Vaudeville are playing the Sydney Big Day Out, a sign that this Newcastle band are successfully heading for “the big time”. Chris English talked to Veronique Moseley & Ross Beckley about the last 12 months.
You made an enormous impression on crowds last New Year’s Eve at The Brewery in Newcastle when you were performed as one of the support bands. What have been the highlights for Vaudeville in the last 12 months?
Playing with our favourite bands such as Cog, Sparkadia and Birds of Tokyo has been great, and we’ve had a lot of fun touring up and down the East Coast – many an adventure has been had including when our trailer broke in half 30kms out of Glen Innes on our way to an Armidale show whilst going 100km/hr!
The song ‘Static In My Head’ is one which stays in people’s minds- one of those songs which inspire people to dance and sing along. In writing the song, did you have a special message in mind?
Half of the songs we have been performing for the last 12 months or so were written very quickly in preparation for our first gig, and ‘Static’ was written simply as a catchy upbeat rock tune which can either open or close a set with as much energy as possible! I think our next batch of songs are going to be much more “Vaudeville” and have a lot more depth to them, and this obviously just comes from maturing as a band.
Your music has been described as “alternative rock”. What/who inspires your music?
Singers like Ian Kenny, drummers/front men like Dave Grohl and Josh Homme, song writers like David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and The Beatles.
You’re playing at Big Day Out, a huge accolade for any band. How did this happen and what do you hope will happen out of this opportunity?
Well we entered in a competition called Uncharted of which the winner’s prize was a slot on the entire 2009 Big Day Out tour. We managed to make it to the Grand Final and as we were on stage waiting to hear who had won the comp, Ken West announced that he would be giving the runners up a slot at the Sydney Big Day Out! This was not part of the prize when we entered the contest and we’re not even sure if anyone knew that Ken was going to do that!
It’s the first time in Uncharted that a runners up prize has been given so we were very humbled by that. It really sunk in for me when I called Ken West a few days later. First of all I couldn’t believe I actually got through to him, and that he had time to talk to me and remembered my name! Then when I asked him about the details of our performance slot he said something along the lines of “Mate, you’re going to have to give me a few days to sort it out, I have to change the time slots at the Big Day Out to get you guys on the bill!”. I was bouncing around the house for hours after that call, the fact that we supposedly impressed Ken West so much that he was will willing to fiddle with the logistics of the largest touring festival in the southern hemisphere for little old Vaudeville felt amazing.
You’re currently in the studio recording your next single and planning an album later in the year. Tell us a little about how you decided on the producer and recording studio?
Jae and I began researching producers earlier in the year simply by finding Australian albums/EP’s we thought were well produced and recorded and were something along the lines of what we wanted to leave the studio with. Fortunately from Resonate we won 5 days studio time at Damien Gerard studios in Balmain which meant our budget for a producer was increased. We are all fans of Trial Kennedy (who we were lucky enough to play with this year also!) and Jae had their EP which was produced by Melbourne based Kalju Tonuma. We then found out what else Kal had been musically involved with (Crowded House, Split Enz, The Butterfly Effect, The Living End, The Temper Trap) and decided that he had to be our producer!
We sent him a copy of our EP which he fortunately really liked and met with him in Melbourne a couple of times whilst on tour. We get on really well with him and our sense of humour and taste in music is practically identical, which is really important!!
Is there anything else you’d like your fans or prospective fans to know about Vaudeville?
Mark Friday the 19th of February in your diaries people, Newcastle ‘Running On Empty’ Single Launch @ Queens Wharf Brewery!! And if you’re going to the Big Day Out be sure to get there nice and early and come and support us!!
Keep an eye on our myspace for details: http://www.myspace.com/vaudevilleaus
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