I ll write entire songs and I won’t know what any of the chords are that I’ve used!”
The Vaccines frontman Justin Young puts it simply. “In some ways this is our most rock record.” He’s talking about Back In Love City, a high-tech set of songs that fuse futuristic keyboards and loops with retro rockabilly twang and punk rock powerchords.
It was produced by Daniel Ledinsky, better known for collaborations with Tove Lo and Rihanna. But this is a guitar-driven album, shaped by Justin and the band’s lead player Freddie Cowan. “Eight or nine songs were built around lead guitar riffs,” Justin says. “Freddie was just sending me great riffs that inspired me to write over them.” The result is what Justin calls “a weird paradox of being more rock but also more pop”. And as Freddie explains, he had an unexpected source of inspiration for these riffs...
“My soon-to-be wife and I lived in Mexico City
