The Vaccines lead-singer and songwriter Justin Young has gone on a pretty spectacular rant this week about his under-appreciated songwriting, his band’s popularity and Glastonbury headliners.
Speaking to NME Young said, “it makes me incredibly frustrated when people can’t see how honest I am and how good I am at writing songs, or writing lyrics about very personal things.”
“I firmly believe that the more personal you are in your songwriting, the more universal you are,” he said. “It’s really frustrating to me when I hear people being disingenuous and faking it.”
He adds that he could, “write 100 songs a day because melody just comes to me and it’s very cathartic getting that out.”
“I wake up in the morning and want to write a song, and I’d love to write a Number One for someone,” he continued.
It’s a bold set of statements, especially given that in the same interview he says he doesn’t have the same “abandon” that allows someone like Liam Gallagher to not worry about what he says.
The Vaccines have just released their third album English Graffiti and while they’re scaling the heights of European festival lineups, Young wants to be bigger. “I look at a band like Arctic Monkeys and think, ‘I want to be as big as them’,” he said.
“But I also look at Muse and Coldplay and Mumford & Sons and U2 and The Rolling Stones and fucking Imagine Dragons and think, I want to be as big as them, too.”
Given the ambitious statement, headlining Glastonbury would no doubt be in the band’s sights, but Young might have lessened their chances of that, when this week he criticised the festival’s decision to book The Who.
The Who are set to headline the Sunday night of the festival, but Young thinks they were a “safe” booking.
“I would’ve had Florence headline,” he told Daily Spy.
“I know she’s playing anyway, but people are complaining about the lack of women at the top of festival bills and the lack of new artists.”
You can judge The Vaccines songwriting ability for yourself when they touch-down in the country in July for Splendour In The Grass and a handful of sideshows with Palma Violets.
Watch: The Vaccines – Dream Lover
