This interview was conducted in The Vines’ backstage caravan at the Coachella Festival (April 2002) in California, one sweaty afternoon, just as “Highly Evolved” and “Get Free” had been released in the US. Only Craig and myself were present.

I know you’re into skateboarding, did that come before music?

“Well, I used to listen to music when I was skateboarding. Like, I knew music existed. Even though I knew I could sing when I was younger, I thought listening to music was such a lame thing. And now I think music’s the greatest thing. It was only when I was in high school that I connected with the fact that music could be created by an individual or a group of people and it was so inspiring.”

Your dad had a band named The Vynes in the 60’s, did he ever play around the house when you were growing up?

“Yeah, he played guitar and he sang. My mom got me a nylon-string, acoustic guitar from someone at her work and my dad taught me the 12-bar blues – I can’t remember if I asked him to, just him sitting me down, teaching me. I just kept practising and it was fun, just having this sound coming out of these six little strings – it was a mental adventure.”

So what was the first record that made you realise the power of music?

“It was Nevermind, Nirvana’s second album. I think I was 15 or something, like in tenth grade. I just got it and listened to it and thought it was amazing. It just got me into music – it was so creative and so powerful. It was just, like, the best music I’d ever heard and music became a serious thing for me then. And then there was an Australian band called You Am I around the same time, I just loved them. So, like You Am I were the great band and I loved Nirvana, got into The Kinks and there was another Australian band called Ratcat. Also, my dad had half The Beatles’ records so, when I went through them, it was just the coolest thing. They had this drive, were talented and just wanted to keep doing things – being the people who they were, instead of what others wanted them to be. They had the confidence, the brains and everything.

So when you started making music, did you just put two and two together, thinking “I’m gonna do it!”

“Yeah, if I may be so bold to say it. Like, I was kinda lazy, basically, when I was a teenager. I kinda wanted to do something and I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t really wanna get a job ‘cause I didn’t fit in and I just wasn’t interested in being involved in any type of crowd at school. I just started playing with a couple of friends and we could barely play our instruments, but it was fun. I think boredom had a lot to do with it. We did a few cover songs of You Am I and Nirvana but we weren’t trying to start a band. The songwriting, that really blew my mind when listening to music. Then I started writing my own songs and thought ‘Wow, it’s unlimited, you can create anything you want!’”

So what did you think of the first song you wrote?

“It was pretty dodgy, pretty basic – the lyrics were really dumb and nonsensical. We’d been jamming once a week and, at a slow but steady pace, I wrote some songs and we tried to record them on a little boom box. We got some tapes out and played a few little pubs, to like 20 people, but we mostly concentrated on recording and the songwriting, which progressed. We got really inspired and I became driven by it. After we had a dozen good songs, I was like, ‘I want to write more. I want to make an album’ but you can’t go in and do it just like that. I was just sitting round, writing songs and I wanted it to be really good - an album not an E.P. first because that’s the kind of band we are. I wanted it to be a serious piece of work.”

Were you amazed by your progress?

“Yeah, I just kept going and writing more and more. I’ve got all these half songs at the moment – new songs and old songs – we’ve got a lot of stuff. It’s really exciting for me, just the idea that you can write a song about anything – say whatever you want, phrase it however you want and put a lot of different sounds in it. There’s lot of different possibilities if you approach it, like, as an artist – I did graphic design for a year and then fine art – and I just love making songs. It’s a really positive thing - well, I think it is - and I reckon it just comes out of boredom. I just wanna make each song the first thing that’s important and I’m really serious about it.”

Did this creative drive come from wanting something just for yourself, when you didn’t fit in as a teenager?

“Yeah, I didn’t like school, it was just too much information. As soon as I got into music, a lot of things made sense and it just felt really good, y’know?”

Are you worried about forgetting some of your unrecorded songs, if you don’t play them?

“Yeah, I feel like I’m just losing songs. We love playing onstage, it’s always been part of the band, but we’ve always had more focus on what an album can be – the whole feeling of the songs and the overall effect, how it runs together, how many different places it can go. An album’s just a big puzzle, like a painting that you look at for hours on end. I just don’t wanna forget anything, although I have a lotta stuff just demoed on guitar. With the first album, all my energy was focused on the songwriting, it was really important. We had around 30 songs to choose from for the first one. Some of the songs on the first album are, like, a few years old.”

Have you done any demos on the road?

“I did one the other night and I’m so excited because I think the song’s so much more mature. You can’t do much about it on the road, it’d be too much work to go in and record, say, another 15 songs which we thought were really good. It’s a lot of work just getting them right. I’m really looking forward to doing them, I think the lyrics are a lot better. I’m just trying to keep focused on that ‘cause that’s what the band has always been about – moving forward and progressing, producing good art. I’m also influenced by Salvador Dali – I did graphic art and then fine art, which was totally free, but with music I can have more of these crazy ideas!”

Do you think the way the music industry operates – usually, an album every two years or something - works against the speed of your songwriting?

“Yeah, I wish it was different and maybe it can be. It’s different for every band but it depends what you wanna do. Some bands just love the stage and then they go record an album in a few days or a week, and get back out there. With us, I feel at home in the studio, there’s so much room for improvement and creativity there. Being on stage is fun but it can only mean so much – it’s great and then it’s over. You can have vivid memories of being on stage but if you record a song, it affects you more and also allows the song to come through clearer. At the moment, we just try to chill out, take it easy, play and let people know about this album. I’m really proud of the first one.

The year before we made the album, I was on such a roll. I was going and getting the drums and bass down onto the eight-track at the rehearsal room, then just taking it home and doing the guitars and vocals. Not including the album, I’d say I’ve got around 40 songs and demos for around 30 of them.

