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S2: EP 4 - James McVey: The Vamps - "I regularly felt very awkward in situations"
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James McVey is a renowned musician , having formed "The Vamps" back in 2011. The Vamps have released five albums, had multiple hits, and sold out countless arenas across the globe during their tours.
In this episode, James talks about his experience going from playing pub gigs as a teenager to touring the world with thousands of fans watching; The struggles of having notoriety as such a young age, how his fellow band members became some of his closest friends: His passion for watches, his solo work as a folk musician, and much more.
You can find out more about James McVey on instagram, or by searching on your favourite streaming platform.
Instagram: @JamesMcVey
Music: James McVey
The Vamps
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
All right.
Introduction of James McVeigh
00:00:01
Speaker
um Also, how would you like to be introduced? Is it James Britton McVeigh or James McVeigh? Mate, I don't know anymore. I mean, legally, we never changed it. So I think i think if we just do James McVeigh, that's probably easier.
00:00:12
Speaker
Cool. All right. So James McVeigh, welcome to the show, man. yeah Really appreciate you coming on and having you here. um Thanks, man. So I always like to start with a bit of an introduction, but I like to get the guests to introduce themselves. So for anyone who isn't familiar with with who you are, um who's James McVeigh and what do you do?
00:00:30
Speaker
ah Well, first of all, thanks for having me on, mate. it' so i We only met a few weeks ago and now i' on the show. So ah yeah,
James McVeigh's Musical Journey
00:00:36
Speaker
that's very nice. um For those who ah are unfamiliar with, how shall I say, ah sort of 2013 to 2018 pop music in the UK, I'm probably best known for my role in the band The Vamps, where I'm a ah songwriter, guitarist, backing vocalist.
00:01:01
Speaker
ah But in the last sort of couple of years between VAMP's kind of chapters, I'm making my music, ah sort of solo folk music, which is which has always been my passion. um Alongside that, I have been, well, I'd like to think I'm ah member of the watch community and I see my future definitely around that realm.
00:01:26
Speaker
ah So I would say, yeah, musician and um and watch nerd. That's who I i am. Excellent. You know, you're actually the first musician I've had on this this podcast. So when people will say like, or if you look back and what's your what's your proudest achievement, you can say, you know, that perspectives podcast, first musician. Never mind the vamp stuff. um so So you actually founded the vamps like...
00:01:52
Speaker
pretty early on you were quite young what were you around 15 16 so i started music when i was well probably 12 but i think with the vamps the the process started for me when i was 16 but i didn't meet brad our singer until i think i was mid 18 90 well it was my second year of a levels but took a year out so how old well it must have been 18 when I when I met Brad and I think that's when what we now know is the vamps really could be pinned to so sort of 2011 is when I found Brad our singer on YouTube and I sort of dropped him a message through Facebook so I always say 2011 so where are we now 14 years that's
00:02:36
Speaker
That's actually kind of crazy. Time time does fly when you're having fun. it's is It's actually really interesting to have you on because you you really experienced like your your late teens and obviously when that took off, that's kind of the time when you really emerged in the spotlight and you've kind of been in the spotlight ever since really, if that's that's a fair assessment. So ah kind of wanted to to dive into a little bit about what you know what that was like start at the beginning.
00:03:01
Speaker
that age you're kind of slap bang in the middle of your academic stuff you know there's a lot of pressure um i know speaking to people you know when i was at school like the the music industry was notoriously difficult to get into. So you were at a time where there's a lot of pressure mounting on you for, you know, you've to have your career mapped out. You've got to know what you want to do for GCSEs, then your A-levels, then you either go on to obviously university or your apprenticeship. So, you know, if you were to go back and kind of consider your school life at the time, like, did you did you ever think like becoming a musician professionally, was that a dream for you? Was that the end goal or was that kind of you sort of fell into that sort of thing?
00:03:40
Speaker
i ah so I'm the age that kind of fits into the MySpace music era. um So it was it was MySpace, it was Bebo, and then points of contact with with music for me was, i mean, i live I grew up in ah well on the south coast in Dorset in a place called Poole.
