You’re probably already familiar with Bradley Simpson; the past decade has been huge for him and The Vamps, the band he joined at 16 and skyrocketed to fame with in the early 2010s. From multiple chart-topping albums, to fronting the first band to headline London’s o2 Arena five years consecutively, he doesn’t necessarily need any introduction.
Instead, it’s all about reintroductions. Although the band didn’t break up (as he reassures us on his new album), Bradley has expressed how it’s been healthy to take a step back and for the members to entertain solo endeavours, releasing his debut solo album, The Panic Years, at the end of February.
The album marks the beginning of Simpson creating music more reflective of his personal influences, and heading down a more alternative-driven musical direction. Drawing inspiration from indie-rock, Americana and 80s synth, but still in-keeping with his pop roots, The Panic Years affirms Simpson, now 29, as an artist only continuing to evolve.
Arriving in Bristol for the first time as a solo act, prior to his intimate album launch show at Strange Brew, and ahead of his headline show in May across the road at SWX, we caught up with Bradley to discuss being vulnerable in music, visual aesthetics, fan reception and the importance of supporting your local music scene.
Hello Bradley, thank you for joining me for a chat - how are you?
I’m good, thank you!
So we’re currently at Strange Brew in Bristol ahead of your intimate album show this evening - how are you feeling about the gig tonight and do you have any expectations for the vibe of the show?
I’m excited! I’ve been doing these acoustic shows over the past week and honestly, I haven’t played acoustic just me and a guitar since I was like 13, so it’s been so long. But I’ve been really enjoying it! It’s fun to strip the songs back and it’s a completely different, much more chilled vibe. I’m a bit of a yapper anyway, so it’s a nice chance to chat as well. It’s nice! It’s a good way to hear what people think of the album and a nice way to show them how the songs were before they got produced. So it’s been nice, yeah!
You released your debut solo album last week!!! How has release week been for you and how have those feelings differed to release weeks with the band?
It’s been good, yeah! I mean I was really nervous, just because I’ve had it so long and it’s like a brand new thing. So I think throughout the process, I got really nervous pre-first single, and then kind of got used to it, but now it's the first album so the nerves have kind of come back up again. But it’s been amazing, like the reception has been so lovely and people have been really nice. I think it’s just like throughout all of it, when you’re in a band, you’re kind of like shoulder to shoulder in it, and it’s a bit more like everyone’s feeling the same. And I think that I’m really lucky that I’ve got a really lovely team around me, and they feel like we’re in the trenches together which is nice. But yeah, it’s a little bit more like I’m sitting looking at everything, but I do that on band releases anyway, because it’s just nice to see songs that are really personal resonate as well. Like that’s a really lovely feeling that people are like, ‘Oh, this song’s helped me out’.
How was the process of playing shows before releasing music? You said Daisies was never meant to be a single until you realised how well received it was live - so have you used these gigs as a way of testing out what will work and what won’t on the album and was that a conscious decision?
Not necessarily conscious. I knew I wanted to do a fair few gigs before a lot of the songs were out, just because I think it’s so online driven at the moment, which I think is really cool and I like it, but I just wanted to see how the crowd connected to the songs having never heard them. And I think it was an interesting experience, in a good way, even for the fans hopefully, that it’s a different experience of having to like listen to a song that you’ve not heard before at all and kind of like, I don’t know, I think it invites them in a bit more, and I think it’s a bit more personal and intimate between me and the crowd. So it wasn’t like a conscious decision. And then as we started doing it, I had an idea of what singles I wanted to go out before the album. But Daisies wasn’t one of them, but it just seemed to click in the crowd. Everyone was vibing away, so I was like ‘We should put that out earlier!’
And what’s it like to now be playing shows with the songs released? Do you think the vibe of your solo gigs has changed in any way?
Yeah, like they know the words now which is cool! And you can definitely see that there’s favourites amongst the fans. Actually, there’s a song called Favourite Band which I think fans seem to be really enjoying, even acoustic, which I didn’t even know how to play acoustic because it’s so drum heavy, but yeah, they’ve been really really receptive to that one, especially since the album’s out. There was a clip on TikTok of it, but they didn’t know any of the other parts outside of that, but now they know the rest of the words. So now it’s really cool to see them singing the words!
It was the same with Carpet Burn as well wasn’t it? The crowds knew all the words before it was out.
Yeah! I think they knew the words because they’d recorded the first night that I played it, and then I’m always conscious of like I get the words to my own songs wrong quite a lot, so I was like, ‘If I’ve got the words wrong and they’ve learned the words wrong’, it’s like it’s entirely my fault, so I was conscious of having to get the words right!
