A few days before The Vines released their new album Future Primitive, Larry Heath caught up with lead singer Craig Nicholls. They chat about the new album, experiences on MTV, performing in a Church a few nights before (for Russian Standard Vodka Live At The Chapel).

We’ll kick off with the new album, you recorded it a while ago now and it was certainly recorded under a different environment than your past albums because you guys did it all yourselves. What was the experience like?

A great experience. We did it live so it was done very quickly, we did all the guitars, drums and bass in a few takes and get the song, and we’d hang out. It was great for me.

I remember seeing some early photos that you posted, you had the four track cassette recorder out, doing it old school.

Yeah that’s right, I’ve got a really old four track that I like to use and I’ve got an eight track as well, and yeah it’s kind of like a hobby of mine to record demos.

Had you been doing that with previous albums as well?

Yeah all the albums I’d write them, then I’d demo them on my own, then I’d demo them with the band. As a sideline there’s a lot of songs that didn’t make it on the album, and other albums as well. I just write stock songs in my spare time and just record them and I don’t play them to anyone.

I picture you with quite a ridiculous catalogue of songs no ones ever heard.

Yeah they’re pretty wacky songs

Do you think they might ever see the light of day under some other secret named project?

Yeah I was thinking I’ve got all these songs from the last album, I could put them out just as demos, but I’m not sure what I’d call it. But it might be cool to put them out.

It must be great to play these new songs live, and the album comes out at the end of the week, are you looking forward to it getting out there?

Yeah I’m really happy. It’s a very nice thing that’s it gonna be put out there. We like it and we hope that other people like it as well.

It was a long process getting it out, how involved were you in making it happen?

Well I was definitely involved. And there were times when we’d have a break and then we’d do some more stuff. We’ve got our manager helping us out and our new label, so yeah it’s all come together, all the work that has been put into it.

I just watched the video for “Gimme Love”, which is a bit of an homage to Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, how did that come about?

We’d done a video before with this guy, Tom Spark, and it was his idea to use some graphics like that, and I like that movie so that would be cool.

Over the last year you’ve done a few one of shows and many of them have been at the Annandale Hotel. If there’s one band that has a real affinity for that venue it’s you guys.

Yeah that’s like the place we’ve played the most at. We started out when we were pretty unknown with some gigs there, and we’ve come back and done some more shows there.

What makes it unique for the Sydney scene?

I’m not sure. I’ve seen a lot of bands there and I’ve been there a lot. It’s a cool place to go. I dunno what it is; it’s a very real place.

And last week you played The Chapel in Newtown, how was that experience?

It was good yeah, we had some good feedback. We played some new songs and everyone was really nice who was working there with us.

So what else have you guys got planned for the rest of the year?

Really soon we’re announcing an Australian tour and we’re making a video tomorrow for “Future Primitive”. Then we’ll be rehearsing for shows and maybe do another video. We wanna go to England and do some shows there and America as well. We’ve got all that planned out for hopefully later in the year.

I was watching some past interviews you’ve done, and one from Germany struck me where you were fingerpainting throughout the interview. Does that have to go down as one of the more bizarre interviews you’ve done?

Yeah that was definitely different. That was MTV Germany. I remember the girl was really nice but it was strange. I remember I had paint on my face, I think I started facepainting but I had a good time.

You’ve had a bit of an affinity with MTV’s around the world. Back in 2002 you guys played the main stage at the Video Music Awards, how have you found the MTV’s of the world to treat you guys over the years?

Really great. In America where it all started it’s cool. We’ve done a bunch of things for them. They’re always just very friendly, and that place in New York where they have the total live requests, we went there a couple of times and that was cool.

I remember that show, TRL, they did it in Times Square.

Yeah it was cool, it was just an exciting place to go. New York anyway is very busy, but that was cool. And then we did some other interviews for MTV around New York and some in LA as well.

When you tour around America do you generally just do the main capital cities or a bit of a road trip around the country?

It’s varied, we usually do the main ones but then you can do some very obscure ones as well. It just depends on who books out the tour and wherever you’re wanted. It’s good; you can go to some interesting places.

Have you ever been to those sort of mid-western towns where you look around and say ‘man, we’re a long way from home’?

Yeah, like down south or places like Arizona, but it’s cool. Usually everyone’s really friendly and it’s kinda interesting to look around.

It’s always a pleasure to see you perform, and wish you all the best with the new album.

Thanks Larry.

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Future Primitive is in stores now. The Vines’ performance at Russian Standard Vodka Live At The Chapel will air on GO! At 1pm on 12th June