Interview by SARAH ROBINSON

Their song about using flippers to get down captured the hearts of Aussie festival goers everywhere. Two years later and Art vs Science’s debut album, The Experiment is set for a late Feb release. Dan W spoke about the band’s relaxed approach to recording whilst walking around a revolving door. Not so unusual when you remember that Dan W can drum and sing at the same time. In fact, the band is made up of three highly-skilled multi-taskers, capable of recreating layered, feverish dance tunes without samples or backing tracks. As Dan W explains, “There’s a lot of tricky sounds happening on the album, but we wanted to play it with the intention of reproducing it live.”

And reproduce it live they do. Watching them is like watching chaos theory in practice. With so much to do and so few to do it, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the band to hire a couple of extra hands. Although Dan W says the band is not tempted, they aren’t afraid to think bigger. “We do have lofty ambitions of doing a Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense tour sort of thing. So we have thought about it.”

Art vs Science shot to fame in 2008 through a Triple J Unearthed Competition. Between then and now the band has released a couple of EP’s showcasing their strange yet radio-friendly sounds. “We started the band as an afterthought of bands we were in before. We wanted to do something fresh and weird and never really intended for it to go anywhere.” The band thrives on being ad hoc. As keyboardist and front man, Dan Mac says of the tracks on the album “We just jam them”. Dan W puts it differently. “We are three organs of the same being. Which is unfortunate sometimes. There are arguments sometimes but it’s usually only about the little things.”

The Experiment was recorded in part with Magoo, the Brisbane producer behind Regurgitator, Gerling and Midnight Oil. Dan W explains how during recording the band found an unlikely critic. “Magoo had a five year old daughter who was super cool. We’d play the songs to her and she was brutally honest. You know, they don’t have any social restraints. She’d come in and dance around and jump on the couch throwing pillows.”

The three Sydney-siders head to London next week. They’ve toured there before with the likes of La Roux, The Gossip and Groove Armada. Dan W describes playing to UK audiences. “Last time we went there it was like starting all over again and playing to new faces and ears basically. That was actually really cool. You have to win people over.” And what happens to Art vs Science when their massive album tour is over?  Dan W says they’ll hang out. “It’s like being married. I don’t know if that’s a good thing.”

Catch Art vs Science at the Future Music Festival and with the Chemical Brothers on their headline tour in March. Check out futureentertainment.com.au for more info.

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