We were able to catch up with Australian trio Art vs Science near the end of their Fall North American Tour here in Winnpeg. Check out what the band has to say:
John Delaney: I’m here with Australia Electronic, Indie-Rock band, Art Vs Science; how’s everything going guys?
Dan Williams: Good good, very well.
John Delaney: Fair enough, now lets start off with the basics. Arts Vs Science; what does it mean?
Dan McNamee: It’s a description of the way humans see the word, whether its through a created sort of thing, like a dream world, like the American dream, or any sort of dream. Or a scientific sort of way of actually through a set of directions, finding out about the world that way. But that’s just one way, we’re changing it each time.
Dan Williams: For me also it’s like, do you want to understand the scientific basis, or do you want to find the spiritual happiness or like that.
John Delaney: Cool, and how long have you guys been together?
Dan Williams: Three and a half years.
John Delaney: Oh wow, not to long at all, you guys are from Sydney, Australia right?
Dan Williams: Yep.
John Delaney: And how do you like growing up through the Australian music scene, rather than one over here in North America?
Dan Williams: Closer to home and friends.
Jim Finn: Yeah, and one thing I was going to say is the thing is that in Australia we’ve got a National radio broadcasting called Triple J, and once you get your music on Triple J it’s such an advantage for touring and that sort of thing, and getting in contact with everyone. Whereas in the states, you just don’t have that.
John Delaney: Yeah that’s true. Now I’ve spent some time working in the Australian music scene, and I picked up there’s a lot of national touring festivals and such.
Dan Williams: Yes, probably more per capita than anywhere in the world I’d say.
John Delaney: Have you guys been involved in many of those festivals.
Jim Finn: Yeah, like all of them pretty much!
John Delaney: And what’s your favorite one so far that you’ve played in?
Jim Finn: There’s one called Falls Festival, which travels around the south.
Dan Williams: But as far as the whole is Future which is pretty fun, just because they’re really nice people who run it, they make sure you have a good time. The backstage area is full of like pool tables, ping-pong, foosball; it’s just a good time.
John Delaney: Are you going to be looking at going back with them in the future?
Dan Williams: Yeah definitely, we just did it in March so maybe a year or two.
Jim Finn: Splendor In The Grass is a great punter, one-off show. Best stationary festival.
John Delaney: Now onto your guys’ music. I had a rough time trying to figure out which genre it falls under….
Dan Williams: Yeah we have a hard time too.
Jim Finn: It’s good live, that’s the main thing. It’s almost like it should be called ‘Live’ something genre.
Dan McNamee: That’s the big thing about this tour, everyones like only ever heard the album or the EP, they see us live, and they’re like “Wow, it’s almost like a different band”, and that’s a big thing for us is trying to write good popping music.
Jim Finn: The genre thing’s not a useful thing when talking about music. Like we were talking to this lady at the airport the other day and we were like “We’re dance music’. Where she replied “But you can dance to all music” And I said “Yeah I guess, so I guess it’s like rock music” and she’s like “But like 60’s rock, 70’s rock, psychedelic rock, 80’s rock?” and I thought… ‘Uhh… Can I go now?’
Dan McNamee: You can throw a bunch of genres together, like Electro-Indie, that’s kind of it, but a bit more grunge-ey maybe. Maybe electro-indie-grunge-psychedelic-rock-punk…. no it’s not punk, it’s slower…
John Delaney: Fair enough, do you guys have any other artists who inspire your music, or inspire you guys? And who would you say those artists are?
Dan McNamee: Oh always, it’s hard to know who’s inspiring us, it’s always changing.
Jim Finn: Yeah I think we started with like DJ’s, Daft Punk and stuff, and took influence with bands like Range Against The Machine, Beastie Boys, Led Zeppelin, and Beatles, and recently we’ve been listening to all sorts of stuff. There’s also lots of live performance, where you take away the little things they do live and think ‘Wow that was a cool performance‘. Use that as an influence.
Dan Williams: Justice and Rage Against The Machine, kind of like them anyways, just because they are so balls-y.
Jim Finn: Yeah in the beginning it was like Justice and Daft Punk we’re like the bible. And then we tried to approximate that as best we could, with being a live band.
John Delaney: Now do you guys have a favorite song to perform?
Jim Finn: Yeah, I personally like Hollywood and Parler Vous Francais.
Dan Williams: I like the song Magic Fountain, but it’s not fun to perform, we can’t like move.
Dan McNamee: I can’t really move at all during any of the songs.
Jim Finn: It’s kind of ironic, it’s dance music, and none of us can dance during it.
Dan Williams: Yeah I think Parlez Vous Francais would be my favourite.
John Delaney: Now would you consider Parlez Vous Francais to be your biggest song?
Jim Finn: Yeah to date I think so.
John Delaney: Is there a certain song who made you who you guys are today?
Dan Williams: Well the very first one we wrote was called Flippers, and that really kicked everything off. And that sort of opened the doors for Parlez Vous Francais.
John Delaney: You guys have been to Texas, around New York, a few stops in the US Mid-West before making your way up to Canada, what have you thought of the tour so far?
Dan Williams: It’s been cool, New Yorks been cool.
John Delaney: Is that your favorite city would you say so far?
Dan Williams: Yeah it’s my favorite city from home. It’s just so cool because you’ve seen it all in movies and you can walk downtown for 2 hours and you are still surrounded by giant buildings.
Dan McNamee: Yeah it feels like New York, is the city the world in general always tries to be kind-of-like. We have all the American movies, and TV’s and business models everywhere. New York is sort of like the center of it all.
Jim Finn: You get a weird nostalgic feeling walking around there even though you’ve never been there, because you’ve seen it so many movies, it’s really like surreal.
John Delaney: What has been your favorite show so far on the tour?
Dan Williams: Utopia in Texas.
Dan McNamee: Mine was one of the New York ones, or Chicago was really cool.
John Delaney: After tonight you have one more show left in Calgary, what’s your plan for after that?
Jim Finn: Go to the beach
Dan Williams: Yeah we’re going to take some time off touring and just hang out.
Jim Finn: We have like one or two random shows in next month or so.
John Delaney: Should we ever be expecting you back in North America in the next couple of years?
Dan Williams: Absolutely, probably earlier than that!
Jim Finn: A few months hopefully!
John Delaney: And finally what would you guys say as a band what your goals are for the next 5 or 10 years?
Jim Finn: World Domination!
Dan Williams: Yeah, it’s impossible to think in such terms, it’s like 5 months, 10 months ahead. Thats just the time periods I have in my head at least.
Jim Finn: Long term goals would be like getting studio space and that sort of thing. But for right now it’s like, make music that makes us happy.
John Delaney: Perfect Thanks for catching up with us guys, have a good trip back home!
