Woozy guitar pop, Australian accents and plenty of laughs are all phrases I would use to describe the band Vacations. While at Austin City Limits Music Festival, we got a chance to chat with band members Campbell Burns, Jake Johnson, Nate Delizzotti, and Joseph Van Lier, about upcoming music, their latest album Forever in Bloom and how the pandemic impacted them.
BTT: How’s it feel to be here at Austin City Limits?
Vacations: Feels incredible, honestly. Austin’s been very kind to us, and it’s awesome to be playing our first festival in America. It’s a huge opportunity.
BTT: So, are there any bands you guys really wanted to catch or anybody who caught your eye on the lineup?
Vacations: Really wanted to catch Arlo Parks. And she is playing right now. And I’m just like, ahhhhh. And then Phoenix would be cool. Benee would be cool. Genesis Owusu would be fun. SZA.
BTT: SZA is from St. Louis, which is where I’m from.
Vacations: That’s awesome.
BTT: So, couple questions now as I actually get into the good stuff. Forever in Bloom dropped in 2020. How is dropping music during Covid compared to releasing music pre-Covid?
Vacations: Strange because we dropped this album, we were so proud of it and we focused on such a live aspect of it, like we hadn’t ever before. And then we couldn’t play it live, and that was the only thing we wanted to do. And it was like, we’ve got all this new music and we had to sit with it. And I feel like in the online sense, there was this big feeling that you were supposed to be squaring away and working on stuff during it. There was Taylor Swift releasing multiple albums during that period, and we’d just done that. We’d just worked so hard to make something. And we even argued about releasing it during the pandemic; I’m glad we did because it went for so much longer than anyone was expecting. But we of course just didn’t feel like making more music.
So we just had like three years or almost inactivity, we would see one another regularly and just hang out. But we just didn’t feel like working on anything. Yeah. It was weird. It was weird being in that album cycle and it was meant to be a very triumphant moment that didn’t come until now. Delayed. Delayed gratification.
BTT: [On the Forever in Bloom album] “Floraison” transitions to “Seasons.” I love it. I love the transition. Like it’s one of my favorite things. So, what made you guys want to keep them as two separate songs versus making it just a really long intro?
Vacations: That’s funny, ’cause that kind of circles back to the previous question where it was like that was meant to be the walk-on when we played it live, and then we’re gonna kick into “Seasons.” So really, again, thinking of that live aspect. So that’s why we kept it two separate, but, I feel like it certainly was, and I feel like it’s still very much a thing, that people love making playlists and sometimes having a song with a minute-long intro is detrimental to your playlist and how smooth it functions. So, if people liked the song, they could add it to something without having to suffer through that long, long intro every time. It’s strategic.
We really did it for the fans.
BTT: It’s like the 1975 where they always have those super-duper, duper long intros.
Vacations: We were just talking about them!
BTT: So, what music/sounds are inspiring your next album? Any new experimentation?
Vacations: Campbell’s been the one that’s been going hard in the pain with demos.. Where are they coming from?
It’s true, honestly been getting inspired a lot by America from our previous touring. So, been recording a lot of voice memos, like sounds of us at a diner like walking down the street or when it’s us in the van. And using those sort of audio recordings as like a track bit that sits underneath the track that’s playing at all times. Just to give all the tracks context and then just sort of writing about our time through the pandemic and sort of coming out of that, and finally getting to meet our fans and finally getting to play in the U.S. and just that, so that whole sort of transition.
BTT: Awesome, thank you so much for chatting with us today!