F
ans will have to forgive the cheesy film reference , chortles Justin Young . But for a while there recently , the anchor for brainy British folk-punkers The Vaccines actually came to believe that he ’ d somehow lost his magical inner mojo , just like Austin Powers in Mike Myers ’ hilarious espionage spoof The Spy Who Shagged Me . And no mentions of the flick ’ s villain Fat Bastard , either , if you don ’ t mind – he ’ d grown chubby enough himself during this dark , depressing period . “ I put on three stone – you can do the conversion rate yourself ,” reveals the singer , 30 , of the bloated 42-extra-pounds period following the group ’ s third aesthetically-adventurous – but ultimately energy-snuffing – English Graffiti in 2015 . “ All I was doing was drinking beer and eating cheese snacks , and apart from making our next record , I didn ’ t really feel like I had any purpose .” He sighs , dejectedly . “ I was drifting , feeling very lost , until I well and truly lost my mojo , socially , emotionally , even spiritually .”
What could lay low such a stellar talent as Young , a former acoustic London folkie who called himself Jay Jay Pisttolet before he found his spark in 2009 when he met Strokes-edgy guitarist Freddie Cowan , who was equally frustrated with the UK music scene ? As The Vaccines , the symbiotic team burst out of the gate with 2011 ’ s snark-titled What Did You Expect From the Vaccines ?, a bracing bombastic tonic for the tepid times that – like vintage R . E . M . – featured jagged , jolting guitar lines from
22 illinoisentertainer . com march 2018
The Rediscovery By Tom Lanham
Cowan that seemed to converse with Young ’ s conversely rich and sonorous vocals . They followed it up a year later with the equally frenetic Come of Age , and - - as they began acquiring nominations for Q , NME , MTV , Brit , and – ahem – MOJO Awards , several of which they won – they were suddenly an irresistible force to be reckoned with , with no immovable objects in sight . What could possibly go wrong ?
Young is self-reflective to an almost OCD fault . And – hindsight being 20 / 20 – he can clearly identify the turbulence into which The Vaccines were insouciantly flying with English Graffiti , and exactly when it knocked them out of the sky – a course they ’ ve carefully corrected with a rollicking new mojo-reclaiming comeback Combat Sports , which hits shelves later this month and is preceded by buzz-sawing hallmark single “ Nightclub ,” a reason to be cheerful this year if ever there was one . The ambitious Graffiti project had started innocently enough , with the composer leaving the comfortable confines of London for a rented apartment in New York City ’ s bustling Chinatown , where he hoped to capture the pace and the splashy neon-hued color of the neighborhood . He invited Cowan to join him in his experiment , while bassist Arni Arnason and drummer Pete Robertson ( who would later quit , replaced on Combat by Yoann Intonti ; touring keyboardist Tim Lanham also officially joined ) stayed home . As produced by Dave Fridmann , some of the material (“ Handsome ,” “ 20 / 20 ,” “ Radio Bikini ”) was as rip-roaring as early singles “ Teenage Icon ,” “ If You Wanna ,” and the definitive “ Post Break-Up Sex .” But a good portion of the record was comprised of gentle , navel-gazing ballads , which – if you viewed the group as a speedboat powering maniacally across the choppy waves – was like the sound of the engine sputtering off into an eerie dead calm . Not at all what you would expect from The Vaccines .
Young returned to Britain , couchsurfed with friends with no home to call his own , and promptly fell into a funk . Had he over-thought the third record ? Been too dogmatically determined to become an uptown artiste with an E on the end ? He laughs . “ Yes , definitely , definitely ,” he can now admit . “ I think we felt like we ’ d been pigeonholed , and that we were functioning within these small parameters that we ’ d set up four ourselves . And we really wanted to prove that we were more than that to people – we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could make a production-heavy record , that we could make pretty songs , that we could make songs with weird , understated chords . I mean , it was written and recorded over a very long time , and there are some brilliant songs on there , songs that are some of my favorites .” He pauses , weighing his next words carefully . “ But the record lacks focus . And in trying to find ourselves , I guess we lost our way . So then we started trying to figure out what defined us . What ’ s at the heart of what The Vaccines do that nobody else does ? What is at the core of our identity ?
And this new album is our journey of rediscovery .”
It ’ s not an easy thing to pinpoint , all told . But it ’ s there on track one of the What Did You Expect bow , the pell-mell punker “ Wreckin ’ Bar ( Ra Ra Ra ),” which scampers past in only 1:34 . Midway through it is a six-second guitar-solo bridge from Cowan that sounds like an angry , Masonjarred hornet fighting to escape that is truly one of the greatest moments in modern rock . In rock and roll history , period . It ’ s nothing that was over-analyzed – it ’ s just Cowan sensing the innate flame his comrade had lit with the anthem , then ratcheting it up to a roman-candle intensity , like all great collaborators have been doing since Lennon / McCartney , Jagger / Richards . And the axeman ’ s instrument actually speaks in different pedalaffected tones from cut to cut , until there really does seem to be a conversation going on between his textural statements and Young ’ s warm , woodsy delivery . It ' s a 50 / 50 arrangement that ’ s musical symbiosis at its most enthralling . “ We need each other , and its good to be reminded of that sometimes ,” Young says , thoughtfully .
Friends saw Young struggling to find himself and made a few helpful suggestions . Stop crashing on people ’ s sofas and get your own home , or – as George Carlin once termed it – a place for all his stuff . And he did . “ I have now got my own house in London , and it ’ s nice after being in such a weird space ,” he says . “ Everyone kept saying , ‘ You ’ ve got to get a room with continues on page 26