00:04:05
Speaker
And, you know, back then there was there were several music venues, but really there was only one at the time sort of big enough to to bring in artists that perhaps I would listen to. so and And even when they did come, it might be once every six months, there'd be a band that I wanted to see. So my points of contact...
00:04:22
Speaker
for music was really sort of weekend morning TV shows where they played music videos or there might be like a guest going on, say, like, I don't know, what it like Jonathan Ross show or something. So really, for me, I felt quite disconnected from um any real sense of, well, I guess, like ah road to the music industry. um and but i I always wanted to do it. So I would listen to, ah you know, ah I was kind of the music I was listening to back then. I had a few different sort of things going on. It would be on one hand, the the Busted and McFly era.
00:04:59
Speaker
um You know, that was when I was, well, Busted, I must've been about 10 or 11 and then McFly couple of years after that. So I had that on one hand. I then had the whole like American um
Challenges and Growth in Music Career
00:05:11
Speaker
explosion that seemed to happen for for me and my, my friendship group. So you'd have bands like blink one eight, two good Charlotte boys like girls. And that, that was what I'd say on the TV.
00:05:22
Speaker
And then alongside that, I, had the the great fortune of um being shared an artist called Damien Rice when I was sort of 12 years old. um And for those who are unfamiliar with Damien Rice, he's an Irish folk singer-songwriter that really kind of ah explores slightly obscure um sort of themes through his lyricism and, you know, a very mature ah musician and songwriter for me to discover at the age of 12.
00:05:53
Speaker
of twelve And so I had these three kind of, I guess you could put the the UK scene and the American scene sort of in a similar thing. But then I had this songwriter, Damien Rice, who was, you know, completely on the outside of everything I'd ever, ever heard before. And that, and that kind of built this, this bizarre songwriter in me where,
00:06:13
Speaker
you know i wanted to I wanted to try and explore some some more of those obscure themes ah through my lyrics. But at the same time, being 12 years old, I had no real idea as to what Damien Rice was was speaking about. i mean I think I'd maybe had like one girlfriend at school and then this this this guy was singing about having accidental babies. And I was like, what what what do you mean? like so But what I'm getting at is I was building this um this real passion. this It almost felt like a, this sounds kind of cliche, but like a fire in me to like write songs.
00:06:47
Speaker
And I think that was interesting because it meant that I didn't want to do music necessarily for the whole fame angle. And, you know, while while saying that, I would watch music videos of Busted who had their song, What I Go To School For. And it was literally as I was at school and I was thinking, God, they are so cool, blah, blah, blah. So I did have a bit of that, but mainly it was like, well, I want to write songs that do that.
00:07:13
Speaker
Um, But as I said, initially, there wasn't really a clear series of footsteps to to follow the music industry. It was either you do, ah sorry, to follow a path to the music industry. It was either, you know, do pub gigs on the weekend, which I did, or send countless emails out to venues, which which mainly were pubs and bars. But being sort of 13, 14, 15, there was was really like an age requirement for a lot of these places. So the the opportunities to perform live were quite slim. um I spent a lot of time sending messages out on Myspace to to other bands that were maybe coming...
00:07:49
Speaker
ah to to the local venues. There was a venue in Southampton called The Joiners, which was one of the the big ones of the time. There was one in Pool called Mr. Kipps, which was, you know, that those are the sort of venues. They were probably, all in hindsight, I don't know, maybe 200 to 300 capacity. And I would try and like beg people to let me support them.
00:08:09
Speaker
And then alongside that, I would try and scrape together some money. I mean, being, you know, 12, 13, 14, it was really my parents that I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to you know rent like a recording studio for like an hour with with a producer that probably didn't care at all. And he would just so so press play and the a record and then I'd go. but But actually what that did help me do, I think, was to finesse my ah my performance and and my ability to or to really not have to do it over loads and loads of takes. And and it's it's funny, actually, like, you know, I've been very fortunate with with the Vamps and my solo music since, where like the recording process is a lot more technical, a lot more time spent on it. But I watched the um the Bob Dylan film ah a a couple of months ago, and I sort of always forget that in those early days, sort of like, well, up until...
