Van She's Idea of Happiness

Van She had smash successes with their first EP back in ‘05 and debut album V in ’08 and they’ve been tiding us over ever since with a bunch of dance-ready remixes. No more: the boys are ready to release their second full-length album. Called Idea of Happiness and recorded in their Kings Cross studio, it’s promising be a whole lot of feel-good fun. First single ‘Idea of Happiness’ dropped a couple of months back, and, along with its out-there film clip directed by Andreas Nilsson (The Knife, MGMT), it’s whetted our appetite something fierce.

Time Out chatted to bandmembers Nick Routledge and Michael di Francesco about…

...Van She’s flying start
“We were both DJ-ing and making electronic stuff. We started Van She with Matt Van Schie and then met Tomek [Archer] like two weeks after and had our first live show within two months, at Bang Gang. Ajax had put one of our tracks on FBi and I think Modular heard it, so they came down, and after the show asked if we would like to think about making a record.”

…their worst show ever
“We played a gig in Canberra and we left half-way through. There used to be a musicians’ union and they had a rule which was like, if there are less people in the audience than there are in the band, you don’t have to play – there was just like a couple kissing and a dude standing there drunk.”

…Mikey’s musical beginnings
“I played the family organ. My dad said, ‘If you learn how to play piano then you can play any instrument.’ Then I learned euphonium. I was the number one euphonium in the concert band. Out of two.”

…writing new tracks for Idea of Happiness
“We were influenced by a lot of tropical stuff, also a lot of like ’90s R’n’B. And yacht rock. And we’ve been writing kind of via email. Or sometimes we all get together in the studio and put it together in bits and pieces – like Tetris.”

...their very own studio
“We built a little studio in Kings Cross. We got pretty serious with the set-up, which meant that we could just do it at our leisure, instead of being stressed out about money and time. We were pretty much there every day for like a year and a half.”

...its only downside
“Our tour manager turned the downstairs into a music school for kids. For their recitals, they choose a couple of songs – Adele or something – and practise them, and we just hear the same songs all day, over and over.”

…making-the-album sustenance
“When we were recording the record we ate at Ms G’s all the time. We’d be on our way home and be like ‘Come have a pina colada!’ ’Cos they make these pina coladas and they have the little sago balls – they’re really nice!”

…the best places to party on Earth
“London, Sao Paulo… and Japan.”

…Sydney’s best part
“Mad Racket.”

…their favourite Australian acts right now
“Flume; Seekae; Owl Eyes; Catcall.”

Idea of Happiness is out July 6.