Art vs. Science are an Australian

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

band based in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Formed in February 2008, the three-piece consists of James Finn (styled as Jim) on vocals and keyboards; Daniel McNamee (styled as Dan Mac) on vocals, guitars and keyboards; and Daniel Williams (styled as Dan W.) on drums and vocals. The trio received three nominations at the

ARIA Music Awards of 2010 The 24th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) are a series of award ceremonies which included the 2010 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fine ...

for their independent extended play release, '' Magic Fountain'' and, in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

, the group won

ARIA Award for Best Independent Release The ARIA Music Award for Best Independent Release, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recording ...

for their debut album '' The Experiment''. The album peaked at No. 2 on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

History

2008–2009: Formation and early EPs

In February 2008, Art vs. Science formed in Sydney as an electro-pop dance band, after Dan McNamee attended a

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

concert in 2007. He convinced his former high school friends, Jim Finn and Dan Williams to join. The trio were ex-members of Roger Explosion, a rock-punk band, which had formed in 2003 and included Finn's brother Tom on bass guitar. By 2007 Roger Explosion had released two extended plays and an album. Art vs. Science has Finn on vocals and keyboards; McNamee on vocals, guitars and keyboards; and Williams (who, at the time, was also a member of

Philadelphia Grand Jury Philadelphia Grand Jury (The Philly Jays) are an Australian trio from Sydney. The band's current line-up consists of Joel "MC Bad Genius" Beeson on bass, keyboard and guitar, Simon "Berkfinger" Berckelman on vocals and guitar and Dan "Dan W. Swe ...

) on drums and vocals. The band were booked to play gigs before they had created any songs. The band based their name on two members, one doing an arts degree, the other science. The third member did a language major at university. After playing gigs and festivals, including the Parklife Festival,

Falls Festival Falls Music & Arts Festival (commonly known as Falls) is a multi-day music festival held annually in Lorne ( Victoria), Marion Bay (Tasmania), Byron Bay (New South Wales) and Fremantle (Western Australia), Australia over the New Year's Eve an ...

, Good Vibrations and touring nationally with

The Galvatrons The Galvatrons are a four-piece rock band who formed on 28 August 2007, in Geelong, Australia. Lead singer Johnny Galvatron stated on radio station 101.3 Sea FM on the Central Coast that the band got their name from the 1986 animated film Tr ...

, Art vs. Science received a 2008 Unearthed

J Award The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J and which are judged by the music and on-air teams from radio stations Triple ...

nomination. Their song, "Flippers" was listed at No. 44 on the

Triple J Hottest 100, 2008 The 2008 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day, 26 January 2009. It was the sixteenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station, Triple J. 2008 was also the first year ...

. The band undertook its first headline national tour in May 2009, which was sold out. In August, the group embarked on The Eiffel Tour across Australia. In July 2009, the band gained wider recognition after winning radio station,

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greater emphasis on broad ...

's '' Unearthed'' competition earning a gig at

Splendour in the Grass Splendour in the Grass (commonly referred to as Splendour) is an annual Australian music festival held at the North Byron Parklands in Yelgun, New South Wales. Since its inauguration, the festival has also been held in various locations near ...

. Art vs. Science's debut

self-titled An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

extended play was recorded at Big Jesus Burger studios in

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surround ...

with producer Simon 'Berkfinger' Berckelman (Philadelphia Grand Jury) and was released in May. Dan Williams said "We recorded it all in one day, in one session, one mad day; locked ourselves in, with a lot of coffee and a lot of wine. We were set up in a room: it was all very minimal, no metronomes; just the producer screaming at us till we got it right." The EP peaked at No. 32 on the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, and, in December, it was accredited gold record status by ARIA. At the

ARIA Music Awards of 2009 The 23rd Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) took place on 26 November 2009 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. The ceremony was telecast o ...

the EP was nominated for ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist – Single. They also received two AIR Award nominations for 'Best Independent Single' and 'Breakthrough New Independent Artist' and won 'Best Independent Dance Album'. With their colourful mix of pop, French electro, and rock they won the Fasterlouder Festival Award for 'Best Local Act' in 2009. The band's track, " Parlez Vous Francais?", was added to rotation at community radio, Triple J and

Nova 96.9 Nova 96.9 (call sign: 2SYD) is a commercial radio station operating in Sydney, Australia. The station is owned by NOVA Entertainment along with sister station, smoothfm 95.3 Audience In 2014 Nova had a 4% share of the Sydney audience on a ...