00:08:58
Speaker
up until really i guess like the 80s 90s i mean people still do it now but it was that kind of press press record and then you do it in one take and that was the take and like i'm not saying i'm like bob dylan but when i was 15 16 it really was a press play no overdubbing no even like real auto tune and that's probably because i was just going to these relatively shoddy recording setups but it meant that i was sort of building this um this feeling within me where I was recognizing the importance of being able to one song, right, but to perform to the best of my ability.
00:09:33
Speaker
So that was going on at the same time that I was doing school and jumping sort of to my education side. I um went to a very normal ah state school that fortunately had ah an emphasis on on music. um but Mainly actually more sort of the performing, ah sort of like theater, theatrical performances and stuff, which didn't really resonate with me. But the music teacher at my school, my, ah so in Dorset, we do three schools. So we have like primary, middle school and then like upper school.
00:10:06
Speaker
ah My music teacher in my upper school, a guy called Mr. Coleman, sort of, recognized within me that I had this desire to perform music, to write music, but I didn't really have any ability with the um theory side. So he would kind of facilitate, you from probably shouldn't have done, but with would sort of like help me write through my ah so the the the coursework side of the music and kind of let me compose and do that. So I had a real help from the music side.
00:10:34
Speaker
But then the other stuff, um my other sort of academical skills at that age, sort of 15, 16, 17. i mean, I passed all my GCSEs, but there was nothing really to write home about. And I took a year off school.
00:10:48
Speaker
to try and further my music career after. ah So when I did my GCSEs, it wasn't compulsory back then to go straight into A-levels or an apprenticeship or a job. So I took a year out of ah school and I worked in a couple of cafes. I worked in a clothes shop called Animal, which um which the flagship store was in Dorset where I grew up.
00:11:12
Speaker
um So that was quite you cool for me. I was thinking, oh, yeah I'm 17. I'm working in the flagship store of Animal. I had a staff discount, but basically on the side, I was really trying to further my music. um And i I really, really struggled with it. I was writing songs. I was putting them on MySpace um and trying to do all the gigs I could. But the reality is I just struggled to get any traction. So much so that I decided I need to go back to school um because there was no plan B. I had GCSEs, but you know by this point, all of my ah my mates and stuff were only kind of a year. They were sort of in their secondary of A-levels. They'd applied for their unis. Their
00:11:52
Speaker
future plans were very much solidified grades pending as opposed to me who had ah no plans for A-levels, no future prospects really other than wanting to do music. So I went back to school and I don't know what happened, but there was a penny drop moment and all of a sudden realized became really, really into ah well English literature and history. And you know I guess maybe you could argue the English literature was maybe stemmed from me doing a real deep dive into my ah my songwriting and stuff. but i just
00:12:26
Speaker
I became an ultimate nerd and and i love I loved my A-levels. But then it's funny how this stuff happens. As soon as I started really applying myself academically at school was when I got a ah message through MySpace from the manager of McFly and Busted who said,
00:12:46
Speaker
do you want to make a band? um And, and, you know, like, I'll help, I'll help you do that. And ah so it went from me going back to school thinking, oh, maybe I do history. um And I wanted to, I sort of toyed with the idea of applying to Durham University. And,
00:13:05
Speaker
and I sort of had this like real rail visceral moment of memory in my head of being sat in the library. And I was so much of a nerd that like every break and lunchtime, I would do all my ah my homework, my coursework, because I wanted to leave it at school. So then when I could go home, I could write songs. So I was sat in the library and i had like this, this word document and it said like personal statement at the top, which obviously you need to apply to units.
00:13:32
Speaker
And I remember thinking like, I'm not going to write the personal statement. I'm going to take up the offer from this guy and I'm going to, I'm going to make a band. And I think for me, it was a, an interesting thing because I had always up to that point thought I would perhaps be the singer in a band, you know and because I'd been singing on my own for for a long time.
