Stamping The Tiles

"Everyone was saying, 'Have you heard this? They've ripped you off!' And it does sound a lot like our song Dirty Old Man (Come Inside),” Lucchesi admits. “[But] it's good for us! The fact that they're bringing back the disco it means that for once in our life we may be playing what the cool kids like! Rather than just doing our own thing in our own little world! The thing is, we've got quite a diverse range of influences. And we'd be unable to just stick with the one. Because we write a lot of stuff and a lot of stuff actually gets not used for the band because it doesn't quite fit. However, if it sits on the fringe and we like it enough, it will join the Vaudeville Smash library. On the album we've got a song called Honeymoon, which is this '50s doo-wop sounding thing, and then we've got quite a retro disco sounding song with Devil Says, and then we've got a more Cars sounding pop song with Don't Say A Word, so there's quite a difference between them. But I do think it all works.”

Hall & Oates, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Huey Lewis & The News, Todd Rundgren and Prince: the one thing all their influences have in common is the decade of the '80s. Vaudeville Smash love the sounds of that decade. But they take their favourite bits and add their own flavour. “I don't want to just be a copycat band of the '80s stuff,” says Lucchesi. “We want it to be our own thing. And while Dancing For The Girl does sound a little bit like a Lionel Ritchie/George Michael/Bee Gees song or whatever, if you put it back-to-back it doesn't sound like it at all. It's got modern production, we use loops quite often, we use modern synths in many cases, as well as the retro ones, and it sounds like us. And I think that has a lot to do with Dan's production and the sounds we used, and also my voice and Dan's harmonies.”

Of the five members of Vaudeville Smash, three are brothers (guitarist Nic Lam and keyboardist James Bowers are the non-related members). Mark's brother Luca plays bass and their drummer brother Dan also produced the bulk of debut album, Dancing For The Girl. It's an appropriate title considering Lucchesi got into music to impress girls. “I did, actually,” he admits. “And I daresay if you ask a group of a hundred musos why they got into music I'd say most of them would say the same thing. You learn to do it for other reasons after a while, but definitely in the beginning just playing in your high school band and seeing the reaction of the fairer sex, that was pretty cool. It definitely made me practice more!”

Since playing their first gig in 2009, Vaudeville Smash have been consistently killing it live, their high energy show an impressive mix of showmanship and serious musicianship. But after trying to capture that live vibe with their first two EPs, they realised they wanted to do something different for their debut long player and create a “sonic feast”. “We were definitely going for that slick, well-played pop sound. Your recorded stuff shouldn't be like the live show. If you're a good live band, the live show should always be better.”