The Vamps

The Vamps had never really had the chance to be bored before 2020 struck. Since their platinum-selling debut album, 'Meet The Vamps', crashed into the UK charts at number 2 in 2014, the band have been holding onto a dream-like rush of albums (four in total, including 2017's chart-topping 'Night & Day'(Night Edition), featuring the Matoma-assisted global smash 'All Night'), singles (eight top 40 hits including five top 10s), and world tours (they're the first band to headline London's O2 Arena five years in a row). Having been on the treadmill of album, tour, album-recorded-on-tour, another tour, they fell back into the old routine and wrote half an album quickly 18 months ago. Some proper time off was needed however, so they indulged in that rare thing of space away from the band. Then, last summer, unhappy with the results of those early sessions, they booked some AirBnbs and just hung out and started jamming as the band. “We ended scrapping all of the first batch of songs and starting again,” McVey says. This time gave the band the space to meticulously plan exactly what they wanted the album to be and what they wanted to say. 'Cherry Blossom' was born, a title that is a reflection of the theme of rebirth that runs throughout.

In the space of just six years The Vamps have morphed from bright-eyed and bushy-tailed boy band with instruments into a proper fully-fledged pop band crafting arena-sized Hits. On 'Cherry Blossom', that musicality that's occasionally been lost in frantic release schedules and world tours and award shows has been given the time to properly, well, blossom. This isn't a vehicle for pop's current crop of in demand songwriters and producers, this is a Vamps-lead project that's made all the more impressive by the fact it was honed and finessed during lockdown. “We'd be lying if we said we didn't want it to go out into the world and be received positively,” says Simpson of their hopes for the album. “But ultimately we love it so much, and that feeling of self-fulfilment is so exciting. These are songs that really touch on parts of our lives.” He smiles. “The songs mean that little bit more.”