Combat Sports: How The Vaccines bounced back with their best record yet

Justin Hayward-Young and Freddie Cowan speak with The Independent about their brilliant fourth album, hype machines, and a huge upcoming show in London

‘Our songs are written huddled over a piano or a guitar and often you don’t hear that. So it’s nice to have those moments on the record’

The Vaccines’ frontman Justin Hayward-Young is sporting the short-sleeved shirt he wears in their video for “I Can’t Quit”, for interviews about their fourth album, Combat Sports.

It’s alarmingly bright – a splash of red with a tropical pattern of green, yellow and pink – for anyone who’d become accustomed to the miserable British winter, but now the sun has begun to shine, he’s feeling optimistic.

The shirt is a good symbol for the album itself. As The Independent noted in its review, Combat Sports “bounces”, with a cluster of radio-friendly pop rock tracks full of a youthful, frenetic energy. Songs like “Nightclub” and “Put It On A T-Shirt” are heaps of fun, full of colour, and often just the right amount of silly.

“We did loads, on this record,” Hayward-Young says. “I think every record’s kind of reactive to the last one, you’re reassessing everything. On the last record we did loads of rehearsals and refined it on the computer, then when it came to playing it live we were super excited about the songs but realised we wouldn’t be able to do them justice.

“I always thought we were a great live band, so we wanted a record that would feel natural. It sounds enthusiastic. I think that’s a reflection of how we were feeling when we made it, with renewed energy, especially given the lineup change.”

“It’s difficult to pre-conceptualise stuff,” lead guitarist Freddie Cowan suggests. “Maybe it’s because rock bands aren’t as good musicians as some hip hop or session musicians, but when I hear some bands it’s like they haven’t sweated on it, or breathed life into the songs.”

“I hope it’s testament to how, on the last couple of records, we were quite fearful of throwing new songs into the set, but now, even before the record is out, we’ve found ourselves wanting to put more of the new songs into the set,” Hayward-Young continues.

“It feels very natural, and maybe that’s at odds with the narrative of artists having to push themselves in new directions every time. I think we have [pushed ourselves], in terms of songwriting and musicality. But that spirit on Combat Sports speaks the same language as the rest of the material.”

“I think it speaks of who we are now,” Cowan nods, ”it’s more grown-up. You respect the personality, of what the band is, but I think we are being ourselves to the best of our ability.”

The band’s fourth album ‘bounces’

After the release of their 2015 album English Graffiti, The Vaccines considered calling it a day – Hayward-Young had lost sight of what set the band apart from being "just another indie-rock band" and wondered if they could keep going.

“On the last record I think we set out to find out who we were and what we do that no other band does, and at the end we came out of it feeling more confused than informed,” he says. “Then when we started this new process, especially when Pete [Robertson] left and we were talking about not even having a drummer anymore, we really were in the wilderness.

“Our first record really defined us, and it was a challenge working out how to grow and expand from that sound. So I’m really happy that we’re back at the core of what we should be doing.”

When they first emerged, there was hype way before the release of their debut, the tongue-in-cheek-titled What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? They placed third in the BBC’s Sound of 2011 poll, and landed their first NME cover. They struggled to fend off so many comparisons to other bands of their time, but Hayward-Young says they always believed they were something more than those other acts: “I knew we were capable of more than what some people were saying, despite the fact they were hyping us,” he explains.

“I think it’s hard to argue with good songs,” Cowan shrugs. “They outlive all the other stuff, all the noise.”

Now they’ve run that gauntlet themselves, they’ve become astutely aware of how tricky it can be for a new band who find themselves hailed as another “saviour of rock and roll”; music’s “bright new hope”.

“It is a very tired narrative,” Cowan says “‘Are you the saviours of rock and roll?’ – what does that even mean? But the media is still asking that question.” He acknowledges those cycles in the music industry, though: “It’s weird but I did have this feeling last year that 2018 was going to be a good year for guitar music.”

While the pair of them cite an eclectic range of favourite artists and influences, once they were in the studio their producer Ross Orton “essentially banned” them from listening to music in the studio.

