Deputy Editor Hannah Gadd chats to Bradley Simpson before his sold-out Birmingham show to discuss tour and his debut album, The Panic Years
Last night I sat down with Bradley Simpson ahead of his stellar sold-out show at the O2 Institute in Birmingham. I was escorted into the venue by his tour manager before being greeted by Brad in one of the backstage dressing rooms where we had a great chat about his tour and upcoming album. It is an exciting time in his career, his debut solo album The Panic Years was announced just yesterday morning alongside the release of his latest track ‘Holy Grail’ and he is about to embark on the sold-out UK leg of his tour. Check out the interview below!
First of all, you’re about to play a sold-out show in your hometown! How are you feeling?
I’m very excited! This is my first headline solo tour; we did all of Europe in the past month and we’re coming back to the UK now, this is the first show on the UK tour. It’s surreal because I used to come to this venue a lot when I was younger and saw a lot of cool artists. I saw Lewis Watson here, who’s an acoustic artist. It always blows my mind playing shows in my hometown. My family gets to come along and it feels very full circle so I’m excited!
This morning you revealed the exciting news that your debut solo album, The Panic Years, will be released early next year. What can you tell us about the album?
I’m buzzing about it! I’ve been writing it for the past two years so at this point I’m like, thank f*cking god it’s coming out, finally! (Laughs) I think it’s just been like a diary entry. It’s been a therapy session in that the past ten years of my life have been so amazing and so much has happened but I haven’t really had the chance to sit and process it all because we’ve been so busy as a band. Now felt like the right time to do it and also doing it in the form of a solo album made me feel like I could dive into all the personal feelings that I’ve had around it, the ups and downs. It’s essentially that. I got to make it exactly how I wanted, which I’m really grateful for. I got some amazing musicians in, wrote a lot of it at home, yeah, I’m excited for people to hear a different side of me than what they have over the past ten years.
Throughout the years you write with a lot of different people in sessions and it’s quite hard to open up in the way that you want to.
What is it about a solo project that enables you to share this different side to yourself?
I think I owe it to myself and the fans to be a bit more personal, a bit more honest. Not that I’ve struggled to do that in the band but you’re writing from the perspective of four people so it’s always shared experience when you’re writing with other people. I haven’t had the opportunity to sit and do it just by myself. Throughout the years you write with a lot of different people in sessions and it’s quite hard to open up in the way that you want to. Doing it by myself has given me the opportunity to do that and be a bit more introspective so it’s been easier to do that on the solo album.
I definitely noticed that with the track you released today, ‘Holy Grail’, it’s such a candid and confessional track. Is this lyrical authenticity a big part of the album and does it inspire the actual sound of the songs?
Yeah, one-hundred percent. Especially now, people want authenticity more than ever and it feels really fulfilling to be able to be writing about personal things and seeing it resonate and speak to people, help them relate to stuff that’s going on in their lives. That’s really cool when it’s something I’ve been through and other people are like “oh yeah, I’ve had that same experience” and the lyrics have been key in that. You’re absolutely right, it does feed into the sound because then, like I say, a lot of it started acoustic – just the vocal and an acoustic guitar and then built the instruments around it. I think the instruments needed to convey those same emotions as to what I was singing about. It definitely fed into it.
[I was] figuring out who I am outside of that unit that I’ve been in and what feels like my style of playing and writing.
Speaking of the sound of the album, it’s quite different to The Vamps’ sound, did you approach the creative process differently?
It’s very different. I’ve been playing with the boys for like ten years and you slip into such an unspoken understanding of each other, which is amazing and I’m very grateful for that. For this, I had a different set of musicians around me and it was interesting learning about other people’s style of playing and how I play off them but also figuring out who I am outside of that unit that I’ve been in and what feels like my style of playing and writing. The approach in the studio was very much learning that and figuring out who I am, how I want my guitars to sound and all of those things.
On this tour you’ve been playing unreleased tracks from the album. What is it like to play these songs live? What has the crowd reaction been like?
It’s a bit nerve-wracking at first! I’m like, are they going to think this is sh*t? (Laughs) I wasn’t used to it, I’ve always released it and then gone on tour. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve played unreleased songs and it’s been really, really cool. The fans have been amazing because they listen and they’ve learnt the songs already which is wild! I get to the second or third show, whether they pass the songs around to each other and figure it out, they know the lyrics and that’s so special, it’s really cool. It’s also influenced song choices as well, there’s certain songs, like ‘Daisies’ that wasn’t going to be a single but the fans really connected with it after they heard it at the first few shows. I thought ‘this could be quite fun to put out earlier than I was planning on’.
And with these solo shows, do you adopt a different persona or headspace than when you play with the band? What is it like to go up on stage as Bradley Simpson rather than with The Vamps?
I think so, yeah. I run around like a headless chicken at Vamps shows, which I love! On these ones I’m on guitar a lot more so it’s more focused on my playing and that’s been a lot of fun. Also I can speak a bit more about the songs because there’s all of these personal stories and I kind of want to get that across before playing the songs. It’s a slightly more intimate show than maybe the fans are used to from me before but it feels really nice, like a room of friends which is really cool.
That’s what music is amazing for, making people feel less alone.
Finally, what do you want fans to take from The Panic Years era and the next chapter of your solo career?
I hope they take away more of an understanding of me. I hope it opens them up to a different side of me and a different style of music that they’re not used to me playing. I hope some of the songs can genuinely help people, be it a song they can dance to, blast in the car or more. Some of the slower, ballad-y, sad ones (laughs) can help them out and make them feel less alone. That’s what music is amazing for, making people feel less alone. So hopefully, they can take that away. The whole reason behind the album being called The Panic Years is because I think a lot of people put their twenties as their ‘panic years’ and not having a f*cking clue what you’re doing! (Laughs) Especially when you’re younger, you look at certain ages and you’re like ‘that’s so old, I’ll have my everything together by the time i’m that old’ but I’ve learnt you never necessarily have a real handle on it, you’re always learning. What I perceived in the moment of ‘panic years’ and not knowing were actually some of the best times of my life and the times where I learnt the most. Hopefully the whole album and era can give people that reassurance that even when you’re in your ‘panic years’, it’s going to be fine, you’ll come out of the other end and you’ll have learnt more about yourself.
You might also like:
Essential Albums: George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
Comments