. The song was listed at No. 2 on the

Triple J Hottest 100, 2009 The 2009 Triple J's Hottest 100 Volume 17, was announced on Australia Day 26 January 2010. It is the seventeenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. Voting commenced ...

. The video for "Parlez Vous Francais?", directed by Alex Roberts, was nominated for 'Australian Music Video of the Year' at the 2009 J Awards. By the end of the year Williams had to give up playing drums in his other Sydney band, Philadelphia Grand Jury, in order to concentrate full-time on Art vs. Science.

2010–2018: ''The Experiment'' and ''Off the Edge of the Earth and into Forever, Forever''

Art vs. Science started to gain international recognition, following the inclusion of "Parlez Vous Francais?" on BBC 1 DJ Kissy Sell Out's cover-mount compilation on UK taste-making magazine ''

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was prin ...

'', airplay on John Kennedy's

XFM Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2 ...

's show and blog attention, courtesy of a remix package including tracks by

Bumblebeez The Bumblebeez (previously known as Bumblebeez 81) is an Australian indie band, formed by Christopher Colonna and his sister Pia Colonna (AKA Queen ViLa). The band's music has been described as a, "cut'n'paste collision of noisy hip-hop and rock ...

and Nadastrom. XFM also named the band one of the 20 Bands to Watch in 2010. In 2010, the group toured the United Kingdom in support of

La Roux La Roux ( ) is an English synthpop act formed in 2008 by singer Elly Jackson and record producer Ben Langmaid. The act's debut album '' La Roux'' (2009) was a critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy Award and producing hit singles su ...

in March and then

Groove Armada Groove Armada are an English electronic music duo, composed of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay. They achieved chart success with their singles "At the River", " I See You Baby" and " Superstylin'". The duo have released nine studio albums, four of w ...

in May. Their track, "Hollywood", appears on the soundtrack of the basketball video game ''

NBA 2K11 ''NBA 2K11'' is a 2010 basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It was released in October 2010 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, and Ninte ...

''. The band released its second EP, ''Magic Fountain'', in August 2010, which reached No. 14 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The title track reached No. 9 on the

Triple J Hottest 100, 2010 The 2010 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced and played on Australia Day, 26 January 2011. It is the eighteenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. Voting commenced ...

. At the

the band received three nominations,

ARIA Award for Best Dance Release The ARIA Music Award for Best Dance Release, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recording Indust ...

and Best Video for "Magic Fountain". In October, Art vs. Science started recording their debut album, '' The Experiment'', in Queensland with producer Magoo. The band's next single, and official lead single from their debut album, "Finally See Our Way", premiered on Triple J's '' The Breakfast Show'' with Tom &

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple p ...

on 22 November 2010 and was released on 26 November. In March 2011 the group supported

The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat gen ...

' Australian tour. Art vs. Science signed with Kobalt Music Australia, the label's first local signing. Their album was released in Australia on 25 February 2011. In early 2014, the band released a single entitled "Create/Destroy", as well as releasing a music video for a new song entitled "I Was a Child Once". "I Was a Child Once" is the result of an experimental collaboration and recording project open to the public, dubbed a world first. The project, named "Open Studio" was presented by Pedestrian TV and

Ben Sherman Ben Sherman is a British clothing brand selling shirts, sweaters, suits, outerwear, shoes and accessories predominantly for men. Ben Sherman designs sometimes feature the Royal Air Force roundel which is often called the mod target. In its beg ...