00:13:52
Speaker
And I made a real ah real decision to be like, actually, you know what? i I knew at that point in time, what the world was it interested in from a point of songwriter's perspective was not my kind of style.
00:14:07
Speaker
So, ah well, they liked the I guess what was going on at the time was you had, ah it was a very like clean, like sort of Justin Bieber or One Direction vocal. And my voice wasn't really like that, but I thought if I can find someone that's actually even further away from from that, someone that had a bit of,
00:14:24
Speaker
a bit of character, a little bit of gravel, a bit, just something that was very different to what was going on, but we can do it in a way that still has that, the catchiness of of pop music, then I think there could be a real that niche, a real golden spot.
00:14:38
Speaker
So I messaged the manager and said, right, I'll finish my A-levels, but let let's make a band I was thinking he was then going to say, yeah, no worries. I know the perfect people. Like, it's fine. and But what he actually said to me was, ah okay, James, now you go find the other people.
00:14:54
Speaker
So I was like, oh, shit. Like, what do mean? How am I going to? So i spent I spent months and months and months on YouTube um searching for other people. And it was what I would put in was like Ed Sheeran cover or the Kooks cover. The Kooks were my favorite band back then um after Busted McFly and all that.
00:15:14
Speaker
and And I eventually stumbled upon this video um of of Brad singing an Ed Sheeran cover. He just turned 15. So what I think, and then from there, honestly, things just worked. By the time I finished my A-levels, we kind of had a record deal. But you asked me, did I always want to do it? I think I always had a big passion for music.
00:15:33
Speaker
um I loved songwriting. did If you asked, did I always want to be like... famous or in ah in a famous band. Like, no, not really. I always wanted to i was wanted to perform music and write songs, but at the same time, i was I had no real idea of how to do that. Like, no one in my family had ever been musical or successful at doing music.
00:15:55
Speaker
It was kind of before TikTok, before Instagram, I was on Twitter just, but it was it wasn't as obvious now where you open your phone and you see people on TikTok doing music.
00:16:06
Speaker
It was, you'd see them on TV and those steps to that point were a bit of an enigma to me. um Sorry, very long answer, but that's the answer. Oh, perfect. um Just like the the few things you've pointed out there have been like nostalgia 101. So yeah um remember a think I think remember hearing Damien Rice on like one of the now, you remember the now that's what I call music?
00:16:28
Speaker
just like one of those albums. um And it's interesting what you say about the smaller league gigs as well, the smaller
Support and Influence
00:16:33
Speaker
venues, because that's when I was growing up, that was one of the things I used to love doing was going to those kind of finding little bands. um And I used to watch a lot of like later live with Jules Holland.
00:16:44
Speaker
And that that would be great because I'd always see, you'd see these kind of up and coming bands or ones that you maybe hadn't heard of as well as some of the bigger ones. And I'd always look out for those bands and always thought those venues are amazing because you you had the opportunity to see these like these bands that a few years later would be really they'll be big and they're like the whole the whole venues change. And I think if you can get a chance to see some ah more intimate venue and and a smaller venue compared to like these massive stadiums, like obviously when you scale to a certain level, there's no avoiding, you have to just just go for those bigger ones. But it's a really nice kind of mid-ground where you can
00:17:22
Speaker
enjoy the music in more of an intimate setting. You, you touched on some of the things you said, is it sounded like you were very independent with a lot of these decisions, obviously you took the decision to take a year out, ah go work at that cafe, and then obviously keep pursuing the music, keep reaching out to people on MySpace.
00:17:39
Speaker
When, when that manager sort of contacted you as well, I don't, want to just understand how do your like family perceive all of this stuff? Because it sounded like you were quite independent in what you were doing at that point anyways. Was there any kind of pressure from them to go the other way? And obviously, because at that age, the pressure is to just do the norm, go to school,
00:18:00
Speaker
good do distribute do go down the traditional route, so to speak. So... Yeah. was it Was there much pressure from your parents in that stage? or I think i was i mean I was really, really fortunate to have um parents that were supportive of kind of whatever I wanted to do music-wise. So, um you know, my my dad would... what I said before that I would email um venues and ask, you know, if I could do shows or...
