🟥 This article is translated from French.

Maybe this is the band that everyone has been waiting for since Nirvana. Between teenage angst and sophisticated melodies, the first album of these Australians may convince the greatest number of people. As a bonus, their singer-songwriter Craig Nicholls is a little star in the making who flirts dangerously with madness. Flight over a cuckoo's nest, here we are.

A shaggy kid is pacing the Manchester University stage. Looking a little lost, he's chain smoking and ruffles his hair nervously. Between two shy invectives ("Can you turn up my microphone, please?"), He sticks out his tongue and looks around like that, for no apparent reason. It's June 23, in Manchester, in the middle of The Vines soundcheck and the shaggy kid with the good round face is the star we needed. 2002 will be the year of Craig Nicholls and his band The Vines, as 2001 was the vintage Casablanca / Strokes. Two reasons to explain the soon generalized enthusiasm: firstly "Highly Evolved", the brilliant first album of these Australians recorded in Los Angeles with Rob Schnapf ("Mellow Gold" of Beck) carom Nirvana and The Kinks with an insane sonic rage. Next, Craig Nicholls, is psychiatrically strange. He's even uh ... oh yes, a little crazy! Relegating the pathological asocial Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) to the rank of amiable joker, Craig Nicholls embodies the one and genuine bizarre of rock 2002.

CALIMERO GRUNGE

Good sign: at 23 (sic), Craig Nicholls already terrifies press officers and journalists. Being a fascinating songwriter, this primal scream enthusiast who smacks of teenage spirit can be extravagant. Sometimes he cancels an interview when the emotional stake seems too strong to him. Sometimes he speaks freely about suicide (anecdote reported by NME) and, above all, nothing prevents him from barricading himself in the toilets because of an anxiety attack at the time to go on stage. 

Our man with the head of Calimero revised and corrected grunge is therefore a great phobic. He hates airplanes. He would like cars to be banned. On the other hand, he does not spit on joints (smoked in astronomical quantities, it seems) nor on funk food (one of his obsessions). Good, good, good, your case interests us, Mr. Nicholls. So lie down here if you don't mind... 

Rumor has it that Craig Nicholls attended some mental institutions in his hometown of Sydney. It was the discovery of music that saved him - temporarily - from his demons. Because before plunging into Nirvana, The Beatles and The Kinks, Craig Nicholls did not know what to do with his life. With exception of a flipping job (pleonasm) at McDonald's 9 years ago (where, moreover, he met the future bassist Patrick Matthews), Nicholls has always fled from the adult world. Described as taciturn, our young hero prefers to lock himself in his teenage room and spend hours doing nothing rather than busying himself. "There is only music that can prevent my mind from wandering", he confirms. Before adding, melancholy: "I don't know much to do other than dreaming!"

Manchester public is therefore getting ready tonight to celebrate the new westernmost rock star of the time and his band capable of making people forget The Strokes, The White Stripes and co. Almost a month before the release of a debut album which should mark 2002, the hall is sold out. 

At Manchester University, the audience is mostly young. Two looks are de rigueur: leather jacket / tie worn by Strokesian clones - it has been said wrongly that The Vines are "the australian Strokes" - and the shriveled hair with gel which is all the rage among fans of footballer David Beckham.

ADOLESCENT SCHIZOPHRENIA

9:10 p.m .: The Vines takes the stage. The band sets off from the start in an insanely cool "Outtathaway" with its 2002 "Smells Like thingamajig" tunes. Craig Nicholls belches, moves in all directions, bends down as if struck down by an inner demon. But above all, this loving young man magnetize all eyes of the public. 

Boys would like to be like him and girls would like to discuss furious madness with this baby bird that fell out of bed. We are witnessing one of the most promising rock concerts in recent memory. We can temporarily send some of the nice tie wearing poseurs to their Swiss boarding school. 

The Vines on stage, that's more implication, more danger, more madness (literally and figuratively). Ah! finally a band who plays tight and classy like a gang. Ah! finally a band who alternates electrified violence ("Get Free", "Highly Evolved", the noisy outro of "1969") and melodies with 60s romanticism ("Mary Jane", "Country Yard"). Attitude, songs, fever, madness: all the distinctive features of the great future are there. 

On stage, Craig Nicholls struggles like a handsome devil, rolls his eye, goes from a low vocal register to a frightening high pitch. He also bounces guitar in hand and throws himself on the ground with incredible violence (like the insanes when they bump repeatedly into the mattresses that cover the walls of their padded cell). 

