'She' devils
Manic
- it’s the word to describe electro-rock outfit Van She.
Having recently returned from a quick tour of Osaka and Tokyo,
before racing back to perform at Sydney’s TropFest and then
embarking on their current national tour - it appears this band
don’t recognise how to stand still.
Having had three days to come up with a film clip
for their latest single which has been taken on as the name for
this latest national tour, ‘Cat and the Eye’, the
sentiment is towards moving quickly. But according to Nick Routledge,
lead singer and guitarist, as well as a film major graduate, the
clip itself is not storyboarded according to anything the band
had in mind.
“There is a storyline, it’s sort of
I think meant to be about a rock and then at the end this flower-
guy goes around killing people,” Routledge says somewhat
unsure.
Quips that hallucinogens might be necessary to gain
a complete understanding of the storyline aside, it’s conceded
it shows a similar style to that of say Klaxons or the Midnight
Juggernauts film clips. None -to surprising as the Juggernaut’s
favoured film director produced ‘Cat and the Eye’
too. Regardless of the affiliation it has led to the psychodelic
and somewhat, non-sensical end result which is still fitting of
their genre.
Van She is classified by music trainspotters as
an electro-shoegaze band.
‘Shoegaze’, a music genre which came
to be in the early 1990s and which can be characterised by bands
who gaze at their shoes in motionless style but who also incorporate
indistinguishable vocal sounds blending into guitar effects. Sonic
Youth and Radiohead fit this category. According to Routledge
Van She’s sound reaches a sky-high though.
“Someone said we’re shoe-gazey, well
we’re sort of poppy so then someone suggested why not call
ourselves star-gazey;” he laughed.
Further proof of their manic tendencies is that
they’ve recently emerged from studio space in the UK recording
their debut release V. Here they worked with acclaimed producer
Jim Abiss - a man who’s worked wonders on giving albums
from the Arctic Monkeys, Ladytron and Kasabian a mass appeal.
At times, the band’s creativity and Jim’s
didn’t quite mesh.
“He’s an old school producer which is
kind of good, there was a lot of sparks flying in the studio and
he pushed us to do things we wouldn’t normally do and we
pushed him to do things he wouldn’t normally do, which he
didn’t like too much,” Routledge says.
“By the end of it though we were all kind
of quite happy with the record we produced,” he adds.
The end result Routledge describes as being somewhere
between dancey and indie rock. The new album V (releasing
in June) offers a dreamier alternative to their previous ‘Sex
City’ and ‘Kelly’ hits. With the album bedded
down and a trickle of singles (‘Cat and the Eye’ is
now available as a digital single) awaits their eager fans, but
until that release date, what’s next in-store for these
lads?
They’ll turn their attention not only to touring,
with some fairly big support slots yet to be announced –
not even Routledge is meant to know about them.
The other side of Van She is that they are a band
of many talents -in hot demand from other bands/artists for their
remixing abilities. Routledge considers he receives at least five
requests a week from artists.
“It has been especially busy with all the
remixes we’ve been doing lately.”
“I’m working with the vocalist from
Tricky, (old school British trip- hop songstress) Martina Topley-Bird
at the moment, she’s got an amazing voice,” Routledge
says.
For now the focus for Van She remains their national
tour with co-conspirators Ghostwood onboard for the ride. .They
have already played shows in Melbourne and wider Victoria and
will wind their way up the East Coast before tackling Western
Australia and South Australia.
Ruth Bailey
