Exclusive: Art vs. Science discuss debut album

They are one of the hottest acts in the country right now. No literally, they are. In an exclusive chat with Rip It Up, Art vs. Science drummer Dan Williams gives an insight into the "crazy" experience of laying down their debut record.

How has the recording been going so far?

“It’s great. We’ve locked ourselves up in a little studio in St Peter’s in Sydney. It’s a cool little place and totally out of the way so we can really sort of isolate ourselves from the world and turn off all phones and make madness and stuff. And there’s a really good place around the corner that sells really good chicken schnitzels, so everything’s perfect.”

Have you found it much of a different experience recording your debut album compared to recording the EP?

“Well we’re actually working with the same producer and engineer who did our first EP because it’s a tried and tested and loved relationship so it’s really working. But we’re in a different studio and I guess it is a little different doing a whole album because you’ve really got to think on a grander scale I suppose. Not that we’re going for any sort of grand concept album or anything. Maybe it’s just more stressful because there’s more to do. Also the EP was done so quickly, we went in and bashed it out in two days or something and that was kind of it, we didn’t mess with anything after that. It was kind of like, ‘Woah, it’s done now!’ But this is like we’ve gone in and demoed, and then we’ve gone back, then we’ve written new bits, then we’ve gone back and changed everything, and so we’re all going crazy.”

Art vs. Science seem to really suit the live arena. Do you find it constraining working in the studio environment?

It’s just a different beast. We do try to write songs that we can perform live. We’ve only six hands between us so there’s only so many sounds we can create. When we’re making the record we certainly think about how it will sound live. Actually that’s mostly what we think about, and we kind of stay true on the record to our live sound. Like we do it with live drums and there’s no sequencers and stuff because it is dance music and it’s very precise and everything, but we want it breathe and we want people to know that it’s people playing this music.

There are lots of dance/electro bands who use backing tracks and samplers when they play live. Is being able to recreate all your sounds onstage something that’s important to you?

“Yeah, we think so. We like doing it all live. We’ve never done the backing track thing, basically because when we started we actually didn’t know how to do it. It wasn’t an ethical choice or something, we just had no idea how to do it. I mean we’ve seen some bands that use backing tracks really well and other ones that don’t use them very well, it’s like the whole band is a backing track. We’ve never really responded well to bands that have been wholly supported by it all. But I dunno, it’s just not for us. We just enjoy hitting keys and drums and jumping up and down – that’s lots of fun for us.”

Will there be much experimentation with your sound on the record, or will you just stick to the formula that’s served you so well thus far?

“There’s a few darker – I hate saying ‘darker’, that’s a bad word for it – there’s a few more moods on the album perhaps. But it’s certainly still all fun dance music, there’s no drastic change. There’s no ballads or anything. I mean we don’t have any great pretensions or any hidden meanings in all our stuff, it’s just sort of have some fun and maybe think about strange things. That was kind of the purpose of it all.”

Is the plan to release the album independently like you did with the EP?

“Yes, we are doing it independently. We’ve toured hard over the past 18 months or so and so we fell like we can do the records confidently and independently. I mean we’ve got a good team of people around us helping and everything, but it seemed like the smart option. And we have all the creative control this way and do whatever singles we like and whatever artwork we like.”

When do you think the album will be released?

“It’s slated for a mid-June release I believe. And I think the new single should be at radio in sort of late April. Yeah, something like that. Nothing’s set in stone but that looks to be the way.”

Art vs. Science headline the Fringe Parade concert tonight (Fri Feb 19) with Killaqueens, The Killgrils, Canvas Kites and DJ Sanchez. They will return to Adelaide for the Bacardi Express 'Off The Rails' sideshow at L!VE on Light Square on Fri Mar 12.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E-NEWSLETTER!