Newcastle is a city in New South Wales beloved for its production of steel, wine and (since the establishment of No-Fi Records) fresh new Australian music. The pleasant sounds of the four piece Vacations have earned them love at home and across the sea. Their music could be faithfully summarised as vibes, fitting somewhere in the shoeboxes of indie rock and glistening psych-pop. Their latest release (appropriately titled Vibes) features the tuneful croons of the singer Campbell Burns between shining, chorus-heavy guitars, bobbing bass and brushy jazz-rock drumming (worth a listen for fans of Morrissey and/or Mac Demarco). The band have just released a single that is the first taste of an album to come in 2018. Grain have been lucky enough to host Vacations at 2017’s Against the Grain festival and we interrogated the band on their current jams and future directions ahead of their next Brisbane show, this Thursday at Barbara.

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Vacations have had crazy success overseas, the YouTube comments on your videos are only the beginning.  How do you feel connecting with fans across the globe?
I’m extremely grateful that people from all over have been able to connect with some songs I wrote in my bedroom and were recorded in a very lo-fi fashion. I get messages every couple days with people asking when we’ll come over to do shows, or that the song(s) got them through a difficult period, or they’ll submit me fan art and covers of our songs, so much more. It’s all so wholesome and reaffirming for me that what we’re doing is actually working out. It’s also still really surreal for me because it wasn’t a gradual build-up, it was all so sudden (over a few weeks earlier this year) and there’s a song on the upcoming debut album about that “out of nowhere” online reception and how that impacted me personally.

On the Vibes video, YouTube user EzDaBoss55 commented: “COME TO BRAZIL”, I noticed you didn’t reply. Is it time to consider playing Brazil (or elsewhere overseas)? Where, and with who, is your ultimate dream gig?

I’m so sorry EzDaBoss55, but Brazil is in our thoughts and you’ll have our song soon enough. USA/UK has been on the cards for us for a while because we can legitimately book shows there thanks to Soundcloud/Instragram. We’ve even been hit up by a few agents for Europe but it always comes back to money. If someone wants to throw a couple million at us so we can do this most over-the-top tour please hit me up.
Never thought about a dream gig but I’ve been going back through the Killers discography recently so seeing Sam’s Town in full would be amazing, I’d 110% back doing vocals with Brandon Flowers or something if I had to be playing in this scenario. As for a place, I got no idea, maybe like a huge cruise ship or like a ball pit that has a stage and planks for people to do sick flips. 

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