Vamps star Bradley Simpson: “I want to look for the best in people”

In the 10 years that have made up his time with The Vamps, singer-songwriter Bradley Simpson hasn’t had much time for reflection. It’s only now, at 29, that he allows himself to take a break and really look back on a career that skyrocketed when he was just 19.

“I think that's a weird time in anyone's life, 17 to 21,” the singer admits. “You’re this weird little fucking human, going through life.”

Simpson says it himself: at that age, he didn’t have the proper tools to protect himself from public scrutiny, and had to find ways on his own.

“When I wasn't touring,” he says, “I would try and step back into being the same person, or have the same life as when I was 16 – which I don't think was necessarily the best way to deal with it, but it did keep me grounded. And so did having three best mates in the band.

“I never really thought about that – growing up in the public eye a bit – until this album. I think the biggest thing for me was this sudden intrusion, or expectation that there was a side to my life that I had to share.”

Simpson's debut album, The Panic Years, doesn’t represent the launch of his solo career – in fact, he’s been playing without the band for a little less than a year, starting with a tour that kicked off right after The Vamps’ 10-year anniversary album Meet The Vamps (ReVamped) came out last September. A few months later, he remembers this time as a chaotic, but deeply educational part of his life.

“I've been used to working within a group, where I’ve had to be conscious of what everyone wants,” he notes. “Whereas for the solo thing, I have to really think about what I want, which at first felt like a really selfish thing to do. But after, like, six months, I'm feeling fulfilled in that.”

Anything negative about having to do it all on his own? “I have to talk to people at parties,” he laughs, “I have to actually be social. Which is just tiring!”

When The Vamps formed back in 2014, they were propelled into the spotlight immediately. After their first debut record Meet The Vamps debuted at No. 2 on both the Irish and the UK charts, the band went on to garner significant acclaim and commercial success. In fact, they’ve now become the first musical act to have headlined London's O2 Arena five years in a row – which also meant the boys never got to slowly rise through the ranks.

“There’s a lot of venues that we didn't play at, like rite-of-passage venues,” Simpson nods. “I feel very fortunate that we jumped in the way that we did, and I love playing those big venues so much. But they’re two completely different shows. The arena shows, you have to really command, and you have to make this huge room feel as small as possible. Whereas with the smaller shows, you can be a bit more detailed.”

When Simpson was playing alone in these smaller venues last year, he wanted to use the occasion to showcase the tunes that he hadn’t yet put out.

“I was trying bring people into this world a bit more,” he says. “It was much easier to do that in these smaller settings.”

Through this first solo experience, the English musician was able to experiment with his own writing methods – the single ‘Carpet Burn’ was written in a New York hotel room in just an hour, and recorded the next day.

“You can sit and absolutely torture yourself over a song for weeks,” says Simpson of his creative process. “And then you write something that'll come out in 20 minutes. That is typically the one that you’re meant to write and you kind of channel in your subconscious.

“It wasn't like I was coming up with a concept, trying to pull stuff out of nowhere. I knew that I wanted to write about the past 10 years, slightly more personal stuff – then there’s certain phrases that come.”

Indeed, The Panic Years is a deeply intimate record, allowing for Simpson to look back into the last years of his life in a way that was as novel as it was therapeutic.

“It was weird, sometimes, stepping back into a time of your life where you’re like: ‘I might’ve felt a bit uneasy at that point’, and you're out of it now. But it was nice to close certain chapters through a song.”

An important chunk of the album was created during writing sessions with two-time Grammy nominee and producer BOOTS.

“I’d met him on FaceTime for like half-an-hour,” Simpson recalls. “And then after that, we got on really well, so I booked a trip to New York for two weeks to go work with him, which feels like marrying after the first date. But it worked out – he was good for creating a space where there was no pressure.”

Sitting down alone with a producer came as a much welcomed novelty for Simpson, who has been used to the high octane and slightly impersonal writing sessions demanded by fast-selling, high production pop records, like the ones he’d put out with The Vamps.

“I think for a long time, I was in this culture of going to a different songwriting session every day with a different person,” he reflects. “Never locked in with one person to write an album. It's quite hard to open up to someone who you’ve just met.”

Listening to The Panic Years, the first thing that jumps out in comparison to Simpson’s previous work, is the clear rock sensibility weaved throughout the tracks. It’s especially notable noticeable on tunes like ‘Cry At The Moon’ or ‘Getting Clear’.

“I didn't get into pop until I joined the band,” says the singer. “I got into music through AC/DC – my Mum played it in the car all the time, and then my sister was massively into Nirvana and 2000s grunge.”

Instead of asking where the rock element comes from, it turns out that the real question is – how did he end up spending the past 10 years writing pop music?

“The band and the other songwriters I wrote with come from a much more pop background than me,” says Simpson. “I got a huge appreciation for just how hard it is to write a great pop song, and the sensibilities that go into it. To be able to write a song that connects to that many people, and have such mass appeal, is a really amazing thing to do.

“But rock and alternative is where I would go to take myself out of thinking about music. I go back and listen to Songs For The Deaf by Queens Of The Stone Age – that's one of my favourite albums, because I don't think about it. It doesn't feel like I'm analysing it."

One quality Simpson’s music retains throughout his entire discography, is a tendency to towards bright and sunny soundscapes, even on tracks dealing with heavier subject matter.

“There’s a time and place for certain shades,” he says. “Don't get me wrong, I'll put on 21 by Adele on a long train journey and bawl my eyes out, ‘cause I need that in that moment. But there's also time spent on those uplifting songs. I've always approached it like this, even with the band: 70-75% of an album, you can put on and it feels uplifting.”

When I ask if this preference for joyous sounds translates into his personal life, Simpson nods.

“In general I try to be as much of an optimistic person as I can,” he says. “There was definitely a time a couple years ago where I felt myself being a bit more cynical – I was angry at certain things. I look back and I don't really like being like that. I want to look for the best in people.”

The Panic Years is out now. Bradley Simpson plays The Academy, Dublin on May 7.