“We just got back from America a few weeks ago,” Luca recounts. “It was an amazing experience, but it was a hard slog. We all came back extremely exhausted, but a lot tighter as a unit. We had the Apollo Bay Festival a week after that, and that was really amazing. We’ve become much closer as a band because of all the touring we’ve done. There are a lot of positives to come out of it all,” he muses.
“It’s just that there are stages where we have to drive up to Sydney and drive back as soon as the show’s finished. But delirium always makes things fun,” laughs frontman Marc. “Spending twenty out of twenty-four hours driving will do that to you,” adds Luca. “But that’s our passion. We slave for our art,” states Ben. “I reckon once you’ve stopped doing it hard, bands become shit,” Marc quips. “Could it be that there’s just no desperation?” he ponders. “Nah, I reckon it’s just that their fingers can’t move as quick, arthritis has set in,” Dan ponders.
One of the most steadfast of tropes bandied about musical discourse is the concept of the ‘guilty pleasure’, and with their music falling most definitely within the realm of feelgood pop, could it be that The Vaudeville Smash are, in fact, a guilty pleasure? “Well I think there is a fine line [between feelgood and guilty pleasure], but I reckon it can be both, for sure,” Marc muses.
“These are just songs that we write naturally; we’re not trying to write pop songs. This is just what comes out. It’s just what I used to listen to when I was a kid – top 40 stuff from the late-’80s and early-’90s, and watching Karate Kid and all that sort of bullshit. I didn’t have a dad that chucked on Bob Dylan and all that – I grew up listening to pop. And pop back then was written by amazing musos and played by amazing musos,” he recalls. “It’s just good music, not a guilty pleasure,” concludes Luca.
After touring relentlessly for the past twelve months, the lads are all set to unleash EP number two on unsuspecting ears. Which begs the question, how have The Vaudeville Smash evolved within the space between their two releases? “The main difference is that with the first EP we just chucked it out because we wanted to get something out there to get the ball rolling, and this one comes from playing together solidly for a year, and the songs that are on it have been played a thousand times. While the last one was slammed down to sound more like an old school live jam, this one here’s a lot more layered and we spent a lot more time going back and refining the sound,” explains Marc.
“More overdubs, strings, harmonies. We were really lucky to have a lot of amazing string players on it – violins and cellos and so forth. It was an eleven-piece string section that we have on most of the songs, which really adds a lot. The songwriting’s more diverse as well – there’s no doubt that there’s more variety, the approach was really different,” adds Ben. “Let’s face it, this record is a guitar-fest,” guitarist Nic proclaims. “It’s a treat to the ears.”
“This time it’s more of a spiritual journey more than a musical one,” muses Ben with a laugh. “Actually don’t quote that, ignore it,” he grins.
