Just over 10 years ago, The Vaccines released their debut album, the tellingly titled What Did You Expect from The Vaccines? The hype surrounding the band, fronted by Justin Young, had swollen to the point where parts of the press were hailing them as the saviours of guitar music.
It is impressive, then, that the band, now in their mid-30s, have weathered a decade together and are releasing their fifth album. Back In Love City mines 80s glam rock for power chords and falsetto vocals, and was recorded at Sonic Ranch just outside of El Paso, Texas, in 2019.
“With the exception of a bit of additional production, it was finished when Covid was but a twinkle in its father’s eye,” a softly spoken Young explains down the phone. “Maybe it is a reflection of a more carefree and optimistic time.
“It’s been lyrically reframed in some places by the last 18 months, but that’s probably because it explores themes that aren’t necessarily new but have been heightened or expedited or brought to the fore by Covid.”
When the band said goodbye at El Paso airport, they had no idea it would be nearly two years before they saw each other again. They were spread around the world — Australia, Reykjavik, Paris and Scotland with Young based in London — until reuniting some six weeks ago at a practice space in west London.
The pandemic also saw three Vaccines babies born within a month of each other (although none belong to Young). He admits it was a strange experience being apart. “There’s a part of being in a band that prepares you for that sort of thing,” he suggests wryly.
“Because you go through these intense periods of days, weeks, months, or whatever, where you are in each other’s personal space 24/7. And then you’ll break up and you’ll go away for two, three months and not see each other and not feel the need perhaps even to reach out.”
Since then the band have played a handful of gigs including a surprise set at Latitude Festival in Suffolk. “I definitely didn’t feel like I had reached my flow state,” he admits of that performance. “It was a weird mix of on the one hand feeling like we had never been away and we had been doing the exact same thing the night before. And then on the other hand feeling like I was living somebody else’s life.”
Mostly The Vaccines have hunkered down ahead of their album release date and impending tour. Whatever the promotional materials suggest, Young is at pains to make clear this is not a concept album.
If Love City itself is a concept, it is a very loose one. I ask Young how he envisages this imaginary place, where love is a commodity that is bartered and traded. “To me it’s like the Tokyo skyline and neon and all that stuff — but plonked in the middle of a dystopian red sand desert.
“When I picture it it’s ever changing and we still have discussions and disagreements within the band about what it is and where it is and what it might look like.”
Listening to Back In Love City brings to mind a band more settled and comfortable in themselves than ever before. It’s no secret the group have had their ups and downs. Drummer Pete Robertson, who was a founding member of the band, left in 2016 during a particularly fractious period.
After reportedly considering calling it quits, the band decided to persevere and absorb touring musicians Timothy Lanham and Yoann Intonti, making The Vaccines a quintet. This resulted in, if not a different sound, a different approach.
“In many ways it feels like a new band,” Young confides. “This was the first record we made where we started the process as a five-piece. We are probably a much healthier balance of characters. I was really sad when Pete left but I don’t blame him. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant time and I don’t think we were particularly pleasant to each other as a result of that.
“For him the bad started to outweigh the good and that forced the rest of us to really think about what we wanted to do and whether or not we wanted to keep doing it. And that was a resounding ‘yes’ at the time.”
Young says the band have become better at setting boundaries, being patient with each other and actually enjoying their work. The moment things clicked back into place came after they finished their last record Combat Sports and began touring.
The Vaccines also recently celebrated their 10th anniversary of their debut album, What Did You Expect from The Vaccines? Having only uploaded a single demo to YouTube, the band was hailed by parts of the music press as the band to save rock music from being consigned to history.
“I don’t think — and you can correct correct me on this — but I’m not sure there’s been that level of unanimous or ubiquitous hype for a band band since. It was pretty mad and in some ways it was very exciting and opened a lot of doors for us. But in other ways it was really scary and stressful and anxiety-inducing.
“For ever 10 great comments or opinions there would be one not so great one that would keep us awake at night. It happens so quickly. We were petrified that it was all going to end just as quickly. Hindsight is obviously a great thing but I look back now and think that if that was to ever happen again, I’d made sure we enjoyed it a little more.”
Back In Love City by The Vaccines is released on September 10. The band tour the UK in April 2022 including a date at the SSE Arena Wembley in London.
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