With the next album, I want to have, like, some high production and then some really lo-fi stuff and mix it up.”

Well, Highly Evolved is a really mixed set - do you think people will have a problem with the fact that it features balls-out rockers and ballads? I mean, Led Zeppelin’s albums always did!

“Yeah! Well, I don’t really think about it too much. What really attracted me about playing in a band is that you get to do what you want and express the way you feel. The album is what The Vines are – all different influences. For me, I like rock music, I like country rock and I’ll let the songwriting dictate the kind of vibe or style of music. It’s like, ‘this song should have distortion in the chorus’ or ‘this would sound good if there were no drums in this verse.’

When I’m writing, I’m always trying new arrangements. It’s like you’ve got to satisfy yourself first before you can even try to turn anybody else onto it. We can’t change the album – there’s hard rock ‘n’ roll and really punky stuff but we listen to The Beach Boys as well. I hope that people, if they’re into one thing or the other, can just open their minds. We just feel that it’s possible to try anything – if it didn’t work, you wouldn’t hear it. We’ve been lucky because the band, musically, has a really good understanding.”

With your songwriting, do you bring a tune to the band fully formed or get help with the arrangements?

“Well, 90% of the time, the arrangement’s all there. Other times, people have cool ideas – whether it’ll be about the arrangement or singing a different line. I do most of the songwriting. For instance, when we were recording ‘Homesick’, in the middle section, I was doing all these low harmonies and Patrick figured out a little melody and Rob [Schnapf, producer] helped out. We all work as a team. Patrick, Rob and me, we have our ideas and put ‘em together, although I’m usually really stubborn about what I want.”

The album took nearly six months to record, did you change your mind a lot in the studio and was it pretty liberating to be able to do that?

“Yeah, it was. We re-recorded a couple of tracks at the end but most of them came together easily, even though it wasn’t, like, bang, bang, bang. It maybe took a week and a half to get three full tracks done – we did Highly Evolved, Autumn Shade and Out Of The Way first. We ended-up doing 1969, the last track on the album, right at the end of the recording.”

Well, the whole album flows really well…

“That was the intent because we knew that we had all these different types of songs. I really love piecing it together a certain way - just like the impact it can have. It’s really meant to be about constantly moving forward.”

Another thing is that the album still sounds Australian, despite being produced by an American and recorded in L.A. I mean, Aussie bands always seem to have taken the best of British and American music, put something unique into the mix, and ended-up with the best of both worlds – like AC/DC and You Am I, you couldn’t think they were from anywhere else. I think Rob’s production still reflects that…

“Yeah it does. I was anxious about working with a producer and we knew Rob had done Beck’s stuff, which was great and exciting. At the same time, I was like ‘we record ourselves the whole time and we don’t wanna get changed around.’ But that’s exactly right, what he did. He didn’t change it much. Everything is there. Sunset Sound was Rob’s choice of studio, I think. I found out that Rob’s recording technique wasn’t too different from mine – of course, he has a lot more knowledge and a lot bigger scale – but the songs just stand on their own. I’ve always found it interesting, the production side of it. I had a four-track and then an eight-track.”

Were you ‘Homesick’ when you were recording the track itself?

“I don’t think I was. I was just too on edge, really hyper about making the album ‘cause I knew it was coming together so well.”

To me, the lyrical themes on the album seem to be making your own space in the world or expressing a longing to be somewhere better…

“Exactly. That’s what it is – escapism. In the songs, that idea might be aggressive sometimes but there’s other stuff to balance it out. I just wanna move forward. I don’t wanna, like, get messed-up – I wanna be an artist, not a rock star. Like, I don’t drive a car, I just listen to music – I’ve got a bit of the hippy in me, I suppose. I just want to be free to create stuff which keeps my mind occupied. See, it’s the drive which is as important as the actual lyrics and the sound. At the same time, like most people, there’s a part of me which goes ‘fuck, I don’t wanna do that, I wanna sleep.’

Moving to LA, was that an opportunity for you to create your own space?

“Well, we’re only staying here because of the band, and it’s near Capitol. We’re kinda based here, I guess. I don’t really consider LA to be my home, it’s just my temporary home. Y’know, it’s handy to get the sleeve for the album worked out - it’s a painting I did. I had a specific idea or a vision and I spent a lot of time on it. I did the painting on the cover of the ‘Highly Evolved’ single – that wasn’t intentional, I just had it. They asked if I had anything. Dali is, by far, my favourite visual artist. Again, I’m as much inspired by his drive and ambition - the work is the result of doing your own thing.”

Have your folks been out to visit you yet?

“No, I don’t really think it’s the place for parents. [Laughs] I like the weather and I like the good food, the skating areas and there are some good venues, cool bands and good people. I was skating the other night, when we had a break. I was on the bus and just got out, in the parking lot. I just got a new board about a week ago.”

So far, the singles released from the album have been the rockier tracks, what about a ballad? Have the label got any plans?

“I don’t know if there’s a plan. The next one will be ‘Outtatheway!’, another fast one, then the fourth one I’m thinking we’ll do ‘Autumn Shade’ or something like that. We really wanna do that because it’s part of our thing. I feel pretty confident about us getting to put out one of the ballads. As far as music TV goes, I think ‘Autumn Shade’ or ‘Country Yard’ hold more visual possibilities than the fast tunes. With ‘Outtatheway!’, we’re gonna have our version of ‘Ms Jackson’ as the b-side, which is really slow and acoustic – it’s got piano on it.”

I know you listen to a lot of different stuff, Ms Jackson was a great tune to go “Right, I’m having that!”

“Yeah! [laughs]