“We were grateful for that,” Hayward-Young says. “He [Orton] said if you’re going to reference anyone, reference yourselves. It was very frustrating at the time, but by taking that out of the equation it meant we were purely going off of instinct.”

He’s not sure about the suggestion of a Libertines/Pete Doherty influence on his songwriting in “Young American”: “I don’t hear it as being as British as that... but I guess with the poetry style though – that was the first song on the record I started with all lyrics, and actually it was more of a turning point.

“I think I was trying to channel Leonard Cohen,” he continues, “it was around the time he died and I was so obsessed with his lyrics and the way he’d flip an entire phrase by switching the one word. I felt like I’d been writing quite… beige lyrics, for a couple of months. ‘Young American’ was a conversation I wasn’t able to have with someone. And at the time I really wanted them to hear it – now I don’t give a f**k. But it is a quite uncomfortable moment.

‘Our first record really defined us, and it was a challenge working out how to grow and expand from that sound’ (Brad Elterman)

“We keep talking about being authentic, and I just think it’s really good to make yourself uncomfortable, and the listener, on occasions. But I actually think the song’s quite romantic. Our songs are written huddled over a piano or a guitar and often you don’t hear that. So it’s nice to have those moments on the record.”

On tour The Vaccines have always had a knack for picking great support acts – and this upcoming run is no different; they’ve booked the brilliant rock/post-punk band Dream Wife plus indie pop group Whenyoung. Searching for new music online, though, is a different matter.

“I find you have to wade through things… when you hear an artist for the first time now there’s nothing contextualising it,” Cowan says. “You don’t know anything about the person who made the song.”

On the flip-side of that, though, they grumble that with social media you often know too much about a major pop star, and that wonderful mysteriousness surrounding the likes of Prince or David Bowie is hard to come across.

“One of my favourite pop stars of the last 10 years is Lady Gaga, and the amazing thing about her was you’d never see her going to buy a pint of milk or something,” Hayward-Young says. “And as social media because a bigger thing, she flipped that, she invited a documentary maker into her home, you see her in pyjamas. And while there was so much merit to that, there was something so beautiful about that aspirational pantomime going on before.”

“You can read an interview you don’t like with someone you’ve admired for years and it can completely change your perception of them,” Cowan says. “We try not to do this anymore, but you can be on tour and they sit you down for a video interview, and it’s really badly conducted, you look like shit… it’s such an unnecessary lifting of that veil… and then it’s on YouTube forever,” he says with a laugh.

‘Even before the record is out, we’ve found ourselves wanting to put more of the new songs into the set,’ says Hayward-Young (Rex) (Rex Features)

One thing they didn’t do on the record was attempt to turn it – or any one track – into some overtly political statement. Hayward-Young says he feels artists are given an opportunity to make those statements, rather than a responsibility, as some have made out – particularly after the EU referendum and the election of Donald Trump.

“You can use your platform if you want, to educate, inform, but equally people listen to music to escape all of that,” he says. “To dance, to get over a breakup, to just disappear into this world you’ve created and not be reminded of all the shit that’s going on outside for a while.

“The rise of populism, Brexit, Donald Trump – that’s a reaction. People don’t like being told by the people they consider to be the elite, the entitled, so I think you have to be conscious of that as well – it can be counterproductive at times. Also imagine how bad our music would be if it sounded the same but we shifted the message…” he breaks off with a laugh.

“You could easily argue that Nirvana had a bigger cultural and therefore political impact than Rage Against the Machine,” Cowan adds. “It was just less explicit.”

With the record out, they’re looking forward to their return to Alexandra Palace in London on 14 April.

“It was quite a long time ago, now, since we last played,” Hayward-Young says. “2012 was the last time, that’s six years and we’re still selling out a 10,000 capacity venue in London.” He beams. “That’s pretty mindblowing.”

‘Combat Sports’, the new album from The Vaccines, is out now via Columbia Records. They play eight tour dates between 5-14 April, Live at Leeds festival on 5 May, and Community Festival on 1 July