The Vines - rock’s most unlikely marathon men - are back with fifth album Future Primitive.

Produced by Chris Colonna (Bumblebeez), it's been hailed by their record label as a “return to form”. We asked frontman Craig Nicholls and longtime rhythm guitarist Ryan Griffiths what they thought of that.

First off, congrats on Future Primitive. It’s very, very early days, but are you happy with the response you’ve had so far? Do you care about the response?

CN: Um… I only care when they’re good responses. But yeah, thanks… it’s early days yet, but we’re getting some good feedback, yeah.

This is the first album with Chris Colonna on board as producer. How’d that happen? Is he someone you’d been aware of for a while?

CN: Yeah, I had been aware of him for a while. I’d met him briefly once before. Our manager also knew him, and he suggested demoing some songs with him. We did that, and we all got along well and had good ideas.

A couple of the tracks, particularly towards the end of the album, go off in a more psychedelic direction than we’re used to seeing from the group. Was that something you and Chris came up with in the studio, or did you already know you wanted to go in that direction?

CN: We did, yeah, we had some idea that we wanted to make this record a little… stranger. But Chris was great, you know? We worked with him and what we came up with in the end, we really like, yeah.

You guys funded the album yourself… was that scary?

CN: Um, yes and no. More no than yes. What I’m saying is, I’m trying to say… it was alright, yeah, it was pretty cool, we didn’t mind.

The press release refers to the album as a return to form. Do you agree with that? Do you guys think you were out of form in the first place?

CN: I would like to say that I agree with everything that everybody has ever said about anything. No, it’s just… to me, it’s a little bit different to the other records, but it’s not a huge difference.

RG: I don’t think we were ever out of form. We just weren’t in people’s view, do you know what I mean? We were always rehearsing and hanging out and making music.

CN: And the music’s always been rock music, but yeah… we teamed up with Chris and got something cool and strange.

This is your fifth album now, which is a pretty amazing milestone for any band… were there points along the way where you didn’t think you’d get there?

RG: No, I always thought… we were always a pretty tight unit, you know? We’re all good mates and we play music together really well. There was never any sort of point where we found it difficult to continue making music. It was just something that we all did so naturally together.

So even when Patrick left the band, you never thought of going your separate ways?

CN: I never really thought about what I was going to do. I don’t think I ever thought, ‘I’m going to stop,’ yeah. We just had a little break.

Craig, you’ve spoken before about how, especially when the first album was out, you were very ambitious. Do you still see yourself as an ambitious person? Are you determined to crack America again?

CN: Well, I don’t think you need… once you’ve cracked it, you’ve cracked it. So you don’t need to crack it again. I don’t know, I still love music, and writing songs. It’s just a really cool thing, and I feel very fortunate to get to do it, to get to record and play to people. We will be touring America, but there’s no saying, oh, ‘we’ve got to play to this many thousands of people’.

We haven’t been there much. In 2008, we were in America to tour the last album, but we didn’t do much because it wasn’t on a major label. Yeah, we haven’t really decided how much time we are going to spend there.

2008 was a while ago now. Do you guys rate yourselves as a significantly better live band than you were then?

CN: Yeah, I would say that. I mean, it’s always been good live, but I think there’s a little more control now. You get better; I think I’ve learned to sing better on stage.

As far as touring overseas goes, what kind of steps do you have to take… obviously everyone knows about the problems in the early days of the band, before the Asperger’s diagnosis. What can you do know to make sure that kind of stuff doesn’t happen? Can you take on the same sort of workload?

CN: Uh… well, I guess we could if we wanted to. I kind of feel like we’ve already done it. We did it for a few years where we were just touring and going back and forth to England and America and Europe. It’s kind of… Yeah, I think I could, but I don’t think I would want to do that. At the beginning, you really have to do it, because you’re a new band, you’re just starting. But once you’ve done it, you kind of think, well, I still want to do it, but maybe not as psychotically as we did.

You guys were on the Big Day Out bill once again this year, and this time you were one of the first acts on, earlier in the day. Was that a challenge?

RG: I guess we had to wake up pretty early to get there. That was a struggle, you know, playing that early on in the day with that sort of atmosphere. But it was so good that so many kids showed up early to see us. It was packed by the time we got onstage, which was really amazing.

I think this was the first time I’d been at Big Day Out from the very first set, and it was purely to see you guys.

CN: Yeah, that’s what happened, yeah. We’re glad that happened, because we weren’t sure if we were going to get big crowds. It was really great, I had a good time.

Even with the new album out, people still talk about Highly Evolved and what a great album that was. Do you see it as a weight upon your shoulders, or are you just glad people responded to it the way they did? Do you think it’s your best album?

CN: Um… I don’t know. I know that a lot of people… I don’t feel any… I mean, it’s a good thing, the amount of success that it had. It was a cool achievement, and all the things that we did with it, all the things we got to do… For me, it’s hard for me to tell, because I’m very involved in it. To me, all the albums are the same thing. I just know I definitely have good memories. It was very exciting, recording that album, because it was the first one.

Do you still feel that same kind of excitement for working in the studio?

CN: Yeah, it’s still… it’s great. I’m used to it now, having been in the studio a bit, but it’s still always great. I love it.

Future Primitive is out June 3. The Vines play Splendour In The Grass at Woodfordia from July 29-31.