Born and raised on the windswept prairies of North-West coast Tasmania, between lashings of hallucinogenic cheese and Magic Johnson, weened on William Blake and Ribald magazine, Van first heard the music of Bob Dylan around adolescence and began picking guitar and writing songs. Some hundreds of songs later and a hell-bent pick, he moved to Melbourne to form the rock’n’roll outfit The Swedish Magazines, and pick his unique hillbilly stuff on the side.