Having rocketed to success with the speed and grace of some large aquatic marvel, Britain’s The Vaccines are set to hit our shores again as part of next year’s Big Day Out tour, following on from their appearance at Splendour In The Grass back in July this year. With their first two singles Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra) and Post Break-Up Sex garnering them plenty of attention for the UK music press and their debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? also copping plenty of critical praise, the band have spent the last year touring the world with the likes of Crystal Castles and The Arctic Monkeys playing major music festivals such as Glastonbury and Leeds & Reading Festival.
Currently working on new material for their as-yet-unannounced second album, we caught up with singer Justin Young to discuss the upcoming tour to Australia with Big Day Out, the band’s success, as well as their plans for the second album
Music Feeds: So are you excited to be coming out for your first Big Day Out next year?
Justin Young: Definitely; we came out earlier this year for Splendour in August or July, you’ll have to remind me cos my memory is shit, but yeah, it was amazing and I’m just really looking forward to coming over and hanging out again. Although it’s going to be summer isn’t it so it’s going to be unbearably hot.
MF: Well, it looks like we’re going to be having a pretty wet summer this year so there will be plenty of rain to remind you of home. But this is the big one for us, you know, our Coachella or Glastonbury, so it’s a bit different from Splendour.
JY: Yeah, we get to travel around the whole of Australia on this one, or not the whole but we get to see a few of the big cities. It’ll be good to get more of an idea of Australia as a whole.
MF: Yeah, you get to travel a lot. Is that something you like to do when touring, get around to as many different parts of the countries as possible.
JY: Yeah, that’s one of the best things about being in a band and getting to play around the world, just getting to visit new cities and new places. One thing we do like to do is play football on tour, so we’ve got to find another band on the tour who’ll be willing to play us in football.
MF: Get Kanye on the field maybe?
JY: Yeah, I’d like to see that.
MF: You’ve also got Kasabian and Noel Gallager’s High Flying Birds on there.
JY: I think we could definitely pick out some positions between those two and get a game going.
MF: I think it’s great for musicians to keep hobbies on the side like soccer though, helps keeps your perspective in this industry don’t you think?
JY: Yeah, you remember what you’re genuinely crap at.
MF: Yeah, it’s a good way to keep the ego in check.
JY: Yeah, just play football (laughs). But yeah, I mean obviously being in a band, music is a massive part of our lives, but we all try and do other stuff too, like we all go to the movies together a few times a week cos we’re all really into film and it is nice to do something different. Like when we’re on tour we always try to do something cultural in the day and then find out where all the good bars are in the night.
MF: That’s one of the beautiful things about Australia, a lot of our cultural activities also involve drinking.
JY: So basically we get drunk at a barbecue in the day and then in the evening getting drunk at another barbecue?
MF: Yeah, that’s about it.
JY: Great, love it.
MF: Moving on though, you guys have been doing very well off the back of the first album; what’s next though? Are you guys working on any new material yet or are you still in the midst of touring the first?
JY: I’m always writing and working on new songs, I think the aim really for the band, for all of us this year, was to become a really great live band and I think we’ve done that. We’ve been getting better, I think we’ve learned a lot and learned from our mistakes so by now we feel like we’re a good live band and so what’s important to us now is to really progress in terms of the music and make sure we put out a really great second record and let the fans know we’re here to stay. So yeah, just progressing and evolving as a band is what we’re really focusing on. I mean, as I’m sure you know there are days off between all the dates on the Big Day Out tour, and for most of them we’ve just been booking ourselves into studios to work on new material while we’re out there. We’re already playing new songs now and we’ll be playing new songs at the out there shows as well.
MF: I totally agree with your points about progression, especially when it comes to the difficult second album? Do you feel any more pressure this time around?
JY: Well that’s the old cliche isn’t it. I’m not really feeling any more pressure than I did with making the first one. We started making music for ourselves, and people seem to have really enjoyed the music we’ve made for ourselves and I think that will prove that they will like what we do next. What we do next will be better, more refined and will show progress and hopefully people can engage with it in the same way we can and connect with it in the same way they did with the first album.
In saying that, I still find the songs we’re playing now very rewarding because a lot of people, and especially over in Australia, a lot of the people may not even have heard the record and may not even know the band so I’m still really enjoying playing those songs to new audiences. I think the first album still has a lot to give, but I think at the same time we want to keep moving forward as well.
The Vaccines will be touring nationally with The Big Day Out 2012 visit the website for more information.
The Vaccines will also play 2 sideshows supporting Kasabian..
Sydney: The Hordern Pavillion – Tuesday, 24 January
Tickets available from: www.ticketek.com.au Ph: 132 849 & www.bigdayout.com
Melbourne: Festival Hall – Saturday, 28 January
Tickets available from: www.ticketmaster.com.au Ph 136 100 & www.bigdayout.com
