
Ugh, always! Well, the biggest challenges are more like when we were in London doing those two weeks, it was after a UK tour, and we were all sharing this tiny apartment for an extra two weeks. Who’s going to sleep on the lounge tonight, who gets an actual bed. That’s more, honestly, like the hardest. Once we’re in the studio, it’s fun. But it’s more like, oh, we’re eating pizza for the fifth day in a row!

Did the songs come easily?
Some of them, some of them take longer. Some did, some didn’t. There’s a song called Strangest to Neighbours, which we had to work on more than a song like Gas Craic, which is another one we just played and then added some stuff. With Strangest to Neighbours we tried to do something with a bit more of an 80s vibe.

Were there any lessons learned that you were really conscious of not repeating this time around?
Not really, honestly. We definitely had time constraints, because with the first session, we had a date when we were leaving the UK, and then the next one’s in Wollongong. We’d fly into the US after that was over, so had to make this record within this amount of time. There wasn’t the luxury of, oh, we’ll just come back to it, keep coming back to it. So, that’s a good and bad thing, I think.

How are you finding the old blending with the new with the live show?
It’s hard now at this point, because we’ve got EPs before that too, and we still want to play one song off an EP from when we were first around. I imagine it’ll change a bit from night to night this time, because we’re not Bruce Springsteen, we’re probably not going to do a three-hour show every night. It’ll be interesting to fix that set list and see what makes it and what doesn’t. Worst problems to have I guess.

What’s next for you guys beyond the tour? Do you go back overseas, or are there other projects on the go?
Probably go back overseas next year. Do some playing over there, and honestly, probably just get stuck into making another record. That’s pretty much it. You make a record, or you tour, or you write the record.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch The Vanns on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…