They were the first act to be announced for this year’s Splendour lineup and while Australian audiences are still getting acquainted with the pop punk UK four piece, fans across the UK are screaming for The Vaccines. Forming in June 2010, the band released their debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? in March, peaking at number four on the UK charts. Heralded as 2011’s band to watch, they were an instant favourite with NME and can already boast a fan base that includes Debbie Harry, Alex Kapranos, Marcus Mumford, the White Lies and The Maccabees. Before they make their way down under, we chat with guitarist Freddie Cowan (brother of Tom from the Horrors) about the band’s rise to fame, touring and their debut record.
Hi Freddie. How are you? And how’s the US tour going? I’m great. Just in Detroit, with the Arctic Monkeys. It’s going amazingly. We’ve never supported anyone before and the first night we watched them play we really understood why they’re such a fantastic band. They’re such a great bunch of guys and it was really amazing to watch them play, so I think we’ll learn a lot from this tour.
Have you been to the States before? I’ve been to America but I’ve never been to the Midwest, which is the real America. I’ve only ever been to New York and LA, so it was really interesting to see what America is really like.
The last few months have been a nonstop ride for you guys, how are you handling it all? Well it’s incredible, but you just get adjusted to it. It’s when you end up having nothing to do that you just go crazy because your level of what’s normal for you is just…. I mean you get to go out on stage every night in front of a thousand people and it’s just an incredible experience. There’s nothing to complain about, we’re just happy to be here.
Tell us about how you got together with Justin (vocals) and explain how The Vaccines were born? Justin was playing as a solo artist and he was kind of on the brink of walking away from it, he became really fed up with what he was doing. I was playing in London with a number of musicians and when I met Justin he asked if I wanted to start something – which was kind of not what I wanted to do at the time, but the moment we got in a room together and started playing… Justin had some brilliant songs and a great direction and we really shared the same objective for a band about direct, pop music, playing with a lot of conviction. You just have the same ideas and right from the start it was just galvanized and I was just so excited about doing it. We were playing with a couple of other people and then eventually Justin got Arnie on board and then Arnie got Pete, and I guess we came together properly about June last year, all four of us.
Not long after you released a demo, followed by your first single within a matter of months, obviously wasting no time… Well the demo came a little before that. We actually did that with a friend of ours in a basement. We didn’t think anything of it, just a few songs, and somehow someone put it online and then the phone started ringing. Zane Lowe played it on his radio show and it kind of all happened from there really.
Tell me about the recording process with this album. As a creative project, working with one another, it seems as though it all came together rather easily for the four of you. We had a lot of pent up direction, of things we always wanted to do but never had the opportunity to do it; but once we got in a room together and had some time it didn’t exactly come easily – it was a lot of hard work – but there definitely wasn’t that much searching. It kind of came to us quite straightforwardly. Making the album itself was quite easy because we had the songs written and all the parts written months before we’d even gotten a record deal so making the album itself was easy but I guess most of the work was done in the studio beforehand. It was an interesting process because Pete’s a really great drummer and everyone in the band can really play, so we just decided that we really wanted to strip everything right back and work towards a simple direction – that was probably the most important concept behind making the album.
You guys continue to garner a lot of positive reviews from critics especially, do you find this sort of attention distracting at all? I think initially we paid absolutely no attention to it at all, things were just working out and we didn’t want anyone to get carried away, we just wanted to focus on what we wanted to do. Now that we’re kind of on track, I mean we don’t spend our time reading our own reviews, but we’re just really appreciative of the press. We focus on what’s happening every night and putting on the best performance we can put on, and seeing as though we only recorded our album a few months ago, it’s not really high up on our priority list.
You all come from different parts of the world, do you have different music influences from where you’ve all grown up? Not so much our geography but our music tastes are influential. I’m actually the only Londoner Arnie’s from Iceland, born In CA and grew up in South Hampton which is similarly where Justin is from and at the moment we all live all over the place. I’m always listening to blues music and rockabilly, American 50s and 60s music, Motown. Pete is a jazz drummer, Arnie is into hardcore music, punk, and Justin – he was straightedge punk for four years I think when he was growing up; vegetarian, no drinking, no smoking.
Whenever a new band catches the public eye, people like to make comparisons. I’ve read references to Jesus and Mary Chain, The Ramones. Is this something that you resent or are indifferent towards? First of all we’re honoured to be compared to bands like that because they’re amazing bands, but we definitely didn’t consciously think of those bands’ sounds when we started. I think we have a lot in common with them just because they’re both like pop music, it’s very direct, it’s rock n’ roll music — I think people always have to make comparisons in the press, which isn’t a bad thing but it just gives you something to talk about. I don’t mind being compared to them but I don’t think we’re necessarily similar.
Essentially, what does your debut album say about you as a band? I think we wanted to make it very direct, very to the point. We kind of really made the album for us, you know. I definitely think it’s very immediate and the songs are really strong. It’s immediate but also there’s a lot of depth to it, you can take it on two levels – you can either stick it on and enjoy it or you can put on headphones and enjoy the songs and enjoy the lyrics. We’re just really, really proud of our debut record; it’s exactly what we wanted.
From now until October at least, you’ll be touring across the US, Europe and Australia. What are your plans down the track when it all wraps up? Are you working on any new material or will you be taking a well-deserved break? We’ve got bits and pieces of new material. I definitely think we’ll take some sort of break – I think it’s very difficult to write on the road because it means you don’t really get to take in the experience. I think the experience of being on tour can really add to your bank of material when it comes down to writing your second record. I think we’re just trying to enjoy what we’re doing now, enjoy the album, and enjoy playing it, and then when we have some time at the end of the cycle then we’ll properly sit down and think about the next record. We’ve come across some really cool bands, like the Arctic Monkeys, and every day we experience something that we’ve never experienced, and that has to be worth something when you write a new record.
What’s the most exhilarating thing you’ve experienced so far? I think the first trip we made to New York in January at the Bowery Ballroom, it was a sellout show – the biggest we’ve ever played – and Debbie Harry came to see us play. That was probably the best night of my life. It was a really surreal and incredible experience and more than you could ever think what it would be like to go as a band to New York. – and you go with your best friends and play music for people, it was just an unreal concept, and better than any of us just ever imagined. But every show to us has been amazing, and this tour – everything is a first to us. We’re still not in a position where we’re repeating ourselves, everything is so new and exciting. I imagine something will come along pretty soon and will just top it all off.
In the pipeline you’ve got nonstop gigs, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and Splendour. Are you anticipating any shows in particular? We’ve played a few big headline shows in the UK and we’re definitely in the position there where people know who we are, so the UK festivals are going to be such a riot. So Glastonbury is very high on my list, Fuji Rock in Japan, and Splendour is definitely up there. Australia is somewhere I’ve never seen before so I can’t wait.
Lastly, how much influence has your brother Tom [The Horrors] had on your music career? A huge amount, he’s inspiring. Obviously we grew up together and as young adults we lived together – he’s taught me a lot of really important lessons. The fact that someone in your family can go and do it, and can tour and actually make a record, it’s really encouraging because it shows you that it’s actually possible, it’s not an impossible dream – and if you want to do it you can make it happen if you want it bad enough.
Catch The Vaccines at next month’s Splendour In The Grass or the below sideshows.
Tues 2 Aug – The Metro, Sydney
Tickets from Metro Box Office 9550 3666; Ticketek, www.ticketek.com.au, Ph 132 849
Wed 3 Aug – The Hi-Fi, Melbourne
Tickets available: www.thehifi.com.au or 1300THEHIFI
Words and interview by Kellie Hill
Title Image Provided by The Vaccines
