Art Vs Science Interview

Dan McNamee, Dan Williams and Jim Finn make up Art vs Science, an Australian band bursting with Electronic Dance. ARIA Award-winning for Best Independent Release with ‘The Experiment’ and an enviable spirit on a live stage, this threesome are well known for their bass-throbbing, fist-pumping anthems that make for an incredible festival highlight. Heavy on the festival scene this year, the boys are making their way up north for North West Festival in Port Hedland and will be heading to Splendour In The Grass for their third appearance at the Sydney music bonanza, where crowds will be treated to ‘Parlez Vous Francais?’, ‘Higher’ and the latest, ‘Create/Destroy’. With a growing interest in this exciting group, we chatted to Jim about their new music, awesome live set ideas and being taken home by the police at 5.30am!

So Jim, how’s life treating you?
Life’s treating me well!

Where are you at the moment?
I’m in Sydney, just driving down to Bowral – it’s about an hour south of Sydney. Then I’m coming back this afternoon to record some vocals for a brand new song we’re demo-ing. Very exciting.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the song?
We only wrote it a couple of weeks ago… It doesn’t exist anywhere except live when we play it. Dan’s our guitarist and he’s found this really, really cool sound on his guitar, and it’s got these cool chords – it’s just got a catchy vibe and everyone was dancing around to it at the weekend. We’re looking forward to getting it out there, so we thought we should get on it and record a version.

You’re heading up to Port Hedland for the North West Festival. How are you looking forward to escaping the southern winter?
It’s going to be great. Sydney actually at the moment has been awesome – the last eight or so days has been perfect blue skies. It’s been bloody cold, but it’s been really, really nice weather.

Being such a distance from Sydney when you get up there, and surrounded by the outback, do you get a chance to discover the northern parts of Oz much?
Yeah, we’ve started doing a thing where when we go away on tour and play festivals, instead of just staying there for the night we usually try to stay for a few more days, look around and do cool adventurous things. When we were in Tasmania, we did this thing called the overland trek, which is like this six-day hike through the wilderness of Tasmania. It was an amazing experience and we camped every night along the trek. If there’s that sort of thing up near Port Hedland, we’ll probably do something akin to that.

You have an awesome, distinct sound of Electronic Dance with tonnes of attitude; what sort of show can the crowd expect?
I think they can probably expect a lot of dancing, a lot of us moving around! We’ve been working on all these new songs, and they’ve been getting a good reception so far. So yeah, a lot of new stuff but also the old stuff that people like. And hopefully some fresh new outfits too.

Will there be any new and unheard music? Is there an album to follow the Create/Destroy EP?
We’re thinking of another EP later in the year, but maybe we’ll do an album, we’re not too sure. We’ll see what happens as it happens. I guess it’s that romantic image of a band releasing an album, and I think we’d all like to release one, but it’s whether it’s the right choice to make as a band. People don’t consume music the same way they used to so maybe an EP would be a better way to do it. We’re just still working through what the best approach is and how best to get our music out there… When we make that decision then we’ll see whether an EP or album comes out.

North West marks the end of your August tour, so what are your plans after the gig?
Dan Mac is going straight over to Burning Man Festival in the US after that gig. All three of us have been a couple of years ago, and it was an amazing experience chilling out in the desert with 70,000 people – it’s sort of a glimpse into a utopia that humanity could be if everyone was good to each other. It’s something we all want to do again. Other than that I think we’ve got some more shows in September, and we’re thinking of heading over to the US around October. Lots of plans.

Prior to North West, you’re returning to Splendour In The Grass on 26th July. We spotted your surprise on your blog; can you give us a clue as to what the blueprints will create on stage?
For Splendour In The Grass we’re making these giant crystals to go on stage. The tallest will be about 3-and-a-half meters high and they’re going to be wrapped in fabric and have lights underneath them that’ll pulsate and change colour. I think it’s really fun building your own stage props and being really involved in the whole artistic approach of the band rather than just thinking “oh yeah lets have this on stage” and getting someone to make it. It’s more fun to imagine an idea and create it yourself. You really feel more of a sense of accomplishment. I think we’ll be doing more of that in the future too.

You had a bit of trouble getting to your hotel in Queensland recently, that you had to have a police escort! What happened?
Haha! It was really late at night, me and the guys were at this after party kicking on ‘til about 5.30am, and I was like “OK, I’m going to make my way back to the hotel”. I couldn’t find where to get a cab so I was sort of wandering the streets trying to find somewhere and a police car drove past. I waved them down and asked them how to get back to my hotel. I was still in my stage kit and told them what band I’m in and they were like ‘no way man we love that band, yeah hop in and we’ll drive you home’. Then this carload of people pulled up next to us and I think they recognised me and it looked like I’d been arrested by the cops. I just gave them a wave and we pulled off.

Will you be heading on a UK and European tour any time soon?
We’d love to head over there. We haven’t done much over in Europe. We’ve done a few shows in the UK but things in America seem to be going a bit better for us at the moment. If we got released over there and something happened we’d love to go on tour there. We all really love Europe quite a lot – it’s just a beautiful place full of amazing people. The sooner we can get over there the better, we can’t talk highly enough of it.

When you’re touring, is it like one big party? Do the three of you get up to any mischief?
We love going out and having a big party after we’ve played, but if you’ve got a show the next day you don’t want to party too hard – you’ve got people who like your music and have paid money to come see you so you want to put on a good show. If you party too hard you throw your voice out and run out of steam and do silly things. Like once in Camden after Groovin The Moo, we were walking back from the festival and were crossing one of the bridges in town. Dan thought it would be a good idea to jump off the bridge, but he didn’t realise this river is infested with crocodiles, and he didn’t check the depth like you should. Luckily for him there was a load of soft mud at the bottom and his feet plunged straight in. He didn’t hurt himself but he was stuck in the mud with his head under the water and couldn’t break free. All these people were running down to the water, stripping off and were going to jump in and swim after him. After about thirty seconds he managed to wiggle his legs from the mud and swim to the surface. He learnt his lesson not to party to the point where you do stupid things. We were like, “Dan you can’t do that, we need you to drum in our band.”

If you could describe your music in three words, which would you choose?
Psychedelic. Electronic. Imagination.

Where do your inspirations come from with regards to the sound you make?
When you get a new toy or a new effects peddle, you get really inspired. It really excites you to see what new sounds you’ll be making – you’ll come up with new sounds that you think are really cool, and make songs around those. I think that’s one of the biggest inspirations. Obviously, going and seeing concerts and seeing a band play, when they do something really clever, and when something really makes you go “that was awesome”. I guess also inspiration from general life, like going around, going out, having things happen, I think living is the most inspiration of all.

Besides musical ability, what do each of you bring to Art vs Science?
I bring pizza, if it’s called for. Sometimes Dan Mac will bring a nice bottle of wine, and Dan Williams will just bring his goofy self. That accompanied with some music really makes for a great time.

Thanks, Jim!

By Matthew Richards

Want to find out more about North West Festival? Check out the full line-up and details here.

Watch the video to Art Vs Science ‘Create/Destroy’