The Vines are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1994. Their sound has been described as a musical hybrid of 1960s garage rock and 1990s alternative rock. The band has been through several line-up changes, with vocalist/guitarist Craig Nicholls serving as the sole constant throughout the band's history.

The Vines' success in the Australian recording industry resulted in winning the ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Get Free" and receiving five other nominations for their debut album Highly Evolved, plus two further nominations in subsequent years. In 2003, the album went platinum in Australia, and since then the band has released four albums and a best-of compilation from their time at Capitol Records. The Vines have released seven studio albums.

History 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. Back in the shed, meanwhile, the three had started developing their own sound on a four-track recorder, 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.

In April 1999, The Vines entered a studio for the first time to record their debut demos with high-school friend Glenn Santry as the engineer. In two quick sessions at A# Studios in Riverwood, they recorded six tracks, including early versions of "In the Jungle" and "Winning Days".

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". In the same year, their Australia debut single "Hot Leather/Sunchild" was released through independent label Illustrious Artists, run by Russell Hopkinson from You Am I.

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. Running into money issues, the originally planned eight-week recording session extended to six months. Faced with pressure from the label, David Olliffe returned to Australia halfway through the recording, leading to the recruitment of session players such as Joey Waronker and Pete Thomas.

The band signed to Heavenly Records in the UK in December 2001 and EMI in Australia in April 2002. While mixing the record Highly Evolved, The Vines signed with Capitol Records.

In early 2002, The Vines embarked on a pre-release tour in the United Kingdom to promote their highly anticipated album, Highly Evolved. 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.

In August, 2002, The band played high-profile slots on the Late Show with David Letterman 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". Their second album, Winning Days, was released on 29 March 2004 and rose to number 23 in the US. "Ride" and "Winning Days" were released as singles in Australia (where they did not chart) and the UK.

Vision Valley (2006–2007)

In mid-2005, the group announced they were working on their third album, with producer Wayne Connolly. Andy Kent of fellow Australian band You Am I filled in on bass playing duties. In November of that year, the band's management announced they had finished recording all the songs that would appear on the album.

"Don't Listen to the Radio" was released as the album's first single, and was made available for digital download on 7 March on iTunes. The song was used on the soundtrack for the video game FlatOut 2. "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)