🟥 This article is translated from French.

At first glance, The Vines is an enigma: how could an Australian band, unknown until now, have been able to develop a debut album as dazzling, psychotic and enjoyable as "Highly Evolved"? Craig Nicholls, brilliant and disconnected frontman, gave us some answers.

Los Angeles, August 2002. It is with a mixture of nerves and impatience that we are about to meet Craig Nicholls. Nerves, because we've heard pretty much everything about the frontman of The Vines that he's really crazy, that he's just come out of a difficult adolescence, between depressions and fits of madness, and that he's a real nightmare for journalists. And impatience, because the person in question, accompanied by his three compatriots, has just released a debut album which will go down in history. Since its release, "Highly Evolved" has unleashed passions. The Australian band has already been featured in most of the world's music press, and already, we are crying "genius". Only a few months after the release of the album, The Vines are already presented as the missing link between the Beatles and Nirvana, no less. The label is enough to arouse curiosity but also a certain amount of mistrust. We have already seen more than one young group burn their wings under the overly adoring fires of the media. But it's impatience that wins: it's up to us to see what's really going on with The Vines, this band which is already doing sold-out world tours, and its frontman, a real little genius and already a pro of rock'n'roll attitude.

Between two fires

It really seems like The Vines is all about Craig Nicholls. Patrick Matthews (bass) Hamish Rosser (drums) and Ryan Griffiths (guitar) aren't even around during the interview. The character is all the more intriguing: if the 23-year-old singer (sic) is as fragile as they say, is it wise to put him so much in the spotlight? So far, it seems to be fine. We find Craig Nicholls in his dressing room, quietly slumped on his sofa. Finally, he turns out to be very polite, and even rather nice. He answers questions with a smile, even if he rarely finishes his sentences and his gaze is often vague. Craig is on his cloud, a cloud of heady smoke. The pressure due to the band's very rapid success does not seem to weigh on him any more than that of the media: "I especially feel encouraged by the press, I don't feel intimidated. It encourages me to develop all these songs that we have, and to make an even better album. All I want to do is recording, I love making music and thinking about it. It's so fun to put in harmonies, percussions. It's a sick world, which conceals hidden treasures..." It's hard to know where such talent comes from. Very productive, Craig writes instinctively, and the others follow him. He practically did all the writing and composition work on "Highly Evolved"; it is therefore from him that come these lively rifts and these Nirvanesque howls, these arrogant and effective choruses, these fiery rhythms and these hypnotic harmonies which seem straight out of the 70s. Although the group is Australian, their sound seems taken between two fires: there's a very English subtlety and sense of melody, combined with a very American energy and power. Craig admits that his English influences are numerous: "I listen to bands like Supergrass, Suede, The Manic Street Preachers, Blur, The Verve, because I think they are great. We also like American bands like The Dandy Warhols, Pavement, The Stone Temple Pilots... But most of the bands we like are English." The singer is less sure of himself about his older influences: he vaguely cites The Beach Boys, The Kinks and, of course, The Beatles. But anyway, Craig says he's "more attracted to bands that do something new. They do things the way they feel, they get them out, and you can tell."

Another real rock'n'roll band

Speaking of new bands, doesn't he feel that The Vines are riding the 'rock'n'roll revival' wave that exploded last year? Once again, the prospect of being assimilated to a fad does not seem to worry him: "I don't know, I like to think that we are just another real rock band that's getting attention, hopefully through the music, because people respond to what we are doing, they're fed up with groups like The Spice Girls, that kind of thing. I love the music of The White Stripes, The Strokes or The Hives, but every band is different. What they have in common is that they are all guitar bands. But they are not the only ones, there are others behind. The good thing about these bands is their diversity and their similarities. It's like in the 60's, there were The Beach Boys and The Beatles. The more the better. I really like these bands, but I also like other bands that you don't necessarily put in the same category. It's hard to make connections between things like that, I don't think it's necessary. Nobody planned it, it's just the way it happens, and that's a good thing. When we were in the studio, I was listening to The Strokes or The White Stripes, and it was cool to hear new music and new bands. It's just the way the world works, some people get more attention than others, when they go on tour around part of the world, they become more famous, so it works out better for them." As for the frequent comparisons to The Beatles and Nirvana, Craig readily accepts them: "It's true that I absolutely was inspired by these bands. It's not that we wanted to 'be' them, we were more inspired by the direction they took than by The Beatles' haircut: they had a lot of self-confidence, they took it seriously. And that's how a band should start. We can't control what people say, but whatever they say is positive for us."

Teenage Angst

The overstatement that the media could create around the band definitely seems to be the least of Craig Nicholls' worries. Anyway, the one who is said to be temperamental doesn't really seem to have any problems. Lost in his world, Craig thinks only of his music and the next album by The Vines, which he already has in mind. To hear him tell it, the singer lives only for the band, since its foundation in 1995: "That's what I wanted to do, it's very serious and important for me. I could hardly think of anything before being in this band. We wanted to be really good, to do something special. Everything connected to the band was psychologically liberating. It almost became a spiritual thing, a really cool combination of forces." And while music may have helped him to better understand life, we feel that Craig is not yet truly out of teens: his songs, his words and his behavior betray something unstable, passionate, excessive. That little something that great rock figures all have: "People who make music are different, it's like a bricklayer or an architect, they are different people. Writing is art, it's like painting or sculpting. It's another dimension, the sounds, the words... And it seems to affect a lot of people, whatever band you listen to, a DJ, a drum beat, because it has something hypnotic about it. It's fascinating." Craig also recognizes that "teenage angst" plays a big role in rock music: "You have to have that to some degree. I don't know, it's hard to explain. But I think it's rock, it's fun, it's loud, it's intense, it's sarcastic. It's exciting."

Going on a spree

For the moment, The Vines seem to have a bright future: the reputation of "Highly Evolved" is starting to spread, the whole world is starting to know that rock has to reckon with a new band, extremely creative, rich and audacious, endowed with a furiously charismatic guitarist-singer. The sirens of success don't seem to have gone to their heads yet, and if Craig is to be believed, the scandalous "rock'n'roll lifestyle" isn't really their cup of tea. Left as he is, Craig Nicholls can become one of the first rock legends of the second millennium: "What I do is more important than my life, because it's my life. I think I have ambition, but not that much, I'm not crazy ambitious. Sometimes I... (He acts like he is going off the rails, Ed.) But when I think of music, it's fine, it's a special feeling. " We hope he keeps his feet on the ground enough not to burn his wings, or fly too high. But we also hope that he will keep this same passion, this same sublime and visceral need to create, to write, to compose. Because on our side, we want, and even need, to see this band last a long time.