Art vs Science

Album: Art vs Science (EP)
Label: Independent
Website: myspace.com/artvsscience

The art of Art vs Science

If you are frequenting the festival scene at the moment you’d be hard pressed not to notice one universal act - Art Vs Science. Their music fits within both the rock spectrum and electro gamut, hence their appeal to any festival promoter. Dan Mac (keyboardist and guitarist and vox player) to the Sydney trio considers it wasn’t all that long ago he was a fan on the other side of the festival fence. In fact the transition from punter to performer has been somewhat surreal.
 
“It is interesting seeing all the machinery behind the dream factory you might be able to call it.
 
“When you see everyone on stage it looks like some sort of amazing, magic thing sometimes, when they do it right, but then you get back stage when you see all the generators behind it all but it’s kind of not all that different I suppose, I don’t know though there is a serious side behind it all and that there is hard work involved.” He said.
 
Along with band mates Dan W and Jim Finn the 25 year old has journeyed further than many aspiring school-band musicians ever dream to and the comet’s tail attached to Art Vs Science continues to gain momentum and shine brightly. A recent Aria nomination for ‘Best Breakthrough act’ in the bag as well as a swag of festival dates still to come this year and into next, the band are quite unbelievably still to even produce a first album.
 
Together since high school the three lads were like any other muso kids. Spending their youth as part of garage rock bands and performing at friend’s patio parties. The discovery of an old keyboard and a desire to coin a track reminiscent of their fave electro artists proved the accidental impetus for Art Vs Science being borne.
 
“We decided to plug in this keyboard we found from Dan W’s house, into one of our guitar amplifiers and see if we could play like a Justice kind of song, or Daft Punk and we booked a gig later when the normal band wasn’t available.

“We booked this new gig with Art Vs Science and we didn’t actually have any songs written when we booked it and so we had a bout a week to write our set and so we wrote a set’s worth of material in about two days including Flippers and Hollywood,” recalls Dan.
 
Despite the constant touring and growing popularity the life of a rock-star has so far proven fairly unglamorous. Dan is circumspect when he retells some of the trials and tribulations  encountered thus far (usual for many bands)  and laughs when he admits to still eating bake beans (on occasion) and two-minute noodles because they’re content to save all their touring dosh to prepare for studio time. Mac who comes across as remarkably grounded in his demeanour, still spends time working the gardens of the Northern Western Sydney suburbs of his adolescence and chatting to his pet galah when he’s out that way, is reluctant to predict what lies ahead for his band.
 
“I’m not sure to be honest it’s something I haven’t really, I haven’t been peering too far down the track just because I don’t know.

“I think we’ve been pretty lucky up to this point and we try to  remember that it’s a lot of good luck and good timing and that sort of thing I don’t want to jinx it, by trying to predict it either way.”
 
While they’ll take their time to determine which label is right for them, the upcoming festival circuit has Dan excited for the next few months as long as the promoters heed his pleas for later timeslots in the festivals, he feels whilst it’s an honour to play the early 2pm timeslot they’ve paid their dues and as well the rush of playing the early evening is what he’s chasing.
 
“One movement festival  - Perth, we actually got to play at night time,  I think it’s one of the first times we’ve ever done an outdoor stage at night.

“It was something else again, it was a different kind of energy it was really intense, really cool  hard to describe, it was good though.”
 
Regardless of their timeslots over summer, one thing is for certain, Dan and his bandmates will be giving it their all on stage.
 
“It depends on the crowd the vibe they’re creating each set we try to do a different cover from time to time boom shake the room by the Fresh Prince and we played where’s your head at by Basement Jaxx for the Parklife shows – just things like that and just having fun with the crowd really is what’s going to distinguish one show from another, it’s the same as one conversation from another, different people, at least there’s a different kind of show, so it’s quite fun in that respect.”
 
Art Vs Science play:
The Falls Festival: Marion Bay (Tas) and Lorne: (Vic)
Sunset Sounds: (Brisbane QLD)
Southbound: (Perth WA).
They’ve also been named in the Good Vibrations line-ups nationally this February.

Ruth Bailey