Formation and early years (1994–2001) In 1991, Craig Nicholls met
Patrick Matthews while working at their local
McDonald's in the suburb of
South Hurstville,
New South Wales. Bonded over a shared love of rock music, they began playing together at Matthews' home, with Nicholls on guitar and vocals and Matthews on bass. They were later joined by Matthews' school friend
David Olliffe on drums.
Band name Originally called "Rishikesh", a name suggested by Olliffe, which refers to the Indian city where
the Beatles visited an ashram in 1968, they played a couple of small gigs in pubs. The local newspapers regularly misprinted the name as "Rishi Chasms", so Nicholls suggested a new name, "the Vines", as an homage to his father, who fronted a local band called the Vynes.
Early demo recordings and live shows In October 1994, Patrick, Craig and David played their first gig as The Vines at an 18th birthday party at South Hurstville RSL Memorial Bowling Club. They covered songs by
Nirvana,
You Am I, and others. with Nicholls soon emerging as the band's primary songwriter. By late 1998, The Vines only played a handful of gigs over the course of six years. One of them was at The Iron Duke pub in Sydney. Supporting local band Starky, it was the first time they were called back onstage for an encore.
Increased exposure and early releases In 2000, the "In the Jungle" demo was played on
FBi Radio Sydney, catching the ear of
Ivy League Records' Andy Cassell. Ivy League's management company Winterman and Goldstein soon signed The Vines and encouraged them to record further demos and play more shows. In early 2001, The Vines embarked on their first national tour of Australia as supporting act for You Am I and
Eskimo Joe. During their gigs, the band gave away 5-track demo CDs featuring early recordings of songs like "
Highly Evolved" and "Mary Jane". Meanwhile,
Rex Records put out what was to be their UK debut single, "
Factory", as a limited seven-inch single. The release became
NME's Single of the Week in November 2001.
Highly Evolved (2001–2003) By the beginning of 2001, The Vines had compiled a collection of songs. Winterman and Goldstein approached the Australian artist development company Engineroom with a 19-song demo tape. Impressed by their potential, Engineroom signed the band, funded the recording of more demos and negotiated deals with British and American labels, bypassing Australia. American producer
Rob Schnapf became impressed with The Vines after receiving a demo CD, leading him to express interest in collaborating with the band by sending an email filled with the phrase "The Vines!". In July 2001, the band flew to Los Angeles, to begin recording their debut album,
Highly Evolved, with Schnapf at Sunset Sound Studios. As they took to the stage, the band introduced a new drummer,
Hamish Rosser, who replaced David Olliffe. Additionally, The Vines welcomed
Ryan Griffiths, a longtime friend and schoolmate of Nicholls, as a second guitarist. The first single off the album, "
Highly Evolved", earned them more critical acclaim as
NME made it a Single of the Week in March 2002. The single charted in the UK at number 32 on the singles chart and on Australia's
ARIAnet top 100 singles chart.
Highly Evolved was released on July 14, 2002. It reached number 11 in the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100 albums chart and sold 1.5 million copies throughout the world with distribution through
Capitol Records. By end of 2003, the album went
platinum in Australia. and the
MTV Video Music Awards. They won the
ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Get Free" in
2002, and were nominated for five other awards. The Vines gained significant recognition in 2002, appearing on the cover of
Rolling Stone in September 2002 with the words "Rock is Back: Meet the Vines" boldly emblazoned underneath. Referred to as the 'The' bands,
the Strokes,
the Hives,
the White Stripes, and the Vines combined "old fashioned punk and adrenaline fuelled riffs" to be ushered in at the beginning of 2002 as the "saviors of rock". In 2002, The Vines appeared three times on the cover of
NME in June, July, and October, hailed as the future of rock & roll. Their US debut single "
Get Free" was listed as number 38 on NME's "The 100 Greatest Singles of All Time."
Winning Days (2004–2005) In May 2003, the band went into a studio in
Woodstock,
New York, with Rob Schnapf again on production. While Craig Nicholls had talked of having a highly produced album, he told the Australian edition of
Rolling Stone in March 2004 that they decided to stick to a less-is-more philosophy. "I wanted it to be – in my head – something grand, with big ideas and that vision sort of thing. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that something can't be special if it's just simple. Because I think that the songs are the main thing"., 19 February 2004 Their second album,
Winning Days, was released on 29 March 2004 and rose to number 23 in the US. "Gross Out" was made available for digital download on 18 March, and was the first song leaked from the album.
Vision Valley was released on 1 April 2006 in Australia, 3 April in Europe, and 4 April in the United States.
Vision Valley consisted of short, immediate songs; the album running little over 30 minutes in length. "
Anysound" was the second official single from the album, and an animated music video was released exclusively through
YouTube. The song was included as a track heard on the in-game radio in the 2007
LucasArts published
Thrillville: Off The Rails. "Dope Train" was released as a third single, with a music video composed of live footage of the band from Big Day Out in 2007. On 19 July 2006, the Vines played a gig at the Annandale Hotel under the name "Joe Dirt", with a new bassist,
Brad Heald, after Patrick Matthews departed the group. Matthews had left in response to an outburst Nicholls had while the group played a promotional show for
Triple M radio.
