The Aberdeen based indie-rock troop bring us the eponymous track off their upcoming EP. Clocking in at just under 3 minutes, “Shrinking Violets” is an insatiable shot of indie-pop decorated with shout-along hooks and intricate guitar melodies. The track will be available to download for free on 2nd December. If you’re a fan of the likes of The Stokes and The Libertines, then Marionettes’ new EP needs to be in your record collection. Follow the band on facebook to get hold of the download link as well news on upcoming shows.
It’s been a hell of a year for The Vaccines. From kicking off the summer of 2010 as a freshly formed, relatively unknown foursome living in London, the band’s debut demo was embraced by BBC Radio 1 earning them extensive airplay and much coveted spot on Radio 1’s Sound of 2011 list. After having only been together for just over a year, the retro indie-pop quartet have gone on to tour the globe, sell out countless shows and kick off their career with their debut album reaching number 4 in the UK album charts. Having just come off the 2011 festival circuit, bassist Arni Hjörvar affirms just how busy their recent tour schedule’s been, “we’ve just done four continents in a week” and when asked how they deal with life on the road, drummer, Pete Robertson adds “you sleep when you get a chance”. Before heading off the next leg of their UK tour, the lads took some time out to discuss, their debut album, 24 hour puppy emporiums and life on the road.
How long have you guys been on Tour for?
Arni: Since September last year. Probably, yeah.
Pete: That’s when we started doing gigs. We’ve taken a couple of weekends off, here and there. Like Christmas? (laughs) And we’re pretty much on tour ‘til March next year.
Out of all the places you’ve seen over the past few years, have you got a favourite city to play in?
ALL: New York.
Arni: I quite like Detroit actually.
Why Detroit?
Arni: It’s empty, it’s a ghost town. It’s the first industrial city in the world. It’s got this beautiful flamboyant ridiculous amount of skyscrapers, just boarded up for sale. It was the heart of the motor industry and when the motor industry started moving to out about 20/30 years ago, it just went bust. I mean, you can buy yourself a house out there for about…$100?
Amazing!
Arni: I’m really good at trivia actually – like really good remembering the most odd facts buried somewhere in Wikipedia.
Have you got a tour horror story?
Arni: Yeah, we missed a gig in Germany. That was probably the lowest point of The Vaccines existence so far. It was 15 hours of horrible flights from Finland to the South of Germany, just to fly back to the North of Germany. We showed up an hour and half late – it was awful.
Freddie: I think Japan was one of my best experiences and my worst, just because it was… ridiculous! Flying right there, then straight on stage; I’d never experienced jetlag like that before. One minute your fine, then the next you’re just crashing – and Tokyo’s a lot to take in without sleeping for three days!
Arni: There’s a 24 hour puppy shop.
Freddie: A 24 hour puppy emporium!
Pete: We went to look at the puppies – obviously. We went and did the gig, then drove 4 hours to Tokyo and spent the whole time d Then we realised, it’s Tokyo – we’ve never been here before, let’s just explore.
Arni: We did the most Tokyo thing you could possibly do which is going for a beer with the Kaiser Chiefs.
Pete: And on the way home, our guitar tech and me decided to go into a bar and just stay there ‘til about 6 am…
Freddie: Pretty much everything that happened in Tokyo was a tour horror story!
I’m guessing you guys are feeling a little bit weird about having to cancel your last couple of shows due to Justin’s recent throat operation.
Arni: Yeah, it’s always heartbreaking, especially in a country where you’ve had to cancel shows before. You piss off a lot of people and there’s nothing worse. I mean, it’s inevitable, we’ve had one of the busiest schedules for bands touring this year and for someone like Justin to keep his voice intact throughout that is virtually impossible…
Freddie: For any singer, that’s impossible.
Arni: There’s nothing we can do about it and there’s nothing we can control about it, so there’s no point in looking at the pessimistic side of things and use the time to further the process of writing songs.
You guys have revealed that your mission with the band is to pen the perfect pop song. Do you believe that you’ve achieved this on your album, “What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?”
Arni: No. I think that’s what makes pop music still valid – is that nobody’s ever written the perfect pop song and it won’t ever be written. It’s like this search for something that’s utterly unattainable. And that’s what makes it excited
Freddie: God only knows?
Arni: God only knows is a great fucking song but I don’t think it’s a perfect pop song. I think it can be bettered
Do you have a song on the album that you think is the closest to that?
Pete: I think “If You Wanna” is the first song that really sky-rocketed us into that genre. I mean, “If You Wanna” is the closest we’ve come but we can sure go a lot further.
The album sounds very much like it was written with the sole intention of being played live…
That’s exactly what we intended. We went into the studio and recorded it live. We wanted to capture a live energy and we try to portray that same energy when we play it live. Yeah, absolutely. It was a debut record and that was all it was supposed to be.
Do you have a favourite song off the album, and another to play live?
Arni: Yeah, I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive – obviously because it’s a record made to play live then the songs which sound best live and go down the best are going to become your favourite. It seems to be quite universal across our audiences that “If You Wanna” and “Nørgaard” seem to go down the best.
Freddie: Yeah, I think, “Wreckin’ Bar” “If You Wanna” and “Nørgaard” seem to have the best reaction live, so they’re the most fun to play. It’s just the experience of the audience and the band together.
Pete: “Family Friend”, the last song on the record, it’s a really difficult one to pull off.
Arni: If we pull it off it’s amazing.
Pete: It’s difficult, it’s…
Freddy: It’s got three chords in it.
Arni: You say that like it’s unusual (laughs) especially as the majority of our song have three chords!
Pete: You need to be in a certain frame of mind and a certain situation for it to really work – and when it does it’s so fun.
It seems like it’s the least you – I mean it’s six minutes long…
Arni: I don’t agree. I think the song still fits into the ethos of the record perfectly, it’s still simple, straight to the point, a very direct song – it’s just longer.
Pete: And that’s just because it’s a bit slower! (laughs)
Arni: Yeah and I like the idea of having it there, because that slight sort of change of tempo – well there’s nothing slight about the change of the tempo but it closes off the record with a bit of a question mark. I don’t like the idea of people being able to predict what we’re going to do next if we don’t know what we’re going to do next. We didn’t want to end it with another “Wreckin’ Bar”, you know?
You guys have been in bands for years before you came together as The Vaccines. To what degree do you believe your previous solo material has influenced the sound of the band?
Pete: You decide what you don’t want to do as much as you do want to do. As a musician, you’re constantly improving and refining – so yeah, in that respect, yeah.
Freddie: You sound, your direction as a musician is defined quite early in your life, you simply get better at it – it’s indelible on your character.
‘TIGER BLOOD’ (PRODUCED BY ALBERT HAMMOND JR. OF THE STROKES) IS SET FOR RELEASE AS A DOUBLE A-SIDE SINGLE, ALONG WITH ALBUM TRACK, ‘WETSUIT’ ON 4TH DECEMBER.
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