So most people will know you as the frontman of The Vamps, a predominantly pop band, but your solo record sounds a lot more indie-rock driven. How did it feel to launch a solo career that’s more alternative leaning, having been in the band for over a decade?
It’s been really fun, like I’ve really enjoyed it. I love the band and I love the pop space, and I think there is pop fundamentals in my music as well, but I think it’s just that I’ve leaned more into the stuff that I grew up on, which was more alternative rock, and that’s kind of how I got into guitar and music in the first place. So it’s nice to go back to what I would say are more like my musical roots and how I got into it. And then also, it feels like you’re exercising a different part of your brain, and I don’t know, it just didn’t feel too stressful at any point. It just felt like the songs flowed, which was nice.
Did you ever have any doubts as to how a solo career would be received?
Yeah, a little bit, but I think it the first time I started working on it, for like the first six months of writing, it felt really selfish, to be honest, because I was so used to working within a collective and taking onboard other people’s opinions, working and kind of compromising, all of these things, and then I was in a place where I was going, ‘What do I want, and what do I want to do and want to say?’ And it was like ‘Is anyone gonna pull me up on this?’ and everyone’s just like no, it’s like you do your own thing. For a while it felt really alien to me, and then I was like ultimately, if I’m proud of it and I’m happy with it, that’s all that’s within my control really. So I was nervous about the reception, but touch wood, the fans have been really lovely which is nice.
Why did now feel like the right time to go solo? Was there anything in particular that influenced you to do so?
It just kind of happened, yeah, like there wasn’t any contract that had come to an end or anything. It was genuinely like it just felt like the right time. I had started writing a couple of songs, and I never really dreamed of doing the solo thing. But when I started writing those couple of songs I thought, ‘This could actually be really fun!’ And a couple of the songs did start to lean a bit more rock alternative, and I thought how I’d love to pursue that a bit more and do a full album out of it, then it ended up turning into a good chance to reflect on my early twenties and being in the band. So it just kind of worked out. I’ve really enjoyed it and I think I’ve still got a lot more solo music left in me, as well, which is exciting!
Solo you’ve been playing more grassroots venues - what’s it been like to almost go back to the start touring wise and how do those shows differ/what do you prefer?
I actually love these shows, like the smaller, sweaty ones, you get an intimacy that you don’t get in like arenas or really big rooms. And don’t get me wrong, I love playing those shows and the big ones are amazing but they turn into… it’s very production heavy and stage heavy, which is great, but it’s just an entirely different feeling and show. Whereas these are really intimate and I can connect with the audience in a different way. I think people get a bit rowdier, which I really like. And yeah, I was always conscious that I’m starting something completely new, so I didn’t want to approach it and have any ideas as to to what I was going to walk into, like I’m aware and I want to start from the ground up with this, because I’m presenting a completely new thing and a different side to me. So I had no expectation, or like I wasn’t assuming anything. I’m more than happy to go back to small scale rooms because there's also a lot of venues that we never got the chance to play and that I always wanted to play. Like The Leadmill in Sheffield, I’d never played there, Kentish Town Forum in London, I’d never played there, and these are all venues that are like rite of passage venues and really prestigious, so it’s nice to be back.
I’ve spoken to a lot of emerging bands about how they feel about grassroots venues on the way up, but was wondering how you feel about it as an established/experienced artist going back to smaller, local gigs?
I mean they’re like the backbone of music in the live industry because every band and artist comes up through these venues and they create a space for an artist to create a community, create space for fans to go in and feel safe and that they’re alongside people that share a common interest. I grew up going to small, sweaty venues in Birmingham. It was like The Rainbow in Birmingham, and the O2 Academy 2 & 3, Hare & Hounds, like all of these grassroots venues, like you say, that just do so much and they’re so supportive of music, like they just love music. There’s no other incentive there. I think they just want to create a really good place for artists to come in and fans to come in. So I think it was very sad actually over COVID, and still now, to see a lot of these grassroots venues kind of fading away. It’s awful - I think there’s so much more that can be done to support them, and throughout COVID, and I think still seeing the hangover of that and how the arts just weren’t supported in the way that they should have been, and I don’t know if they’ve fully recovered yet. I played The 100 Club at the start of last year, and that’s just a historic venue, and even when you step in to play, like so many artists have played that venue and come from and started there, that it’s like getting rid of something like a historic football stadium or something like that. Like it’s just as important to the culture. So yeah, I think I’d like to shout as loudly as I can for that and I think where people can, go out and support your grassroot venues and go to gigs and support the artists.
What drew me to your solo work is the aesthetic of the visuals, the fashion choices and imagery you’ve used. Can you tell me a bit about the influence behind the visual elements of the record and where you drew inspiration for the videos, especially the videos for Cry At The Moon & Picasso?