Melodia (2007–2008) In 2007, the Vines signed to
Ivy League Records for an Australian album deal. The first single preceding the album
Melodia was "He's a Rocker", which was released through iTunes on 3 June 2008 along with two bonus tracks. "MerryGoRound" was released as a follow-up single for radio airplay in Australia during August 2008. "MerryGoRound" only received support and backing from
Triple J radio. "Get Out" was released as the third single from
Melodia in September 2008 for radio airplay, and a music video was released to coincide with the release of "Get Out" as a single by Ivy League Records on
YouTube. "Get Out" was featured on the in-game soundtrack of
Midnight Club: Los Angeles released in late October 2008 on
Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3 gaming platforms. In October 2008, the Vines commenced a national Australian tour in support of
Melodia, playing small venues throughout Australia. In November 2008, the Vines were announced as being part of the line-up for the 2009 Australian Big Day Out, but the band cancelled.
Future Primitive (2009–2012) On 14 November 2009, the Vines played at the Annandale Hotel, under the alias of the Crimes. They had a support slot with You Am I, playing their back catalogue and a new song from an album due in 2011. A music video for "Gimme Love" wrapped filming on 1 March 2011, with the completed video surfacing online through YouTube on 27 March. The music video pays homage to the 2010 film
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Over a year after its completion,
Future Primitive received an official release date through
The Daily Telegraph on 3 June 2011. Because the Vines did not have a label at the time of recording, the band members funded the album's recording themselves. Upon the album's completion, the band approached various record labels to see if any were interested in signing the band for its release, explaining the year-long delay between recording and release. On 26 November 2011, rumours on the band's
Facebook page suggested that the band had "pushed out" two of its members. At the 2011
Homebake music festival, the Vines emerged on the main-stage as a three piece, consisting of Nicholls, Heald and drummer Murray Sheridan. The departure of both Griffiths and Rosser was confirmed by
Channel V presenter
Jane Gazzo, who wrote that the two had been "sacked" in a
Twitter post. Craig's sister, Jess Nicholls, also confirmed their departure via the band's official forum. "If any of you were at Homebake yesterday, I'm sure you can agree the set was amazing and sounded better than ever," she wrote. "The band has made a creative decision to revert back to a three piece, as they originally started. I know you will probably have a lot of questions but just wanted to say don't fear, this is in no way the end of the Vines!!" Nicholls, Heald and Sheridan performed again at Southbound music festival in Perth on 8 January 2012. On 16 March 2012, Rosser announced that he had joined Australian rock band
Wolfmother, as their new drummer, on the
Faster Louder website. He also claimed that the band had "broken up", although "Craig [Nicholls] will always write great music in the future and he may choose to carry on under the Vines' name."
Wicked Nature (2012–2015) Heald confirmed his departure from the band in 2012. A new line-up, consisting of Nicholls, drummer Lachlan West and bassist Tim John, entered the studio to record their sixth album on 20 August 2012 in Sydney's 301 Studio and completed the mixing of the album at the end of 2012. West revealed in a June 2013 interview with his other band, Something With Numbers, that two producers have worked on the forthcoming Vines release.
Paul McKercher produced the first half of the record and
Lachlan Mitchell, who also produced the latest Something With Numbers record, worked on the second half based upon West's recommendation to Nicholls. The article also stated that the new Vines album was "due for release in the latter half of this year (2013)". According to a June 2014
Faster Louder article, in addition to the anticipated sixth album, a seventh album was recorded with the new line-up. The lead single "Metal Zone" was released on 14 July. Its music video premiered on Noisy on 11 July. Craig Nicholls announced the side project White Shadows, focused on
electronic music. The project released the lead single "Give Up Give Out Give In" on 9 April 2015, with a music video produced. The debut White Shadows album
Secret of Life was released later in 2015, featuring over 70 different guest musicians.
In Miracle Land and classic line-up reunion (2016–2018) On 1 April 2016, The Vines released the single "In Miracle Land". On 14 April 2016, Craig Nicholls performed a solo show at Sydney's Newtown Social Club. The band supported the upcoming album with a brief "In Miracle Land" tour, playing three dates in October 2016. In 2017, The Vines re-issued their debut album,
Highly Evolved, in celebration of its 15th anniversary. On 28 April 2018, Nicholls performed with
The Killers in Sydney, joining them for "When We Were Young" and "Get Free." The album
In Miracle Land was released on 29 June 2018, featuring the same line-up as their previous album
Wicked Nature, with Tim John on bass and Lachlan West on drums.
Eighth studio album (2018–present) On 30 March 2024, in a YouTube interview, Hamish Rosser confirmed his return to The Vines, mentioning that new music is in progress and awaiting finalization and release. Rosser mentioned Autumn Shade V as one of the new songs. == Musical style ==