00:18:32
Speaker
whatever. And but at the same time, my mum was calling these places and saying, you know, can my son do this, blah, blah, blah, which in hindsight makes me want to die from embarrassment. But ah but really, you know,
00:18:43
Speaker
It wasn't the case of, you know, sending sending a link necessarily. I mean, I had the MySpace, yes, but it wasn't like social media wasn't a thing. So it it wasn't the case of me just sending a link to my Instagram and saying, this is James, blah, blah, blah. It was, here's his MySpace. And so my mom was, was,
00:19:03
Speaker
kind of managing that side. And then on the few times I was given the opportunity to perform live, it would be my dad that would then drive me to these places. And, you know, that that varies everywhere from doing ah some of the the support shows when that venue, the joiners that I mentioned, and, you know, that might be to 150 people, which was which was terrifying. But, my you know, my dad was there. He'd restring my guitar, that, you know, and all that stuff.
00:19:29
Speaker
But then it would go all the way down to I played... um Luton Fringe Festival which must have been in 2008 maybe or something and um and there was no like when I say no one there like the bar staff were the only people in the room so much so that I thought that Maybe we'd got the day wrong or it was shut, but I still played like, you know, I don't know, half an hour of songs to the bar staff.
00:19:56
Speaker
And my dad was there for that. So I think my parents had been part of that journey for me from from day one. I mean, literally day one, my dad got a guitar that he had...
00:20:08
Speaker
made himself at uni um down from the loft and sort of handed it to me. And the strings, I imagine, hadn't been changed in 20 years. um And this sounds like I'm making it up, but I i played it and genuinely, so my fingers were bleeding. But that's not because I was playing loads. It was because the strings are so old.
00:20:28
Speaker
ah like really rusty. Yeah, all rusty ones. Yeah, genuinely. And it sounded awful. I didn't know what I was doing, but you know when I showed a bit of an interest in that, they got me, and what was it? A Squire Stratocaster, I think from Argos. I think you could buy them back then.
00:20:43
Speaker
um And all along the way, my parents have been you know i guess I guess the catalyst, but also the facilitators of of each of these um these opportunities and these ventures.
00:20:56
Speaker
um So when it came round to the decision to not go to uni, I think i think we were... we were in agreement that finish my A-levels because once I've got them, in theory, I could go to uni a bit down the line.
00:21:12
Speaker
I actually worry though now, if ah like I could in theory apply for uni now, now I'm 32 with those same A-levels. And if you ask me about... I don't know, the Elizabethan era.
00:21:24
Speaker
i don't know how much I don't know how far those A-levels would get me now. However, my parents were were really supportive. And you know there were several conversations about, you know is this what you want to do? Shouldn't you just apply anyway? Then you can defer X, Y, Z. But I was really fortunate that really by the end of my second year of A-levels,
00:21:46
Speaker
it would it was kind of I mean, nothing's guaranteed, especially in in my industry, but there was a little bit more on paper, you know meaning that the the record company were were really interested. I think we'd even started posting on YouTube, Brad and I back then, definitely around that point um and views started to happen. And it felt like there was there was a momentum building. There was also kind of, to an extent, a bit of a guarantee that we'd be able to support McFly on tour at some point, which was amazing and such a such an amazing opportunity considering that the biggest shows I played up to that point were 100 people in a room supporting some band. So my parents, that and I actually think about this more now in hindsight, it must have been such a difficult experience
00:22:34
Speaker
period of time for my parents to to have to kind of, well, go the complete opposite way to what all of their friends and, you know, my my friends were doing.
00:22:45
Speaker
ah But I'm so grateful they did that. And I often think if I was presented with the same the same choice, knowing what I know now with the percentage of ah people that succeed in these sorts of performing arts industries, whether I'd be able to make the same same decision. And I'm really grateful, you know, all all along the way, whether it's equipment or driving me places or whatever, they would sort of bend over backwards to to enable those things. um So i but I was very, very lucky.
