Vacations on the lakeside in Nyon through my Olympus Trip, right before going to the restaurant.
A few weeks ago, I went to Nyon to meet an Australian band called Vacations. I was very happy to be there to witness the band’s first concert in Switzerland, and as usual I took my Olympus camera with me. Many people had come out to watch them play, and they sounded great. After the concert, we ended up going to Nyon’s old town, climbing a pointy fence - even I ended up doing it, although with zero coordination - and going to our local “beach”, which made the band laugh a lot. I mean, Léman lake doesn’t really have any waves!
Besides their music, what I liked about Vacations was their honesty and their accent full of Australian sunshine - which was more than welcome, as we had had a pretty cold week. I like to think that they brought the warm weather with them, because it was gone as soon as they left!
Before the concert, I had a little conversation with Campbell about the band’s new album Changes, his life in Newcastle and the local scene, and his newly-found celebrity. Many thanks to Vacations, Ben and Joren for their kindness!
To get to know you better, I wanted to know what your life was like in Newcastle when you’re not touring.
Campbell Burns: Hmm… when I’m not touring, I try to take it very easy and just relax – no pun intended to the song! (laughs) Because I don’t actually have a job outside of Vacations and my other band Fritz, I’m solely just a musician, I just write and record. So if I’m not touring, I’ll be doing that. Or I’ll be hanging out with friends, and I’ll be helping manage my collective No-Fi back home, who put on events. It’s a group of artists and musicians who work together and boost each other up.
Yeah, I was going to ask you about it too! And for some reason I thought No-Fi was also a label?
Yeah, we started out as a record label and then we tried to put out music consistently. And it worked out for a little bit, but we started when most of us were… 18, 19. Because we just wanted to help each other out. But then it got to a point where it’s like, “we’re not really a record label, we don’t know what we’re doing. So let’s just put on really big parties and events instead, and try and boost the profiles of ourselves, the musicians of Newcastle, and also nationally by trying to bring in other bands and musicians to Newcastle. Trying to foster the creative scene in Newcastle. Because it’s a small coastal city. A lot of bands will just… pass over it you know. They will play Sidney and they will go to Wollongong, but they won’t come to Newcastle. It’s like- what about Newcastle, what about this city? So through what all the musicians and the artists do independently, and also together as a collective, we try to put on these really big events and try to get people to recognize Newcastle as a city of cultural significance.
That’s great! We should try and do the same here. We have a small scene, and people try to lift each other up, but perhaps we’re missing a collective like yours. We just… do things, I guess? (laughs)
When you’re starting out, it can seem really daunting. When I was 18 or 19, putting out EPs I would ask myself “wow, where do I play? Who do I talk to? What about backline? Who do I get for support?”. But you talk and mingle with other musicians of the area, and they’re all in the same position as well. And it’s like “hey, why don’t we all just work together and try and put these things forward?” Because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and that’s something we recognize with No-Fi. So by banding together, we can take those steps forward a lot more easier. And make the process more possible.
Campbell in Nyon
From what I’ve understood, it’s your first time in Europe right?
Yes! First time in Europe as a band. I’m having a great time. It’s a huge tour- the biggest tour I’ve ever done. I got hit up by Joren from The Lullabye Factory. He sent me an email and came through with a few offers. He said he’d heard the EPs Vibes and Days on YouTube, and he wanted to book a European tour. I was initially a bit sketchy on it, I thought it might have been spam or something! (laughs) But he came with a few really good offers, and then started to book more and more shows. I thought “ok, this is a very legit thing”. I told the band “guys, we can go to Europe. There’s guarantees, we should be okay and able to make this work out.” And here we are! It’s been a lot of fun so far. This is four shows in to our tour, and I think we have another 20 dates or so. It’s really hard to keep track, we’re in a different country every single day.
Haha! I guess you must be like “wait, where am I? What language do they speak here?”