A lot of it was quite Americana, but I didn’t want to go like too on the nose with it, but I’ve grown up being influenced by that. And I think looking at American bands they always felt so big and expansive, like Queens of the Stone Age and Nirvana, and those kinds of bands that I grew up with. Jack White, and The Black Keys, too, like they just felt so huge, even in their aesthetic, whereas I love British indie, but it always felt like bedroom, like the first series of Skins, it was like British indie, which is Britain and that’s great. But I think I wanted to kind of bridge the two for me, of having like both of them influence not only the music but also the aesthetic. And I was looking a lot at like Jeff Buckley and Springsteen and there’s a lot of denim in there. But it also feels like how the music sounds as well, like it’s got a bit of a rugged edge to it, and I’ve just always liked that and it’s been nice to have the ability to really lean into it a bit more.
Was there a particular vision or concept you had for The Panic Years before you started writing it, or did it evolve as you went along?
It kind of evolved, yeah. I didn’t get the album title until probably halfway through the process, and then I’d seen it in different iterations, and there’s a book on the panic years, and it popped up and just felt like a really applicable title to what I was writing about, which was my twenties. I think just ups and downs and the songs then ended up becoming just stories of my twenties, be that relationships or friendships or ups and downs and work stuff, whatever it was, I’d never like taken stock and looked back. So I think that’s where The Panic Years just kind of felt natural as the title. It wasn’t like I set out with the title and then wrote the album; it just ended up becoming like, ‘Oh, this feels kind of right for the songs!’
There's much more mature themes explored on The Panic Years and lyrically it seems a lot more personal - can you tell me a little bit about the themes and the inspiration behind the record please, and how you got yourself into a space to be more vulnerable and open in your writing?
I'm terrible at it [laughs], like I hate it! I don’t know, I think I felt I owed it to the fans and to myself to be a bit more vulnerable and open. I think that also comes with doing a solo career, like there’s no one I can kind of hide behind or pass stuff off to. And also it was nice to kind of deal with certain things as well that maybe I hadn’t dived into over my life, whether that's friendships or dealing with how my head is throughout the past ten years, breakups, and things like that. Like, I think as much as the past ten years of my life have been really mad with the touring and stuff, everyone I’ve spoken to, they’ve gone through similar feelings in their twenties, trying to figure out who you are, where you’re going, and what you want to do, and then there’s like love and loss and all these things that everyone isn’t fully equipped to deal with yet, it’s quite a weird thing. So I just wanted to touch on those things and hopefully it helps other people, and there’s a reassurance in it being like, ‘Ok, yeah, everyone’s gonna be in the same boat here, trying to figure shit out.’
Which song on the album took you the longest to write, and why? Was there a song or lyric that felt particularly difficult to get right?
The Panic Years, the last song took ages just because I wrote a completely different version of it. I had two separate versions and I wrote the first one and I liked it, but I just didn’t feel like I’d nailed it. Then I wrote a second version with a Scottish singer-songwriter called Joesef, who’s amazing - highly recommend everyone goes and listens to him. And that one just felt like it captured the feeling a lot better. And then there was a songwriter called Ina Wroldsen, who I worked with on a couple of songs and she’s amazing. She’s a Norwegian songwriter and she’s a beast! I sent her both versions, and I knew which one I preferred, but I wanted to use her as a sounding board and was like, ‘Which do you prefer?’ and she chose the one I was going to choose anyway, so that was good!
Is there anything you’ve learned from the process of making this album that you’ll use to influence future projects, whether solo or with The Vamps?
I think so! I think like having more courage in my convictions and standing behind what you do and being a bit more vulnerable and being confident in that, contradictory as that sounds. But I think it’s been really nice to kind of sit into a bit more, because I always shunned it. I always didn’t want to be vulnerable in my songwriting. But I think it’s been really nice and it seems like people are really… there’s the fans I’ve met even this week who feel like they’ve really connected with it which is nice. Yeah, I’m not sure really what I take, I don’t know, I’m trying to take it one day at a time, but I’m sure in like six months, I’ll look back and be like, ‘Ok, I could have done that better. I’ll do this better next time.’
And finally, what’s next for Bradley Simpson?
I go on tour in May, so I’m very very excited! I’m back in Bristol playing SWX, so if you’re around you should come. I don’t think I’ve ever been so I’m excited to play there!
Bradley Simpson’s debut album, The Panic Years is out now. You can catch him on tour at Bristol’s SWX on 20th May.
Find Bradley Simpson at:
Instagram: @bradleywillsimpson
TikTok: @bradleywillsimpson
X: @thevampsbrad
YouTube: @BradleySimpsonOfficial
Website: https://www.bradleysimpson.com/
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