{"id":76413,"date":"2022-06-27T11:58:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T09:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=76413"},"modified":"2022-06-27T11:58:46","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T09:58:46","slug":"interview-the-vamps-chat-about-greatest-hits-tour-their-biggest-accomplishments-and-what-the-future-holds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2022\/06\/interview-the-vamps-chat-about-greatest-hits-tour-their-biggest-accomplishments-and-what-the-future-holds\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW – The Vamps Chat About Greatest Hits Tour, Their Biggest Accomplishments, and What the Future Holds!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It has been ten wonderful years for The Vamps. After starting out their music careers as teenagers and posting covers on YouTube, they quickly grew to be one of the biggest bands in the UK, with a large, loyal, and dedicated fan base.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2022 marks their tenth anniversary, and they will be celebrating with a greatest hits tour at the end of the year.<\/a> With two Number 1 albums, an astonishing six billion streams, two billion views on their YouTube channel, and becoming the first band to headline at London\u2019s iconic venue O2 arena five years in a row, they certainly have a lot to celebrate, which means their tour is going to be one hell of a party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only that, but they will also be releasing a fanzine to mark the occasion. This will include photos, exclusive interviews with the guys, limited edition merchandise, and a CD which contains some of the bands favourite songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have recently returned from Barcelona where they hosted an epic weekend festival, which saw a line-up of fantastic music acts including Sigala, Mae Muller, Matoma and more! The weekend also saw a cocktail masterclass with Brad, a boat party with Connor, a brunch with Tristan, and a scavenger hunt with James.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had a chat with the guys to reminisce on the past ten years, and what the future is looking like for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to start by talking to you about your fanzine that you\u2019ve got coming out for your ten-year anniversary. Why did you decide to release something in that format?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad: I think we always liked the idea of doing something that was like a scrap book, or a collection of memories of the past ten years, that was stuff that hadn\u2019t been released. So, it\u2019s like unreleased photos, interviews where we kind of go a bit deeper than we have in other ones. It\u2019s just like very exclusive because we\u2019ve kind of grown up with exclusive merch of bands that we love, and I think from a fan perspective, it\u2019s really nice to have those kind of specialist, limited edition things. So, we wanted to do it as that really, as a celebration of our ten years, and then also, hopefully the people that are getting it are going to be fans who have been on this journey with us, so it feels like a shared thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah because you have got your fans involved haven\u2019t you\u2026how have they been involved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

James: They\u2019ve sent in pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connor: Sent in photos, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s all going to be in the fanzine?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: A few hand-picked ones, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, you\u2019ve got an album coming out with the fanzine. How did you decide on the songs that you were going to put on there?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tristan: It\u2019s a collection of faves, plus like the stuff that our fans really like, but mostly kind of, some live tracks on there, some personal favourites. It\u2019s just a collection of what The Vamps are about, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That must have been quite hard, you\u2019ve done a lot of songs!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All: Yeah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, you\u2019re going on tour at the end of the year. What are you most looking forward to about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

J: It\u2019s going to be the first tour that it\u2019s not like with an album per say, or campaign, so I think picking the set list will be interesting. It will be nice to cover the whole decade of The Vamps in a set list, so I don\u2019t know what that will look like, but it will be good though, it will be really cool. And maybe like reimagine some of the earlier songs for how we perform now, maybe, we\u2019ll see!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you mention that you\u2019re getting fans to help choose your set list, or did I miss hear that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