Yeah, the language barrier has been kind of interesting as well. I know just a tiny bit of French, like “Bonjour” or “merci”! Just basic phrases. I’m just trying to incorporate it into our banter. Because we get up on stage and we’re like “what do we say?” (laughs) We don’t really know if they’re going to understand what we’re saying. So we’ve been speaking a bit of French the past couple of shows, and it’s been well received!
I also wanted to talk about Changes. I’ve read in a few interviews that the lyrics were inspired by your personal experiences…
Definitely. It’s kind of an introspective record, and I wanted to be very blunt with the title as well. I didn’t want to give it some fancy word. I wanted it to be like “ok, this album is about changes; you know what you’re getting into”. It documents the last year or so in my life, and all the movements that I went through- with songs like Moving Out, that’s about myself, Jake and my old housemate and good friend John. Moving out of home for the first time, and the experience that came with that. Another song, Club Social, is dealing with the online reception that Vibes got and how that affected us personally. Just getting messages every single day from fans saying “come to this country!”, “this song affected my life, you’ve helped me get through this moment” or “can I have the tabs to this?”. It’s really crazy receiving that, because that only came out last year or something. So much has happened so quickly, and it’s been a lot to take in.
Vacations at La Parenthèse
…So, when you write lyrics, would you say that you mostly get inspired from your own life?
Yeah. Some singers-songwriters can craft stories- they can make up that sort of thing. But I can’t- I could do that, but I don’t find it as interesting. I like to write based off my personal experiences, or experiences that I’ve lived vicariously through friends. If someone is going through a hard time, or if they had something cool happen to them, I might try and base something off that.
That’s interesting! I interviewed Stu from King Gizzard a while ago-
Wow King Gizzard? Huge!
Yeah, I still don’t know how it happened, they’re so nice! (laughs) So, I was asking him about that song he wrote that’s inspired from that book, The Day of The Triffids (ndlr: Cold Cadaver). He basically said: how come when someone writes a book, nobody automatically thinks that it’s about the author’s personal experiences, whereas it’s the opposite in music. We tend to think the songs’ lyrics are talking about what the singer is going through.
Which I find interesting.
Sorry, I don’t know why I said that!
No, it’s true! I do feel that a lot of the audience will always hear a song by a musician or an artist, and think “it obviously must be about them”. And that’s not always the case- in my own case it is about myself, but I recognize other singers-songwriters try and craft stories, like King Gizzard- where they’ve got a whole universe of songs supposedly! But… yeah! (laughs)
I also wanted to talk about my favorite song from the album, Be There. I really like the lyrics and the rhythm-
Yeah, the 6/8 drumming pattern! That’s a fun song. That’s actually a song me and Nate wrote together. It’s the only song on the album that got re-done, it was on an old EP called Friends, which came out a year or two ago. We were looking at the album and at the tracklisting and thinking, “this needs to change up, all the songs are in 4/4. We need some funky, dancy song”. It was always part of our live set, and always got received really well. So we looked at that song and thought about how we could make it a little bit better, and how we could revisit it and make it sound a bit more fresh. So we took that, re-recorded it and added some extra parts to it. I added a lot more vocal harmonies to it as well. I think it’s a lot nicer, it flows really well.
Finally, if you had to drink one thing for the rest of your life, what would you choose between tomato juice and red wine?
Hmm… Honestly I think I would die if I just drank red wine every day! But I probably say red wine anyway. It sounds really nice! (laughs) Tomato juice just doesn’t sound pleasant. I think I’d be very healthy with tomato juice, but red wine sounds a bit more fun!
Ndlr: A group of young girls passes by. They recognize Campbell.
Please join us! (laughs) That’s so great! You have a lot of fans!
That’s weird- imagine having fans in all these countries, it’s just bizarre! Like, when we were playing in Paris at Olympic Café, third song in, a guy in the background yells “Moving Out!” and we were like “oh my God that’s the next song that we’re gonna play!” and then that guy is singing all the lyrics and dancing around! And I’m like “this is wild, I’m on the other side of the world and people are just into it!” That’s crazy, it feels like a dream. But it’s real. It’s really sweet.
