It took seven years for Sydney electronic trio Art vs Science to bring out their latest record, 'Big Overdrive', after 2015's 'Off The Edge Of The Earth And Into Forever, Forever'.
It wasn't planned; as Dan Williams explains, it just kind of happened that way."We're not super great at planning stuff, so we certainly weren't like, 'Let's take a seven-year break and see how that goes!'" Williams laughs, "but funnily enough we always felt active because we were still doing new singles and were still touring."
The band released a series of non-album singles like 'Wickoo' and 'Zeus In The Architecture', plus songs like 'SWEAT' and 'Dance' – which were originally both destined for a project that never eventuated.
"We wanted to do a release that was all monosyllabic singular-word song titles," Dan laughs. "So we were going to go, 'Dance' and 'SWEAT', but then we only ended up doing it for two songs, so that didn't really work out. . . We change our minds quite quickly."
The COVID lockdowns were limiting for the trio, who write and record everything together. "We kind of tried to [write]; someone would email through a riff or a beat or something, but it didn't really work very well," Williams laughs. "It was about 18 months of kind of nothing, so I'm pretty glad it's over."
The lockdowns provided challenges to the group's co-writing style, but allowed them time to revisit old material they had long since abandoned. So much of 'Big Overdrive' was written around the time of their full-length debut, 'The Experiment'.
"When Mac and I were able to get back together legally, we pulled a lot of this old stuff out and kind of revived it," Williams says. "So probably a little more than half of the stuff on that record is actually in various states of oldness; one of the songs on there, I think the drums are from like 2011 or something."
Art vs Science will headline this year's Stones Corner Festival. Williams – who also plays drums for Thelma Plum – says he's looking forward to catching up with Jem Cassar-Daley after meeting her at a show with Plum; and seeing Resin Dogs again.
"Jem's a real legend and very talented, and Resin Dogs – I had their first CD, 'Grand Theft Audio’, back in the I guess the early noughties?" Dan says.
"I used to give it a good rinse on my Discman on the school bus all the time, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing them. I haven't seen them in probably 16 years or something like that."
Resin Dogs live has stuck with Williams, he says, because last time he saw them they had a stand-up drummer.
"I used to do a bit of a gimmick to try to do bits of our songs standing up for, you know, five or ten seconds, but I certainly can't do the old stand up and play the kick drum thing," he laughs. "I can't quite get the balance right and I look like a bit of a goose."
Williams says the Stones Corner set is generous, as far as festival sets go, so they're planning a mixed bag of hits as well as cuts off the new album, some singles and some old B-sides.
"We play 'Sweat' off the new record now, we play 'I Saw You', sometimes we play 'Big Overdrive' and we play one called 'Centaur', which is actually a kind of B-side we released before the album, but that's really fun live," he says.
"I think we'll just do a mix of all that stuff and try our best and put our energy into it. We always like to dance around and be silly, so there'll be plenty of that."
Promising a family-friendly show, Stones Corner Festival will give the band an opportunity to play a rare all-ages show, which Williams says comes with its own unique challenge.
"It's always awesome to play an all-ages show; I mean, they're just so psyched for everything that you do," he laughs. "You do a couple of shows that are all ages and you start thinking you're the best band in the world because of how nuts they go."
Stones Corner Festival takes place at Logan Road in Stones Corner (Brisbane) 30 April. It's free entry, plus it's the eve of the Labour Day public holiday. Art Vs Science have also been added to the Tropic Fiesta programme (Townsville) playing Street Beats on 19 May alongside Pete Murray.
Stones Corner Festival 2023 Line-up
Art Vs ScienceResin Dogs
Yacht Rock Revival
Good Will Remedy
Jem Cassar-Daley
Dusty
Andy Martin
John Hanley & The Hurricanes
