EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: The Vamps vocalist Brad Simpson talks 'Personal' and 'Night & Day'

It’s a busy time for The Vamps right now with them announcing their UK and Europe Night & Day Arena tour alongside the reveal of their new single “Personal” featuring Maggie Lindemann due for release on Friday. Before they took to the stage in Tokyo, we had a chat with vocalist Brad Simpson about their tour, “Personal” and Night & Day.

Hey, Brad, you’re currently out on your world tour in Tokyo. How has this leg been for you?

It’s been amazing thank you. It’s been really really good. I think it’s our fourth time in Tokyo which is insane that we’ve managed to come here so many but yeah it’s great. The fans are so lovely out here and so respectful and polite. It’s always nice coming over and seeing them and playing a new album for them every time.

It’s been a very busy week for you with the announcement of the UK and European tour. What can fans expect from the Night & Day tour?

They can expect to hear songs off the upcoming album, the Day edition of Night & Day which is cool because we get to showcase them before they’re out. They can expect to see the sweaty mess that is me onstage running around and the other three boys. Just bigger, better, more songs, new songs. We’re always trying to build the tours and make them more exciting so I think we’re going to spend a bit of time and make this our best tour.

You’ve just mentioned the Day version of Night & Day, how is work going on it?

There’s still probably about three songs left to write. So we’re going to lock the four of us away in a cabin and write four songs at some point during the end of this year. Which is really exciting, it’s a nice prospect to know we’ve still got space on the album to kind of draw inspiration from like this trip for example. Take ideas which come from this trip and go away and then potentially they’ll make the Day album.

Personal is released on Friday, featuring Maggie Lindemann, can you tell us a little bit more about the track?

Soooo, the track is called “Personal” and we’ve been asked about it a bit this week but I don’t think we’ve really prepared answers as we don’t really know how to describe it. We haven’t really heard anything that sounds like it and it doesn’t sound like anything we’ve done before. It’s very based around the lyrics and the rhythmic elements and the melodic elements. So it’s all around the vocal and, like, how that progresses around the track.

It’s a duet with Maggie because you kind of get two sides of this story and it’s kind of the story of the guy who thinks that the girl he’s in love with can do better than the guy she’s with. By that, he thinks she should be with him. The lyric is “don’t take it personal but personally, I think you’d be better with somebody like me” so it’s the development of that.

What’s been your personal highlight from being in The Vamps for just over five years?

Erm, the first half of this album went to number one which is insane. I think moments like that are very humbling and very like you don’t do it for that. That’s not the reason you do it but it’s very nice. It’s very nice when it happens and it’s a credit to the fans that they did it on our third album you know what I mean, the first two albums did very well and worked in the charts. But for us to get to the third one and the fans still be putting in so much hard work and effort and supporting us so much, it’s amazing. That’s been a personal highlight for me.

You mentioned Personal is the first track taken from the Day edition of Night & Day, but when can fans expect it and how is it different to the Night edition?

It’ll probably be out in Summer 2018 and it is very much a summer album I think. It was planned for release in December but then we had a conversation, realised that it doesn’t feel like a December so we wanted to push it back. I think that’s the main difference between Night & Day. Night is quite a sultry album and it was intended to be like that as we wanted it to fit the concept which was night and day. Day is just a very upbeat, happy and bright album.

Do you feel since Night & Day went to number one anything has changed for you as a band?

I don’t think so, not massively. It was cool to see the amount of people congratulating us and recognising that a lot of hard work went into it but ultimately it’s a perk. It’s a bonus. It’s a very nice bit of gratification for a body of work that you’ve made. But, ultimately, it’s not something that we take too not seriously but we did take it very seriously. But it doesn’t affect how you make music, you don’t do it for that. Like you don’t write an album with a number one spot in mind. You do it because it’s an expression and you do it for the fans that support your music. It hasn’t changed too much it’s just a very nice humbling feeling.

Now for something a little different, out of all your lyrics you’ve written which is your favourite or most relatable?

Errrrmmm… hard question! There’s a song on the upcoming album called “Hair Too Long” and I wrote the lyric “I’ll go out. Grow my hair too long, sing your least favourite song at the top of my lungs”. The song is about kind of being a bit spiteful because, not in a nasty, was just like oh I’m really annoyed that I lost this girl so I’m just going to go out and do everything she didn’t like. Because I messed it up and because I’m a bit of a knob. So it’s a bit of like a self-implosion, it’s like you’re doing all these things because you’re like ‘I’m going to do this now because you really annoyed me then’. It’s a bit of a childish thing and I really like that!

Finally, do you have words for your fans who are going to read this?

Thank you for the support, thank you for being awesome. I hope your day is going well. Hopefully, we’ll visit where you are soon and play a show soon and we love you!

“Personal” is released on Friday 13th October and details of The Vamps upcoming Night & Day Arena tour can be found here.

Are you looking forward to everything The Vamps have coming up? Tweet us @CelebMix to let us know!

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