C: Yeah, I think we\u2019ll maybe do it like a twitter thing or something. We\u2019ve done similar things in the past, but yeah, like we\u2019ll do a certain portion of the set where they decide between a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok. That might be a good idea, considering you got bullied into playing Lovestruck on the last tour!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: We did, it was bullying\u2026thank you for acknowledging that we were bullied!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*all laugh!*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: We didn\u2019t know the words, we didn\u2019t know the chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J: Yeah, genuinely that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve been in the music industry a really long time. How have you seen it change over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: A lot, to be honest, and it\u2019s kind of changed in stages as well. There was a big change after our first album, in terms of the way, this is a bit more like the behind the scenes stuff, that the way the approach to radio was\u2026.it really changed. Whereas before, you would be able to kind of build up a bit of excitement around your songs, or we would gig the first album songs for a while, before they ever went to radio, so people would appreciate the songs\u2026things like that. And then that changed, so you couldn\u2019t do that. And then streaming came in around the third album for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think with every change, as challenging as it may be, it presents a whole host of new opportunities. So, at first, it\u2019s quite a scary thing, and there\u2019s a big change going on at the moment, with Tik Tok. We\u2019ve had conversations about it, and I think, on the whole, it\u2019s a good thing, because it gives potentially, unknown artists, or unsigned artists, as much of an opportunity as the biggest artists. So, it levels the playing field, which is only a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you ever find it hard to keep up?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: That\u2019s part of it though, it keeps it exciting. Sometimes, getting complacent can be a bad thing, and just like, it being the same strategy every campaign can be a bad thing. Learning to adapt is good. So yeah, we\u2019re just waiting for the next big change, whatever that will be!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there anything about the industry that you would change?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: Tris, you mentioned the way that song writers are paid, off the back of Spotify and streaming. It\u2019s not great, it\u2019s not good at all really. So, I think that can, and will inevitably change in the next few years. So that needs to be looked at!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think putting a structure around, especially now, with social media, and how integral it is in an artists\u2019 field, I think there needs to be real support networks provided by anyone\u2026whether it\u2019s a record label, or a management company. Whoever it is who is supporting an artist, because they are asked so much more of than they were a few years ago. You\u2019re not only the singer, song writer, producer, performer. You\u2019ve got to be the content creator, and come up with the ideas yourself, and put yourself out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I think there needs to be a real like mental health support system around the artist, whether it\u2019s like a therapy service, a time out, or whatever it is, I think that needs to get looked at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a good answer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in your ten years then, who would you say has been like an influential teacher or mentor, or just someone that you\u2019ve looked up to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T: There\u2019s been a couple of heavy hitters in the industry for us, like throughout the years, on the first album who\u2019ve moved on to really interesting, amazing things. Obviously, our families play a big role in that. Each other, we inspire each other. Who else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: Is there any drum ones?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T: Yeah, I mean, loads! Well the main one was like Joey Jordison who\u2019s passed away, which sucks, and a couple of others. Travis Barker obviously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: There was a group of producers that we worked with around the first album. They were called Espionage. They were like a duo from Norway, who wrote a lot of great songs. They co-wrote and produced a lot of the first album singles. And I think what we learnt from them was like, they were so rigorous with the way they approached the song writing, and the vocal takes, and the production. And I think, as hard as it was at the time for us, because they really put us through our paces, it actually instilled a really high work ethic for all of us. So, it set our bar very high within the band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s been the best advice you\u2019ve been given in your music careers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T: It was quite funny, there were two of us, or maybe not, it was so long ago! I was speaking to Taylor Swifts\u2019 mum, and I had a really good conversation with her about not relying on third party people. You know, \u201cif you guys want it to happen, you have to make it happen\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was talking about her experience, and how you can\u2019t rely on the label, you can\u2019t rely on management. You have to really have that vision of how you would make this happen if it was just me, you know what I mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s been the worst advice?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T: You know what? Someone told me that if you don\u2019t mix alcohol, you\u2019re fine? If you stay on the same drink, you\u2019re still gonna be screwed the next day! It doesn\u2019t really affect it, like there\u2019s no difference for me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C: That\u2019s life advice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*All laugh!*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked a band that question before and they said something like, they were told to make sure that their fans know that they\u2019re beneath them, or something!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*All laugh!*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J: What the fuck?! You will always be beneath us (sarcastically)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T: Who was that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t remember, it was a band, but I can\u2019t remember!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T: Yeah you do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C: That\u2019s so fuckin rude!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B: Let\u2019s hope they ignored it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was their label that gave them the advice, but I can\u2019t remember who the band was.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

J: Bastards! You will never amount to anything (sarcastically!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what would you say has been your proudest accomplishment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

J: Number one album I think, on both the third and fifth is cool, but I think like five consecutive years at the O2 is kind of crazy. Obviously loads of people have played it loads of times, but I think that doing it every year is kind of crazy, and to be able to sell that.<\/p>\n\n\n

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