Perth Music

Friday 29th February, 2008
University Of WA, Perth
Karnivool
Blue Juice

The University of Western Australia Guild brought a double headline this year to its annual O’day concert. Both Karnivool and Blue Juice were fresh from playing at The Big Day Out concerts across the country and showed up looking as if they were excited about playing to a student audience, even dressing the part, with some of the boys from Karnivool going barefoot for their set. I hadn’t seen such a laid back attitude since Hobbsy was bangin’ the sticks for End of Fashion, and the crowd seemed to embrace it all the way. Both bands also featured in this year’s Hottest 100 with Blue Juice’s ‘Vitriol’ coming in at #11 and Karnivool’s cover of the Gotye song ‘The Only Way’ coming a respectable #62.

Blue Juice were in their element playing to the strong crowd who just wanted to dance after a warm afternoon signing up to the multitude of clubs whilst downing their free bottles of vitamin water. ‘Vitriol’ was a crowd favourite as was ‘The Reductionist’ as it seemed the infectious nature of Blue Juice took over the Oak Lawn with a party atmosphere that was highly contagious.

Then came Karnivool. By this time the crowd was well warmed up and it wasn’t hard to see that the local students wanted to see their home town heroes rock the shit out of the stage. After a solid opening number and the ever crowd favourite ‘Fade’, lead singer Ian Kenny brought it down a notch to let the crowd know their next song would be a tune to dance to. The crowd’s dismay was summed up by one member of the crowd who yelled out in response, ‘Dance! What the fuck is that?!’ But this particular chap wasn’t confused for long as the boys broke out to the opening of Hottest 100 favourite ‘The Only Way’. The rest of the set was the typically high standard Karnivool set, albeit a little subdued, possibly due to the long Big Day Out tour that had preceded. This was ever so noticeable when after the set had finished and the band left the stage, the chanting began for an encore. Even the host was revving up the crowd for more and even introduced them again on to the stage. The crowd’s persistence payed off as guitarist Drew Goddard leapt back onto to stage only to tell the receptive crowd that there would be no encore and that they were a great crowd. Ever disappointed yet totally exhausted, the crowd made a hasty yet fulfilled exit.

Review and photos by Kane Middleton

Van She have created a stir throughout the music industry over the past few years with their 80’s style of electro-pop and a successful EP under their belt that included the hits Sex City and Kelly.  The release of their latest single Cat & The Eye is out now and the Sydney boys are hitting the road as a lead up to the release of their debut album which is set for June this year. Synth player, Mikey De Francesco from Van She talked to Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (13:27 - 1.6Mb)

“It’s just one of those things that happened” Mikey explained, talking about the latest single Cat & The Eye. “Mid last year we hired a studio out for a couple months and just hung out every day. We did (Cat & The Eye) and it just stuck around for a while and we kept going back to it even after we wrote more songs. Even the label and management were into that one. It also ties into Sex City and the first EP and I think it’s a nice transition for the next thing that’s coming out. It’s kinda got the same vibe but it’s a bit more cosmic.”

The recording of their debut album took place in London and will include Cat & The Eye. Mikey described the recording process “We recorded it in a studio called Konk which is owned by Ray Davies, who is one of The Kinks, and the board that we recorded it on is the same desk as what Pink Floyd did The Wall on and Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney tracked The Girl Is Mine. The studio was amazing and the history was just ridiculous. London was kind of hard, I think, but in retrospect we had a ball, it was kinda like school camp. It was fun and definitely something to look back on and go ‘we had fun making it’.”

The band have toured tirelessly over the past year supporting Daft Punk, Sneaky Sound System, Operator Please and even heading to Brazil and Japan this year. Mikey explained that after this tour Van She will do another tour once a second single is released and then a larger one when the album is released. He says “The album is almost finished, it’s just getting mastered next week. There’s just a couple little interludes to do and then it’s done. It’s kinda weird because it has been so long and taken so long. It will be weird but kinda cool once it’s pressed and we have it in our hands and we can say ‘Oh! Shit! It’s done. That’s it’.”

I asked Mikey if the album will be a new direction for the band or similar to their EP. He replied “There are moments that are similar to the EP but I think it’s more developed and more song orientated. It’s kinda weird, the songs are all quite different to each other. Although there are still common threads running between them sonically.”

You can catch Van She playing around the country at the following dates:
Fri 7 Mar – Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay, NSW
Sat 8 Mar - Sands Tavern, Maroochydore, QLD
Sun 9 Mar - The Troubadour, Brisbane, QLD
Thu 13 Mar - The Annandale Hotel, Sydney, NSW
Fri 14 Mar - The Bakery, Perth, WA
Sat 15 Mar - Mojo’s, North Fremantle, WA
Sun 16 Mar - Ed Castle, Adelaide, SA

For more info visit www.vanshe.com.