Maddie chats to Marc to get to know Vaudeville Smash a little better.

Vaudeville Smash are a funk-filled grooving machine from Melbourne, and they’re bringing back the 80’s with their new album ‘The Gift’.

You may have seen one of their videos on YouTube because they’ve had quite a successful run with their catchy music videos. Their most popular hit ‘Zinedine Zidane’ featuring sports broadcaster Les Murray has over 4 million views and was a viral hit for the world cup. Since then, the hits have kept coming, including their new single ‘Laura’, “a song about a wild, untamed man-eater – and the men who welcome the imminent heartbreak”.

1. Maddie: How would you describe Vaudeville Smash in one sentence to our readers?    Marc: A raucous journey down the synth and sax-laden highway that divides funk and disco.

 

2. I know the band is named after an Italian children’s karaoke machine, but why did you choose that to be the band name? We’re pretty big on Nostalgia. Three of us are brothers (me included). We spent a chunk of our childhood in Italy and this Kooky commercial used to pop up on TV advertising this weird Karaoke machine. It used to crack us up. We had our first gig coming up and hadn’t come up with a name yet. It seemed like a good idea at the time!!

 

3. You’re halfway through your current tour, what can fans expect? And are there any interesting stories to share? Live we’re a an explosion of funk, flute, sax, synth and groove – fun, energetic and eclectic, our mission is to make people happy, let loose and dance.

There’s still a Sizzlers in Townsville. We went there. That’s pretty interesting if you ask me.

 

4. The music video for ‘Laura’ was released recently and it’s pretty funky! I love it! How was the filming process? Extremely stressful and extremely tiring. Our director Chris Mitchell had to fit a ton of filming into a very small time window and heaps of things went wrong. The joys of being an indie band! It was still fun but 50 takes of us going nuts meant we were all sore for a week.

5. What was it like working with Shivawn Joubert (the dancer)? Not only did she absolutely nail the part, she was super professional and a total sweet heart.

 

6. All of your music videos have been extremely successful (Zinedine Zidane has over 4 million views which is epic!!) and I’m sure ‘Laura’ will be the same, what’s the key to making such entertaining music videos? Being creative, fun and working with really good directors who have a passion for the project. When you only have limited funds you need a really good concept and a director who can hustle!

 

7. Your sophomore album ‘The Gift’ has just been released, what’s the album about and where did the name come from? With this album, we really tried to hone in on a sound. We wanted anyone to be able to listen to any track and say ‘yep, this is VS’. It’s heavily influenced by the early 80s funk/boogie scene.

The name ‘The Gift’ has a double meaning. 1. It’s what we call this slap guitar thing our guitarist, Marty, does. It’s his ‘Gift’ and it features on every song. 2. No-one really buys albums now-days so, hey, this is our ‘Gift’ to the world!

 

8. I noticed the album artwork was an Italian children’s karaoke machine, why was it important to use that image on a second album, rather than the first? And did any of you actually own one of those karaoke machines? Ha, good spotting. Our original idea was this crazy maze in a pin-ball machine. It was just too intense so we ended up using it as inner art for the Vinyl and CD. We then – quite desperately, as time was running out – approached our mate, who’s a kick ass designer and knew the story of the name, and that is what he came up with. We loved it! Unfortunately none of us owned the Karaoke machine.
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9. So far on tour, how have the fans reacted to ‘The Gift’? The response has been amazing. We’re constantly getting private messages saying how much people love the album. We had a feeling our fans would.

 

10. The band has been around for nine years, what have you learned in the industry over the years? NINE! Only 6 and a half, although being in a band with two of your brothers can make it feel like 20 sometimes. I’ve learnt not to worry about cliques and fashion. Do what you do and do it well. There are enough people in this world that will like it if you do.
    (I saw 2009 and somehow thought that meant they had been around for nine years.. I swear I passed maths in high school..)

 

11. And how have you managed to stick together for so long? It seems like many bands can’t quite get their line-up right, but you guys fit well together! We’re constantly trying to improve and are always thinking about new ways to make this fun. It really helps being able to tour with people you really like. It also helps that people keep coming to our shows. If they didn’t we’d probably stop.

 

12. So what’s next for Vaudeville Smash? We’ve three shows and cities left on the album tour, including our home-town of Melbourne. It’s gonna be a party. Then I’m going to Italy for a month to see my Nonna.

 Thank you so much to Marc for answering these questions!

Remember to go and check them out on the rest of their tour and grab a copy of their album ‘The Gift’ here: https://vaudevillesmash.bandcamp.com/merch or on iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/the-gift/id1143217051?app=itunes

 Catch them on tour:

Saturday 10^TH September at Jive in Adelaide

Saturday 24^th September at The Gasometer Hotel in Collingwood

Saturday 1^st October at the Captain Cook Hotel in Sydney
Ticket details are available via the band’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/thevaudevillesmash/app/308540029359/