Interview: The Vanns
Currently on tour in support of their single “How was I supposed to know” we caught up with - Kiama locals - The Vanns to talk all things touring & their latest single.
Interview by: Rick Clifford // Photos by: Ruby Boland @rubyboland
Interview
“…we took the risk and tried smashing it through the flood waters to get to the gig but we were defeated almost losing the van.”
Singer and frontman for The Vanns - Jimmy Vann - took the time ahead of the bands performance at Northcote Social Club in Melbourne to give us a few insights to the tour rituals and information on the current release.
Hey! Firstly congrats on the new single release! The 'How Was I Supposed to Know' tour kicked off at the infamous Yours & Owls Festival in your home town. How was it playing for such a huge - nationally noteworthy - festival and crowd?
Thank you! We couldn’t have asked for a better way to kick off the tour. It was our first show back together since May and to be playing to a hometown crowd was all time. We played a bunch of new songs for the first time too which was exciting + it’s a good catch up with mates we haven’t seen in a while.
The venue headline part of the tour kicked off in Brisbane and has started making its way along the east coast towards Melbourne(before making a stop in Adelaide). What motivates yours choices when choosing which cities and venues to play?
As we haven’t played or toured for the past few months we just wanted to keep it a short run and hit the places which have always had a ball playing. It’s definitely the crowds that bring us back to these places. We’ve always had so much support from our Melbourne fans since day one, so we love taking any chance we get to head down their for a show.
You've toured with some very noteworthy national and international acts, are there any experiences that help you with planning your own headline tour, that you would be bringing on this run of shows?
Playing for those big acts is always inspirational mostly because of how tight they are live and the chemistry between the band, you can just tell they’ve been playing together for years. We’re constantly striving to be as tight as we can live and just make every gig better than the last.
The main support for this tour are Adelaide two piece, Wing Defence. Are they a group that you've played with before? What was the decision in getting them on board for this one?
We haven’t played with Wing Defence before but so stoked to have them on this tour. Their tunes are sick + we now get to see them play each night on tour. Our drummer Lachie introduced us to Wing Defence, he is always scoping out new bands and tracks that are coming out. Lachie sent us a few tunes they had and we were all heaps keen to get them on the shows. They got something real cool going on.
What are the essentials(besides the instruments) that you MUST bring on tour?
- Headphones… You don’t want to be stuck at the airport without them.
- I’m a big fan of playing cards and we always seem to forget them. Thanks for the reminder.
Really dig the artwork for the new single. Is the photo relevant to you guys or a random stock image?
It’s a photo of my old man. I was flicking through some old family photos and this one stood out and had a bit of character to it.I thought it complimented the song really well.
Being that this is the single launch tour, can we expect a full release in the near future?
Definitely! We spent the majority of this year writing & recording down in Melbourne, so we have a few songs in the bag ready to go.
You guys are ending the tour here in Melbourne on the 20th of October. Is there much planned for your time when you're here?
We’re not going to be in Melbourne long at all! We fly in from Adelaide and will have to head straight to sound check and leave early the next morning after the show. The only definite things we will be doing in our short time their is catching up with our mates and having a beer.
What is the craziest thing that's happened on tour(on or off stage - if you can disclose such information)?
We were playing a show in Byron and got flooded in to the venue which was pretty crazy. We had to cancel our show the next day which was up in Maroochydore due to flooding but we took the risk and tried smashing it through the flood waters to get to the gig but we were defeated almost losing the van.