00:23:14
Speaker
Shout out, shout out mum and
00:23:19
Speaker
dad. as
Fame and Mental Health
00:23:20
Speaker
your as your band kind of, you know, started to grow and in popularity, you can imagine that transition into sort of being thrown the limelight was fairly, fairly quick.
00:23:31
Speaker
ah Talk to me a little bit about that. What what was that like for you? I, at school um and throughout my teenage years, I went from being, ah well, before teenage years, slightly overweight to...
00:23:47
Speaker
to then having severe acne um for year like years. And when I say like acne, I don't mean like the odd spot. like i was like My face was completely covered with acne.
00:24:00
Speaker
And that led to me feeling very, very underconfident. I struggled to look people in the eye. um And I didn't, even though I had an extremely loving set of parents and um pretty good friendship group back then, I i just really struggled with my self-esteem, self-confidence.
00:24:19
Speaker
So then to go from that to be slightly, and also I think with my mental health back then, I mean, there weren't so many conversations around mental health, especially from a, well, from anyone's perspective, actually, when I was sort of 15, you know, I definitely went through some ups and downs mentally.
00:24:36
Speaker
um and And that meant that when I was sort of put into meeting record labels or you know, a couple steps later when I was doing stuff that people were interested in what I was doing.
00:24:48
Speaker
I struggled quite a lot with that. I think there's no real, I mean, people say you can have like media training, all this stuff, but the reality is there's not really anything you can do to prepare yourself for that level of um exposure. And I, you know, I am a firm believer that it's such an unnatural thing to find yourself in those situations. If you think about like, you know, up until a hundred years ago, the the amount of people that you probably network with and socialize with is quite close knit. And then all of a sudden, you know, you go to 2013 for me and I was sent around the world going to different places that,
00:25:30
Speaker
like genuinely I'd never heard of, let alone like thought I'd ever go and we'd go places and there would be like a thousand people outside a hotel. um and it was amazing, obviously in, in, in retrospect, I really, really appreciate it and and love it at the time it was daunting. Um, and I, I regularly felt very awkward in those situations so much so that I think I was pit as sort of the the almost like rude member of the vamps in those situations because I just didn't know how to behave and in those things. I struggled to speak to people anyway.
00:26:06
Speaker
um and And then that sort of led to this, I guess, slight recession of my social abilities in those situations so much so that I'd probably avoid going outside to so meet people that were waiting outside the hotel rooms. and And, you know, and i i read I'm gutted about that now because...
00:26:26
Speaker
I think, you know, there's there's some places that we've been where we've maybe only been once or twice and that there was people that were really wanting to to to meet the Vamps and um and i i didn't I didn't do that, which which is a shame. And that's why now i i I'm really determined to try and spend as much time with with fans as possible, whether that's doing, you know, meeting greets or or even just, you know, meeting people in the street.
00:26:51
Speaker
So i I did struggle with that adjustment. I think I was very fortunate that I was going through it though with three other boys that had very similar backgrounds to my own. um And yeah, i I think if I was on my own going through that, that would have been crazy and i think knowing now how some people in the music industry's lives have become more and more difficult with as fame and and everything else um carries on over years like i I understand that in a way that I never would have done if I hadn't gone through it myself.
00:27:23
Speaker
its it's It's so interesting you like the two sides of the coin really because you you said like you're perceived as you know maybe as a bit rude at times but then hearing your side of the story you can completely understand why that would be like I had a had a friend of mine who um at university, he was sort dating quite a famous actress at the time and ends up going to a ah music festival.
00:27:46
Speaker
And remember seeing her, like not not to talk to you, but I remember seeing her from afar. And like there were people that were literally just kind of like phones in her face, just taking photos and taking, you know, just not really treating her as if she was a human being. and I do remember seeing it and just feeling like,
00:28:03
Speaker
not not sound like I'm all high and mighty with my moral compass or anything like that, but like I did feel a lot of empathy towards it because you think, okay, you probably have to deal with this day to day where you can't just kind of pop out to the shops and get some, know depending on your level of notoriety, you can't just you know pop out to the shops a bit without maybe getting recognized, especially if you're in London, for example.