, who opened a recording studio at Ben Sherman's

Arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

flagship store for five days in February 2014. The completed video and song was published to YouTube on 23 March 2014.

2019–present: ''Big Overdrive''

In May 2019, the band released the non-album single "Zeus in the Architecture"; the first taste of their most recent sessions. In November 2021, their first single in 18 months "SWEAT" was released alongside a music video directed by Angus “Beef” McGuigan. The band started touring again with the SWEAT tour for a few months after the single's release. In July 2022, the band released "I Saw You" and announced their third album ''Big Overdrive'', which was released on 5 August 2022.

Members

* Jim Finn – keyboards, bass, vocals * Dan McNamee – keyboards, guitar, vocals * Dan Williams – drums, vocals

Discography

Studio albums

Extended play

Singles

Notes

Awards and nominations

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. History The inaugural 2006 awards were held at ...

) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. , - , rowspan="3",

AIR Awards of 2009 The AIR Awards of 2009 is the fourth annual Australian Independent Record Labels Association Music Awards (generally known as the AIR Awards and Jagermeister AIR Awards) and was an award ceremony at The Forum Theatre, in Melbourne, Australia ...

, ''Art vs. Science'' , Best Independent Dance/Electronic Album , , - , ''Art vs. Science'' , Best Independent Single/EP , , - , Art vs. Science , Breakthrough Independent Artist , , - , rowspan="3",

AIR Awards of 2011 The AIR Awards of 2011 (or Jägermeister Independent Awards of 2011) is the sixth annual Australian Independent Record Labels Association Music Awards (generally known as the AIR Awards) and was an award ceremony at Revolt Art Space, in Melbourn ...

, Art vs. Science , Best Independent Artist , , - , rowspan="2", ''The Experiment'' , Best Independent Album , , - , Best Independent Dance/Electronic Album , , -

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

(APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". Art vs. Science have received two nominations, both for Dance Work of the Year. , - ,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, "Parlez Vous Francais" (James Finn, Daniel McNamee, Daniel Williams) , Song of the Year , , - ,

, , " Magic Fountain" (James Finn, Daniel McNamee, Daniel Williams) , , Dance Work of the Year , , , - ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, , " Finally See Our Way" (James Finn, Daniel McNamee, Daniel Williams) , , Dance Work of the Year , ,

ARIA Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

are presented annually from 1987 by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replac ...

(ARIA). Art vs. Science have won one award from six nominations. , - ,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

, , "

Art vs. Science Art vs. Science are an Australian electronic dance band based in Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in February 2008, the three-piece consists of James Finn (styled as Jim) on vocals and keyboards; Daniel McNamee (styled as Dan Mac) on vocals, gui ...

" , , Breakthrough Artist - Single , , , - , rowspan="3",

, , rowspan="2", " Magic Fountain" , , Best Independent Release , , , - , Best Dance Release , , , - , "Magic Fountain" – Alex Roberts , , Best Video , , , - , rowspan="2",

, , '' The Experiment'' , , Best Independent Release , , , - , ''The Experiment'' , , Best Cover Art , ,

J Award

The

J Awards The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J and which are judged by the music and on-air teams from radio stations Triple J, ...

are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...

's youth-focused radio station

. They commenced in 2005. , - ,

J Awards of 2008 The J Award of 2008 is the fourth annual J Awards, established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station ...

, ''Alibis & Other Lies'' , Unearthed Artist of the Year , , - ,

J Awards of 2009 The J Award of 2009 is the fifth annual J Awards, established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station i ...

, "Parlez Vous Francais?" , Music Video of the Year , , - ,

J Awards of 2011 The J Award of 2011 is the seventh annual J Awards The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J and which are judged by th ...

, ''The Experiment'' , Album of the Year , , - ,

, ""A.I.M. Fire" , Music Video of the Year ,

References

External links

*
Art vs. Science
on NovaFM {{DEFAULTSORT:Art Vs. Science Australian house music groups Musical groups established in 2008 ARIA Award winners Australian DJs Musical groups from Sydney Electronic dance music DJs