A Quick Chat with The VANNS

Answered by Cameron Little (guitarist, keys, vocals)

‘Up All Night’ feels both introspective and anthemic, can you take us back to where the song began and what inspired its creation?
I always struggle with pinpointing what inspires a song, or where inspiration comes from in general. Most of the song came out all in one day, and was originally written as a more pop-acoustic sounding thing, but one of the joys of being in a band is that a song can end up not how you expected it to (and sound better!)

The lyrics explore themes of emotional fatigue and searching for meaning, was there a specific moment or experience that sparked those feelings while writing this track?
I think it’s just a whole bunch of thoughts and angst crammed into one song. I don’t think there was a specific experience or anything, but more just life questions that are always there in one way or another. Also, I’ve never put it the way you asked, but I might start, because fundamentally, the song is about how searching for meaning can be incredibly emotionally fatiguing (but worth it?).

You’ve worked with Oscar Dawson again on this single, what did he bring to the process this time around, and how did his input shape the final sound?
Oscar’s a gun. One (and there are many) of his skills is keeping a session moving. If left to my own devices, I can be analysing what pickup I should do a guitar part on for literal hours, so for me, it’s nice to have someone say, “that sounds good as is, let’s record it”.
This time around he added a nice challenge to the mix by now living in London. We were over in the UK on tour and went into the studio with him in London as soon as the tour wrapped up.

Musically, ‘Up All Night’ balances that raw rock energy with vulnerability. How did you go about capturing that balance in the studio?
As I mentioned earlier, the song kinda started as a more acoustic track, but once Jimbo (James Vann, vocals / guitar) dropped his electric guitar down to drop D and Banjo (Andrew Banovich, drummer) was doing his Tom-heavy part on the drum (Tom Switlek, bass), it was clear it was gonna be more of a “rock” song. There’s really not that much to the track sonically. Two guitars, drums, bass and vocals. I think when we heard the first take of it like that, it was clear that this song didn’t need much more in order to convey what it needed to.

It’s your first new release since Last Of Your Kind. How does ‘Up All Night’ set the tone for what’s coming next from The VANNS?
Been ages, right?! I think it set the tone in the sense that it was one of the first songs we all put together as a band for this record. Although, after listening back to everything we recorded for this forthcoming album, it’s pretty diverse sounding musically. I guess the only tone it truly set was that it’s a song about the emotional fatigue of searching for meaning, which for me as a writer, seems like a subject I’m predisposed to write about, so there’ll be plenty more of that!

You’ve just wrapped up your first U.S. show at SXSW and continue to play to packed rooms at home, how have those live experiences influenced the new music you're working on?
SXSW was mad! A bunch of cool shows and a lot of BBQ. Hell yeah. Our live shows definitely inform the music we work on. I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone, but I often picture how a song would go live whilst we’re putting it together in the writing stages. For instance, if Banjo’s doing a cool drum part with specific hits in a song, I think about what Dave (our lighting guy) would do in those moments when we play it live. Weird, I guess, but it’s how I think (laughs nervously).