Sincerely impressed, we don't even pay attention when The Vines begins the first chords of an unexpected cover. However, it is indeed "Ms Jackson" of the rap duo Outkast that these Australians transform into a poignant ballad. The audience is quivering and finally applaud heartily. Triumph for "the coolest thing you can hear on earth" (NME, again). 

10:20 p.m .: Manchester University is empty of happy young people. In a few years, everyone will be able to say to their grandchildren: "Hey yeah my boy, I was there!" And who will believe them? Nevertheless, The Vines will become enormous because few groups transcribe adolescent schizophrenia as equally well: a third of inner violence, a third of intense romanticism and a third of innocence. 

After this live confirmation, Rock & Folk had an appointment with Craig Nicholls for a little discussion less flying over a cuckoo's nest than expected. With a shy smile, the boy with lost gaze welcomes us into the spacious dressing room by "would you like a Coca Cola !?". Polite refusal. Nicholls continues, a little restless: "So you are going to ask me questions and I have to give you answers... Uh, I think I can manage to satisfy this request." Phew.

MY GIFT IS PROVIDENCE AND A CURSE

Rock & Folk: Many agree that 2002 will be the year of The Vines as 2001 was that of The Strokes. How do you deal with this pressure?

Craig Nicholls: Well, the pressure... What is happening to us is great. The expectations for the band don't scare me. Taking planes scares me so much more (he shivers) ... Before starting with The Vines, I carefully weighed all the aspects of this job. There are positives and negatives of course, but the positives win out. I'm in a wonderful job and I thank heaven everyday for being able to write my songs and make a living like my idols.

R&F: Did the media interest in you come too quickly?

Craig Nicholls: We've been playing together for five years. At first we were lazy, really too lazy. I had to motivate myself to wake up every morning and go to rehearsal. The others helped me. I quickly knew that I had a gift for music... one and only gift. When nature grants you a privilege, you have to cultivate it. This gift is my providence and also my curse. I can't fight it (pauses and almost starts to cry). It's a crazy thing, man!

R&F: When did your musical gift manifest itself for the first time?

Craig Nicholls: I always knew my life would be in the field of artistic creation. I need to create to occupy my mind, otherwise it wanders and I have a hard time controlling it. When I was little, I spent days daydreaming, drawing whatever came to my mind. Then there came the music... I've been writing songs since very young age. But when I discovered The Beatles, The Kinks and Nirvana's "Nevermind", I finally found my way.

R&F: You say that without music, you would be socially unsuitable to the adult world...

Craig Nicholls: Nothing really interests me except music and I'm quite shy. When I was younger, I hated school. I preferred to spend my days at home, like, doing nothing. In class, I was not particularly rebellious. Except that I always had a hard time following the rules, I didn't understand them. It is only in music that I can feel free. You know, I create my own world, a bit like Salvador Dali, one of my greatest idols.

R&F: Apart from planes, do you have any other phobias?

Craig Nicholls: From time to time I have stage fright. I know, however, that the public is waiting for us but I remain stuck, incapable of the slightest movement. Imagining that I'm going to fail a show terrifies me... Otherwise, I'm always nervous when I cross the streets: I'm so afraid of being run over... Anyway, cars terrify me. They should be banned.

I CAN BE WEIRD

R&F: How do you define your songwriting?

Craig Nicholls: It's something very simple and very pure. I want to achieve a certain innocence, like The Kinks and The Beatles. It takes a great amount of mental and physical energy to write songs and I am too small too weak to handle these energy expenses. After writing I feel emptied, dead... That doesn't make things easier for me in social relationships. Being in a band makes it harder with girls.

R&F: Can we say that your songs are schizophrenic with a perpetual back and forth between rage and gentleness?

Craig Nicholls: Yeah, right (enthusiastic) ... I play schizophrenic rock. Anyway, in my life, I'm the same: I can go from violent outbursts and hyperactivity to phases of exhaustion. All human beings are like this...

R&F: Does music act like therapy on you?

Craig Nicholls: I only feel better when I'm on stage or writing a song. So, yeah, I think the music washes my brain of all the crap. But the downside is that it brings out some parts of my personality that I had forgotten... Well, I can be... weird.

R&F: You say you admire Muse more than any other current bands. Why ?

Craig Nicholls: Oh Muse. They are a role model for me and one of my greatest sources of motivation. They are the only band who have found a balance between something very primitive and something very sophisticated. I already have a lot of new songs for our second album and we're going to experiment with this slightly tribal expression (pats the table feverishly). There will be electronics too. Well... uh... I already want to get back to work. I'm not satisfied with what we've done so far yet...

End of the interview. Craig Nicholls catches us up by the sleeve: "Don't you know where I can get hot dogs?" This guy is crazy.