The Australian band thrives on the extraordinary reputation of their vocalist Craig. Hamish (drums) and Patrick (bass) told the Stalker how they deal with the hype.

Please describe your band members in a few words. 

Hamish: The characters? Craig is the mad professor  who sits in the laboratory all day and creates these monsters and they become songs. Ryan is actually quite a shy guy and he has about twelve beers to socialise and then he also becomes a little monster himself. Patrick is way too intelligent, he thinks too much for his own good and he's got lots of ideas, good and bad ideas... And me I don't think enough. I never consider the consequences of my action.

Regarding the big success of your debut, wasn’t there a lot of pressure when you did the next one?

Hamish: I think when you talk about the pressure and everything else, it’s more everyone else’s expectations. People who heard the first album and think it’s good are wondering whether we can do that again. I guess we believe in it because even before we finished touring we had probably five new songs that were not on “Highly Evolved”, but we were playing all of them live. We were never short of material. A lot of bands will find themselves in a situation when they need to take a year off or take six months to write the whole new album with new songs. And because we had already written some songs so there wasn't pressure to go on and create something new in a short period of time.

The videos to “Get Free” and “Outtathaway” are circulating a lot on MTV and Viva. They are a huge success, How does it feel?

Hamish: I mean for myself it’s not a big deal, I don’t walk around the city and get noticed as the guy from that band, but with Craig it's like: Oh, it’s The Vines. It’s up to myself. I don’t want to be a famous face.

You wanna tell me that you got no attention?

Hamish: You know, at the show the people who come to see the band they know the band and they recognise who we are. But that’s sort of part of the show. I don't get stopped and followed. I have t to meet the girls myself in the old fashioned way.

Are you getting sick of being compared to The Strokes? 

Hamish: We are not getting compared to them that much. But when we first came out there was that comparisons with The Strokes. I mean they are a great band, so it doesn’t really bother me. However at the same time we'll never sound anything like The Strokes. You won't mix up a Strokes song and think it was us or vice versa. So it’s not such a bad thing.

What do you think about when something is called a hype? Is it a good thing or is it making mainstream? 

Hamish: I think the guy from Jet gave a classic example, when people accused them of selling out and everything else. He said we didn't do it to get in for two years so that we could go back to washing cars on the weekend for money. There is no shame in being on a major label or going mainstream. I think the bands coming out now are a lot more exciting than what's been coming out for the last few years. Especially in America, all the California skate punk pop sort of bands, there's so many of them that sound similar. I think now there's a whole bunch of bands which are really distinctive and have their own sound.

You recorded your new album in America, Is that right? 

Hamish: Yes, we did it in New York State in Woodstock, a hundred miles north of New York City. It’s a very cool studio, it was finished around 1970, built by Albert Grossman, who was Bob Dylan’s manager. I think it was his band that was first able to use the studio. You couldn't think of a better place to make an album. It's very peaceful and really pretty and gave us every chance to just make the music as there wasn’t much else to do. Yeah, it was the perfect location to make an album.

Thinking about Australia, there are not so many bands coming from there. What is your impression of the Australian music scene?

Hamish: I think Australia is gonna be the next Seattle. (laughs) 2004 and 2005 there's gonna be an explosion of really cool bands out of Australia and you'll wonder why you never heard of them before.

Name some! 

Hamish: Neon is a really good band. Another band is The Red Sun Band.

What have you done before you founded the band?

Hamish: It is not that different to what I used to do before. Before I joined this band I was in another band. Before that I was travelling, did a lot of backpacking around the world, travelling from place to place and then I joined another band, we played covers. We were an Australian band, but we spent a lot of time in the United States, playing six nights a week. So it hasn’t changed to what I was doing. I love music and so I'm really glad about what I am doing, I’m playing in a band and its probably the best European tour that we’ve done.

When you are on tour are there any problems or are you getting good along together?

Patrick: We are getting on better now on tour. We had more disagreements in the past than there are now. We are understanding each other a lot better. We give Craig a bit of space, leave him alone for a while, which is what he prefers and yeah, it’s been pretty peaceful so far. Sometimes we are bitching at each other but this is the kind of normal thing that goes on in any family or job. We haven't had any fights on this tour so far, maybe tonight we punch each other up on stage.

What are the most frustrating or annoying things you got to know in the music business?

Hamish: I guess sometimes it’s difficult with the record company and band relationship. The band creates the music but sometimes the people from the record company don’t really get it. It seems they are not really so interested in the music. That's sort of a strange relationship between people creating the art of the music and those who want to sell it. Cause you both sort of need each other in a way but you don’t always see eye to eye. That’s a sort of frustrating thing, I guess.