The Vaccines Battle 'Hurricane' of Hype -- Top 100 Acts of SXSW

The Vaccines have already infected the UK, but they've barely been introduced stateside. The band's vintage sound harkens back to the glory days of American garage rock, and the London-based quartet will be making only its second trip to the US for SXSW. Guitarist Freddie Cowan talked to Spinner about the band's debut album and surviving the tornado of UK hype and backlash.

You played New York for the first time a few months back. What was that like?

New York was probably the best night of my life and I could probably speak for everyone. It was incredible. We're obviously massive fans of American music and New York is a very central place for that. For us to go to New York and play a few venues and sell it out, it was just an incredible experience. I'll remember it forever.

What inspired your first album's title, 'What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?'?

There's like three levels to that title. First of all, it's a lyric from the song 'Post Break-Up Sex.' We accepted it partly because we loved the history of names like that, album titles with band names in it like 'Meet the Beatles' or 'Introducing the', or 'Here Come the Monkees' or whatever it is, 'Enter the Vaselines.' We love that aspect. And we just like the idea of poking a little bit of fun at ourselves -- all this anticipation and stuff. It's the record that we wanted to make.

You've been successful in the UK, but there's a lot of hype and then backlash hype out there. What is that all about?

It's very interesting because it's more valid if people are writing stuff because they like your music. If they didn't like your music, they wouldn't say anything. But what happens is journalists, they kind of invent this hype and they say things like "the saviors of this" or "the greatest of this." Then, journalists read that and become very cynical about it.

It's like this hurricane of chaos that exists in a universe that you don't exist in. You don't read all the press. You don't go on the Internet and check this stuff out. That happens in a different place than where we operate because we're touring all the time and we're busy thinking about the set list, thinking about what's happening each night, rather than what people are saying in magazines.

It's definitely a funny one. I think it's interesting. It's helped us a lot in some ways. A lot of people come to the gigs to see what the fuss is about. I guess it could have harmed us if we bought into it or believed it, or read it, but we just kind of kept it very far away.

Your sound is very much vintage. What influenced the band?

I guess the influences are the things that are indelible. It's kind of a combination of everything you've been influenced with in your life, musically. I'm into Krautrock, shoegaze, massively into rockabilly music. Justin [Young] is a very big fan of hardcore like D.C. hardcore: Bad Brains and other groups like Minor Threat. Árni [Hjörvar] is quite into Swedish punk and bands. Pete [Robertson] is a massive jazz fan, into like Miles Davis. It's just a huge collection of influences. It's not conscious. We're not consciously trying to make retro music.

What made you decide to cover the Standells' 'Sometime Good Guys Don't Wear White'?

Well, it's just quite simple. The Standells song is brilliant. We like The Standells, and the Minor Threat version is even better, arguably. I'm a big fan of both of those bands and I thought that this was quite appropriate for us.

I really love Bad Brains and I really love Minor Threat. I just feel like it has a lot in common with the music I love, which is just this energy, this kind of power when they play it. It's simple stuff that's played with such conviction.

Your brother is in the Horrors. Do you go to him for any tips or advice about starting the band?

What I learned from him is that you have to follow your passion without compromise, do everything for the right reasons and you'll get what you want out of it. Yeah, if I ever need advice I'll ask him, but we don't generally talk about stuff like that because we rarely get to see each other. He's on tour; I'm on tour. So if we ever do get to hang out, if it's Christmas or whatever it is, we just talk about brother stuff. My dad's proud of us. I think they're a great band. I'm honored to be his brother.

This will be your second US appearance at SXSW. You're probably playing a bunch of shows. Are you excited?

I hear amazing things about SXSW. I don't know how I'm going to survive. I hear you start playing shows at 1, because everyone starts drinking at 1. It goes on for like five days, the heat and freezing at night [laughs]. I hear it's the absolute most fun you could have.

Watch the Vaccines' Interview With Spinner

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