VINTED VINEER

Writer: Joe Maranta

Photographers: @talukaart, @strydomphotos

“Are you sweet man, how much did you have?”

His friend’s question receives no verbal response, though it doesn’t take a body language expert to infer his answer. The sudden departure from the table, his altered gait and the sweat turning his once grey t-shirt black implies that he is not sweet, and however much he had was too much.

The Howard Smith Wharves are no place for psychonauts. The elegant maxi dresses and freshly shined RM Williams boots present too much of a juxtaposition for our sweat-drenched protagonist to handle. It’s a world where he’d feel out of place sober, let alone in his current state. As he checks his phone the now 3D screen displays 17:30. He curses himself, he plays in just over 2 hours’ time.

Noticing that the overbearing haze of psychedelia wanes in tandem with his isolation, he continues along the riverside boardwalk. The healing notes of Sunbeam Sound Machine combine with a classic mid-spring sunset. The purple and red skies play off the bright LED lights of the Story Bridge to create a breath-taking audio-visual colour palette. His once panicked psyche is slowly returning to its prior state of controlled euphoria, his aimless stroll has gone far enough now. Time to face reality again. 

The still 3D pixels on his phone now display 18:30 as he re-enters the Wharves. He finds his noticeably distressed bandmates still sitting at the table.

“Dude where have you been, are you going to be alright for tonight?”

He takes a second to really think it through, a wry smirk slowly emerging

“I guess we’ll find out.”

This is Vinted Vineer

A sonic expedition into uncharted territories, Vinted Vineer is the project of family friends Dom Ritchie (Vox, Guitar) and Charlie Normoyle (Lead Guitar) as well as high school friends Koen Yoshida-Martin (Bass), Matt Appleton (Synth) and Theo Lang (Drums). 

Well-rounded but with plenty of edge, the soundscapes of Vinted Vineer are often unpredictable though always reliable. An amalgamation of psychedelia, indie rock and experimental digitisation, comparisons for Vinted Vineer are redundant, you’ll just have to listen for yourself. 

JOE: Great to have all of you here today! How did you all meet and form Vinted Vineer?

DOM: Vinted Vineer started as a studio project between Charlie and I, just kicking riffs and making demos. Matt was the first member to join us two, originally on Bass, and it’s slowly grown from there. We all knew each other through high school though, except for Matt who I met at TAFE in year 12.

THEO: I’ve always been a drummer since I was 6 or 7, but I never really enjoyed it until the last couple of years once I joined these guys. That’s when I started really loving it [drumming]. 

MATT: I originally played guitar before Dom taught me Synths. The transition was daunting at first but I got the hang of it. It's a completely different instrument but it’s pretty fun learning it, and Dom is a good teacher to have. 

JOE: How do you reflect on last year’s self titled EP and what lessons did you take into your debut album?

DOM: That was our last project as just a duo. We really enjoyed the process of making a complete body of work. 

CHARLIE: There were less restrictions on Tobi Yume than what we’d done in the past. We gave ourselves less rules, it was more us. 

DOM: There wasn’t as much concern as to how it would play with what we’d done prior as a band. It was also more of a studio thing, we didn’t worry about how it would translate live - we just went for whatever we felt was right. 

JOE: Your latest album TOBI YUME is a definitive expansion on where you’ve come as a band, was there any apprehension that you were pushing yourselves too far this time around?

DOM: You’ll always have apprehensive thoughts in the moment, but I think it was premeditated in a way - we knew we’d always head in this fusion direction, making it a bit more digital and bold. I was listening to a lot of ASTROWORLD by Travis Scott during the recording of the album. What he did incorporating rock into hip-hop inspired me to do the opposite, and try to incorporate elements of hip-hop into our rock.

JOE: What were the influences you took on board during the album’s creation?

CHARLIE: The Flaming Lips definitely. 

DOM: Mk.gee and Chanel Beads as well. I often come back to Homeshake too, there was definitely plenty of RnB influence present on top of that. 

THEO: When I first joined I never listened to what a lot of the other boys were listening too. I came from a jazz background, so I try to incorporate that into my drumming and I like showing Dom what I listen to. It shows when we’re writing, I’ll come up with something and it might not be what we want but we build off it. It's good having two different points of view to bounce off. 

JOE: Do you plan to incorporate the unorthodox aspects of the album, like the glitchiness of ‘BITEME!’ to a live setting?

DOM: Totally! We’re trying to figure out what sample pads to use and different vocal effects as well, we’re in the process of doing that at the moment. 

JOE: You all did an incredible live performance of the album underneath a bridge recently, how did that come together?

DOM: We’ve always loved music videos like Pink Floyd’s Pompeii and visually stimulating structures. Sebby [Dom’s brother and Vinted Vineer manager] is the big brains behind that, he snapped. We have a friend Seb Harman who does amazing visuals, he set up the cameras and we ran through six songs off the record. We were trying to do it so we could get the sunset, but it ended up being sunset to dusk. It was rushed in the end, we couldn’t even hear ourselves when we were playing. 

KOEN: We thought that we didn’t get the shot, but it worked out in the end!

JOE: It's safe to say you’re one of Brisbane’s fastest rising bands at the moment, do you consider Brisbane a place where you can stay and still achieve your full potential as artists?

DOM: I think you can do it from Brisbane. We don’t know where the future will take us but Brisbane has always been a good place for bands. 

CHARLIE: It’s always good to go away and come back to Brisbane to see the difference. Some bands in Sydney say that the market is a bit crowded with bands, but Brisbane is great in that regard - it’s not too big, not too small. It’s very tight knit here as well, so much support. Brisbane people know to turn up, when we were deciding to drop the album we considered a lot of things but that BIGSOUND period just seemed like the best choice because everyone drops this time of year, everyone’s playing. 

THEO: A lot of the bands we play with in Sydney fit the same genre, but in Brisbane each band is doing their own thing soundwise. 

JOE: There’s recently been parliamentary inquiries into festival cancellations across the country, how do you find these cancellations shaping the local Australian music scene?

DOM: I think it’s a symptom of the scene as a whole, whether it’s splendour or a gig on Friday night. I think when these cancellations happen people just lose more faith in our institutions and it becomes a vicious cycle of negativity. 

CHARLIE: Shit is just more expensive. It’s harder to go out and spend money on gigs.

THEO: I’m a lot younger than these boys, but when my mates talk about going to a festival it’s usually just to see one person. They don’t see it to appreciate music, they see it as one singular thing / artist. 

KOEN: People don’t go to festivals for new music anymore, there’s a new approach to live music from people now.

JOE: Who would you say have been your favourite acts you’ve seen live in your time playing together?

THEO: We played The Zoo last year with a band called Bark and I was blown away, I just thought to myself that this band is crazy good. Great guys as well. 

DOM: We definitely love EchoWave. Our mates as well like Special Features, Phantasm Street from Redcliffe are an amazing band. Mr Finn is dope, 01 Thurman are great up and comers. We played last Friday night with Mt Nadir and Strayfold, they were mindblowing. 

JOE: Theo you’re a proper AFL player, how do you feel about a potential call up to the Reclink Cup and would you take it easy on everyone?

SEB: He’d go full sweat, he’d speccy on everyone. I’m going to make sure to reach out to them next year and let them know that Theo is keen. 

THEO: I don’t know I’m pretty competitive haha. Can’t say for sure how I’d go.

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