The Vaccines: Beyond Their Wildest Dreams

UK indie-rock royalty Two Door Cinema Club and The Vaccines have banded together for a dream tour performing their monumental albums in full. The Vaccines’ 2011 debut album What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? is one of the quintessential records that defined indie music in the 2010s. Add Two Door Cinema Club performing their 2010 album Tourist History, in full and you’ve got an iconic night of millennial indie-rock.

Lead singer and guitarist Justin Young says it's surreal that The Vaccines are still touring and people still want to hear their debut album.

"If you told me 15 years ago that we’d still be touring places like Australia and people were turning up, I would have found it hard to believe you," Young shares from home in London while on a short break before the band heads back out on the road.

"I think the fact that there is still hunger and appetite to see The Vaccines and hear those songs is kind of above and beyond all of our wildest dreams.

"The focus on the first record is a whole other thing in itself. If you said 15 years ago that we’d be doing that, I might furrow my brow because I guess there was less of a culture of it. But I think we felt – around about the time we started writing and recording this next record we have coming – there was so much love for that first record that it might be cool to kind of go out for six months and honour it. And hopefully re-engage some of the people that love that record and might want to come along for the ride on the next.”

The Vaccines and Two Door Cinema Club performed together in Australia back in 2013, shortly after What Did You Expect from the Vaccines was released. These shows were only a short run as part of Field Day sideshows, so it will be a full circle moment for both bands to return to celebrate both albums.

"Our paths have crossed on and off ever since we've started the band, really. We've intermittently done shows with them, mostly festivals. Lovely guys, and I think probably lots of crossover in the audience as well, and I think it's going to be really fun."

READ MORE: Two Door Cinema Club: 15 Years of Tourist History

Although the band recorded What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? 15 years ago, the songs from the album are still fan favourites and a core part of their live set. There were a number of songs that Young and the band had to revisit to learn how to play again, but like riding a bike, there are some things you never forget.

"It's funny how quickly they come back to you. The other thing is, when you make a record, it becomes everything during the process and then once it's out there's a good chance you might never listen to those recorded songs again. It's genuinely been years since I'd even heard a couple of those songs because, if they're not singles and you don’t necessarily hear them out in the wild and you’re not choosing to listen to them, you’re not playing them. I hadn’t heard them for years."

Many fans at shows expect bands to be able to take requests and play songs on command, but it's not always that easy.

"The last show we played last week," Young recalls, "We did an encore and we don't take requests, but there was a moment where I guess we were sort of in the mood to at least be open to it. Everything people shouted, we genuinely had no idea how to play. It would have been impossible."

READ MORE: CAKE: Still Going the Distance

What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? was written over two years between 2009 and 2010 while Young was in his early 20s. While studying and relearning the lyrics of the album for these shows, Young reflects on how the songs have grown and evolved as he has.

"I think that in many respects I'm not that person anymore and in others [songs] I am. I think you can be transported back to how you felt when you were writing those songs, but more importantly, I think in the same way that songs can have different meanings for different people, I think the meaning of a song can change over time as well. Maybe what a song meant to me at that time, it might mean something completely different to me now. I can still kind of tap in and find that sort of emotion.

"Most songs we play live, there's a moment when we’re playing them where I’m transported back to the moment they were being written. I think it's always cool to think of the journey they've been on and they've taken you on.”

Young shares that the band have been debuting a new song live on these anniversary shows throughout the year. It’s a small teaser of their new album, which the band just wrapped up recording in Los Angeles at Valentine Recording Studios in North Hollywood.

"We’ve recorded it. We finished recording; we're just about to start mixing it. I think there might even be music out by the time we get to Australia," Young hints.

"I think there’s going to be new music coming this year and a record next year, hopefully."

Catch The Vaccines performing at AEC Theatre with Two Door Cinema Club on Wednesday 18 November. Tickets on sale at ticketek.com.au.