Albums That Made Me: Vacations' Nate Delizzotti on Cut Copy's experimental masterpiece Zonoscope

Vacations' music has undergo a dramatic re-imagining since the release of their early guitar-dominated EPs Days (2016) and Vibes (2016) and debut album Changes (2018), which displayed an obvious affection for '80s indie and shoegaze like The Smiths.

The four-piece's new singles Lavender and Panache have unveiled a more sparkling synth-based groove. Part of that reason is Vacations guitarist Nate Delizzotti's love of Melbourne synth-pop heavyweights Cut Copy and their experimental third album Zonoscope.

Vacations were initially frontman Campbell Burns' project and the early EPs were completely written solo. On Changes Delizzotti only contributed to several tracks.

However, Vacations have adopted a more collaborative approach and Delizzotti wrote half the music for Forever In Bloom.

"I love writing and recording music and it was hard for a while not being able to have an interesting outlet for those songs," Delizzotti says. "I was just releasing songs on SoundCloud myself which weren't finished.

"It got to the point where Campbell and I stated working on songs together and with this album each of us came out with half an album of material in instrumentals and sent them to each other, worked on them at home by ourselves and brought some demos to the band in our rehearsal space and worked on them - the four of us - to actually create the finished product.

"The songwriting has become so much better."

Cut Copy released Zonoscope in 2011 following their breakthrough 2008 record In Ghost Colours which featured Hearts On Fire and Lights & Music.

Delizzotti says Zonoscope might have lacked the party singles, but it introduced an experimental sound and was a more cohesive body of work.

"In Ghost Colours was incredible and a really good pop album in general, but there's something about Cut Copy's thinking outside the box with this album that really did something to me," he says.

"It took advantage of the real retro synth-pop kind of sound. That vibe I've loved for a long time. My dad got me into '80s new wave like New Order, Talking Heads and Devo and my mum was a huge Kylie Minogue fan and, in turn, so was I. So I loved the pop aspect to it.

"This felt like the perfect album."

Electronic music and guitars are sometimes seen as being positioned at opposite ends of the spectrum. For Delizzotti, the EDM has helped him grow as a guitarist.

"I'll write riffs on the computer and realise I can't play it on guitar, so I'll play it over and over again until I can do it eventually and record it on guitar," he says.

"It helps me practise guitar a lot more, but I feel I'm not being held back by my skill level when it comes to writing music."

Vacations will release Forever In Bloom on September 18.

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