Art Vandelay have been playing together for quite a while. The 3 boys met each other on separate occasions, in their hometown of Mackay, in tropical North Queensland. Brought together by a desire to play live music with guitars and acoustic drums, Jason and Jae soon found themselves in a band together with two other schoolmates, and they adopted the arresting moniker - 7 Ages. After a fallout with their lead guitarist, the boys called on the services of a "friend-of-a-friend" in Josh. Since day one, the 3 'J's' in the band clicked. It was only natural that in January of 2005, after releasing an EP and playing far too many gigs, 7 Ages called it a day, and a new beast was awoken.
Without the constraints of their former singer/guitarist, the dudes were free to play whatever the fuck they wanted. They took advantage of this and soon found that the original material they were writing was great fun to play. After some random jams in a trophy store warehouse, some material was coming together.
In February 2005, the band bid farewell to the town that had bred them into the noise-making merchants they had become, and sought the greener pastures of Brisbane. It was exciting. The big smoke. They heard that there were people in Brisbane who actually appreciated good music! But when they finally moved down, they realised that things werenít going to be so easy. Money was sparse, girlfriends were being missed & accommodation was needed. But as soon as things sorted themselves out; and after a long period of trying to think of a band name - Art Vandelay was born. The idea seemed good ñ a name that has art in it, which is what music kinda is, and a reference to the American sitcom Seinfeld, which was a kind of life support for the boys as they settled into living in the city.
As it turns out, the shock of moving and people changing and realising that life is not always easy proved to be a huge inspiration for the lyrics and music of their new material. On April 28th, the band played their first gig, and now after recording a 4 track demo in their downstairs room, word is starting to pick up and people are starting to take notice of what the band are looking to accomplish within their songwriting and live performances.
The trio's vast array of influences and inspirations are too many to be named ñ but music which is high on musicality, mood and energy in all forms tends to prove most influential. All 3 members come from musical backgrounds- theyíve all played in bands with their Dads, so image and a desire to be part of a 'scene' isn't a priority - they simply want to play tunes, chill out, talk shit and maybe one day be remembered as 3 mates who were passionate enough about music to make it the one thing that brought them together, and the one thing that would never break them apart.