00:28:25
Speaker
um So I just remember thinking like, well, is it's weird how people tend to treat like famous people and celebrities and I think sometimes it's not everyone and I'm i'm sure you can attest that, but there are sometimes those people where you don't really, it's kind of, it's that disconnect from the human element. They they don't really treat you as like people. They they treat you as kind of like objects to be, you know, pranced around, parade around. So,
00:28:53
Speaker
I can imagine like situations like that must be must be really, really difficult for you. How would you deal with those? I was just going to say, how would you deal with those? Well, I think there's two sides to this. And I think if I separate that into me up until maybe 2000 maybe me up until the pandemic and me post pandemic.
00:29:16
Speaker
And, you know, loads of things happened through that, that period. But, you know, i think back then how I would deal with it was, Well, not to really acknowledge it. i think I was i was in a i mean a very fortunate position where things were happening constantly. So you know we we used to get home calendars emailed to us before our manager learned about Google calendars. It was this document that he he'd made and it would say everything. And and and I remember...
00:29:50
Speaker
getting sent one of these that was six months, in fact, more 12 months booked out kind of thing of of what what we were doing. And across those 12 months, there would be maybe three weeks off over Christmas.
00:30:04
Speaker
But then from that, every day was something which really meant that it was just a continuous treadmill of um i mean amazing things um but it meant that you couldn't dwell on in particular incidences really like it would be oh, we've just done this amazing tour of America. Oh, but two days later, we're going to go to ah Australia. And you forget that you've done America as soon as you get to Australia. And and that you know that was insane. But I guess...
00:30:40
Speaker
part of to to do like a really a really rubbish kind of comparison. It's like if you go through some, say it's like a breakup or something or you lose a family member, there's that process of like, what is it like five stages of grief? And I'm not saying I went, anything I did was particularly awful. But for example, if there was like ah a really troubling and period of time, you know, even something as mundane of just feeling really, really, really homesick or like a breakup or maybe someone, something ah didn't go as we'd hoped with, with the vamps in an area instead of maybe like in a normal line of work, you might go through a period of being like,
00:31:19
Speaker
okay, that was difficult, but let's get through it. And you process it and move on, blah, blah, blah. With with with the vamps in those early years, it was just constant stuff, which meant that you didn't have that that opportunity to reflect. And that means, you know, more often than not, 99% of the time, that was completely fine.
00:31:35
Speaker
get over it. Cool. But, you know, if we're speaking about stuff like, ah like my mental health and I had um sort of a long period of time where I struggled with ah like eating and body image. And I think, you know, instead of maybe addressing that early and like nipping it in the bud, I would just carry on doing these things. And before I realized it was like three years later and I had like a really severe kind of issue with, with my body image and, you uh my diet and and those kind of tendencies that obsession um but now i try and deal with well i i really enjoy it's funny actually how you know we grow and and change and adapt now i actually really enjoy those moments of of craziness more i try and live in the moment um and you know i posted something on my instagram several weeks ago of when we went to
00:32:31
Speaker
a place in the Philippines called Cebu, which again, you know i'd i'd never i'd never heard of this place before we were there. And we did a shopping center performance and 3,000 people came to it in this place ah I'd never heard of, which was incredible. But i was I was watching it back the other day, being like, thinking, I remember when I was there,
00:32:52
Speaker
taking this because I kind of film as we're walking on stage and you're looking around I remember doing that thinking like oh this is cool but not particularly like different from anything I think I've just been so used to this this crazy hysteria of what of what my life would become but now like I watched that back being like oh my god like almost as if that person is not me and never was me and I and I think now like God, if that was if that was me now, I would i would really take every moment and and prolong it for for as long as like long as I can. um
00:33:23
Speaker
I think you know a lot of these things, like I said before, there's no real way to equip you with, like I guess, that the tools needed to to deal with these things. especially when you're 18, 19. But I think with time and as you grow older and mature and evolve and develop the sort of person that you want to be, um you're able to to go through those things better.
