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Full of swooning vocals and lustrous tones, Wollongong indie rockers The Vanns have delighted the ears of many since their inception in 2013. And since those early days this charming quartet have continued to flourish, most recently signing with 123 Music/Sony, touring their brains out and carving up some dreamy tunes along the way.
With the recent single Deranged further teasing what's to come from The Vanns and their hotly anticipated debut full-length Through The Walls, there's undoubtedly a whole lot of creamy rock awaiting us come October 25th. But before we can wrap our eyes and ears around the new album, we grabbed bassist Tom Switlek to share his 5 favourite moments and memories from recording Through The Walls, including some insight into some specific sonic spots on Through The Walls. Check it out below!
Recording the album in general I think was probably my favourite memory of the whole album process. Getting to work with an awesome producer (Oscar Dawson) and making our first ever album together as a band just felt really rewarding! Everything about the whole process I think we all loved, apart from leaving the studio each night to go back to the lounge room floor we’d been sleeping/ watching breaking bad on all month.
One day later Into the recording process Tom and Cam had signed off early for the day and decided to leave Jimmy to do some vocals, while we would go down the road for a drink. A couple hours and bottles later we made our way back to the studio to find Jimmy finished his vocals. Cam then went in to do some backing vocals which ended being being quite hilarious. It was then, upon many other sounds and noises, where the big “Barnsy” scream just before the second chorus in the song “Mother” was recorded.
We stayed in Collingwood for the over dubs and mixing part of the album in a nice Airbnb. I don’t know if it was because we’d been sharing a floor before then, but something about that place that was overwhelmingly pleasant! And only a small walk from the studio (the sack).
On Mother’s Day, we thought we’d surprise our producer (Oscar Dawson) with some nice flowers from the local Woolies. I think it’s safe to say our relationship “flourished” quite handsomely from then on.
When we recorded the bass for “You and I” we used a piece of cardboard as a pick and we jammed a bunch of sponge under the strings near the bridge of the guitar. Kept a pair of scissors on hand and about 10 picks later the bass line was done!
TO PRE-ORDER THE VANNS UPCOMING ALBUM THROUGH THE WALL, HEAD HERE. PLUS, YOU CAN CATCH THE VANNS ON THE ROAD KICKING OFF THEIR ALBUM LAUNCH TOUR NEXT MONTH. MORE INFO BELOW, AND FOR ALL OTHER THE VANNS INFO HEAD HERE.
BY TIANA SPETER