The Vanns Interview: Mother
The Vanns shake up indie rock-and-roll with their newest single ‘Mother’. Filled with a charged, yet nostalgic take on loyalty and faithfulness, the four-piece navigate heartbreak. We chat to Cameron and Jimmy of The Vanns about the mechanics of the new single.
How has this past period been since releasing ‘Mother’, with all the traction?
Cam: It’s been pretty good. It’s good to have music out, because it was made a while ago now. It was good to finally put it out.
How long was the process for it?
Cam: The recording only took two months, but it was finished a while ago now.
Do you think this has been the biggest roll-out for you to release a song?
Cam: I’d say it’s gotten the most support… the label support definitely helps and getting added to Spotify playlists helps. I’d like to think a small part of it at least is because people like the song.
‘Mother’ incorporates high-energy, strong arrangements with a strong narrative on loyalty and relationships with others.
How was it to refine the way you used the lyrics?
Cam: The song came about with Oscar Dawson, who produced the record, and Jimmy, who’s in the band. They wrote it and Jimmy had all these lyrics. It came together pretty quickly. We fixed a couple of those lyrics up and replaced them. It was pretty easy.
Was that your first time working with Oscar?
Cam: Yeah. Jimmy and I did a writing session with Oscar. We went for a week to Melbourne. We clicked really well and told our manager, [then] got him to produce the record… He wrote a few of the tracks. He wrote four or five of our songs. He was very involved. He was flying up from Melbourne, and we’re from Wollongong way. He put a lot of time into it. He didn’t do the bare minimum required and got all in about it.
Apart from him being so involved, what perspective did he offer that made your partnership successful?
Cam: I think [it worked] because he’s a real guitar head. Our music is very guitar driven. We’re all into the guitar, so that was cool. He’s also into buzz pedals. He loves buzz, which is a guitar effect.
Would you say that his writing perspective was also significant?
Cam: Yeah. He doesn’t do so much lyrics [wise]. When he helps in writing with songs, he helps come up with little guitar parts that Jim and I wouldn’t. He works with a different flow to the brain in that way. He’s an absolute beast on the guitar.
Jimmy joins Cam to dive further into the lyrics and guide through the creation of the track.
What gave you the idea to play around with the lyrics this way to express relationships.
Cam: Jim started the lyrics and the idea of it.
Jimmy: The song’s based around someone not being there anymore. For us, being in a band together, with the people closest to you, whether you’re related or not, we referenced that as ‘brothers’. Someone that’s really close to you.
The affectionate side of someone else was the ‘mother figure’. That’s how we tied that into the narrative.
How was it to process the fact that someone doesn’t have your best interest in the same way you would have theirs?
Jimmy: You just have to deal with it and move on. The way we did that was by writing the song. You can create drama from nothing, but we just write a song about it. Not everyone is always mutual. You have to carry on with life…
Do you think the honesty and that understanding has made it easier to put your thoughts into lyrics?
Jimmy: Ideally, it would be great to agree with everyone. Wouldn’t that be a perfect world? It’s not that way, and we just want to write about it and be present and honest in that way. If we lived the perfect life and we agreed with everyone and everyone agreed with us, our music would [be like] a Christian rock band.
For ‘Mother’ would you say there’s a lot of empathy between you all when you bring the idea forward?
Jimmy: With our music, without getting to the specifics of what each song is about, [we] like people having their own interpretation and judgement of it, [it’s about] everyone sharing it differently and relating to it different.
Lastly, once again mentioning the metaphors in the lyrics of ‘Mother’, is that something you continue in your upcoming work?
Jimmy: It follows the same theme of mutually not being there for someone else, and someone not being there for you. It’s not necessarily about love, where other songs off the album might be. They are somewhat related. It revolves around relationships, whether that be love, friendship or good friends.
The Vanns will be performing at Valve Bar Sydney on Sunday 7th July 2019, where Cam will showcase, according to Jimmy, his “sick solo”. Be sure to check out The Vanns’ ‘Mother’ and their live gig to see them “bring new life to the track”.