Reflections and Future Aspirations
00:33:43
Speaker
But that's just that's just how life works, isn't it? Hindsight's an amazing thing.
00:33:47
Speaker
I think now I try my best to just embrace and enjoy every opportunity um in a way that perhaps when you're 17, 18, 19, you don't think about because you think it's, you know, when you're 17, you don't think about even you don't even think about when you're going to be 25 or 30 or whatever.
00:34:04
Speaker
You just think life is life. Great day to day. Cool. But I think now I really, really appreciate all that the band has achieved. um And it means that when we come around again with the next chapter of the vamps, I'm buzzing to to really try and embrace those opportunities again.
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah. i mean, it sounds like it sounds like a lot of the experience has got bit diluted when your when your schedule's that like hectic. um So I guess it's about being present, it? That's probably what you're alluding to there. It's just yeah being present in the moment of the experience you're you're doing it. But like it's not it's not necessarily a bad thing when you've got that much on you say you've got 12 months of your life already planned out for you then yeah of course you're gonna you know of course those experiences are gonna get diluted like no matter how much you try you know try not to um and in terms of like obviously just just thinking about that and you you mentioned relationships and stuff as well so thinking about your you know your existing friendships like people you had at home whatever i can imagine that
00:35:05
Speaker
that sort of a schedule is quite isolating. um You've mentioned, obviously, you relied quite heavily and you leaned on the boys quite a lot who were going through the same sort of thing. But even in sort of, you know, sustaining your day-to-day friendships, even sort of relationships like that, like, was know, can imagine that was quite isolating. was it Was it a difficult thing for you?
00:35:24
Speaker
It was. So at the time... what I'm about to say was was like crushing and it really affected me. but So I didn't i didn't pass my um the 11 plus against the grammar school.
00:35:36
Speaker
And like when I say all of my friends, like like literally all of the friends that I hung out with, you know we'd go to the basketball court and ride a BMX and whatever. All of those people went to another school when I was, well, 11.
00:35:49
Speaker
So I struggled. i mean, I made friends in my upper school and there was like a couple of people that didn't go to grammar, but... But it was really, I really remember thinking, shit, who did who isn't going to grammar? Like I lost my whole friendship group really, bar like one or two people that I found out were going to my school. and And it just meant that I kind of, I didn't have a sense of like brotherhood, like close knit friendship group in the same way after after all my friends went to grammar school.
00:36:17
Speaker
And, you know, naturally the people went off there stopped including me, not intentionally necessarily, but as time went on, you know they would do their stuff and they they do school related activities outside of school and and i just i just ended up drifting off so i think when the vamps came along i was like i didn't know how much i think i needed another group of guys around me um and again like there's there's people now like i've got a couple of couple of my best friends now are people that that went off to grammar and we sort of reconnected a couple years later. you know I've got like, like my mate just stayed this weekend who I've known for 25 years. And, um and he was one of the ones that went off to grammar. And I think,
00:37:01
Speaker
I think that in a bizarre way, it was a bit of a ah blessing that i I wasn't, because I think if I had this like amazing, strong group of friends at the start of the Vamps, it would have been a really, really hard thing to to to balance and manage.
00:37:17
Speaker
um and And I think i was just I was just lucky that I could go off for a long time and not really have that sense of missing out from home.
00:37:28
Speaker
And also like it kind of happened the same time that people were going off to uni. So I guess in a way they were kind of all separating out into their own ways. And it just, you know, for me, the Vamps was my uni as my friends were going to uni.
00:37:40
Speaker
um I think, yeah, in hindsight though, I'd never really thought about it before, but I like until this podcast, I needed, I needed a group of guys in my life again. And I think the Vamps kind of came and and filled that void at the perfect time.
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's really good. so I think had this conversation with another guest I had on, um had Rob Bell on, who's the engineering broadcaster and historian. So um you've probably seen him some of the channel channel five stuff.
00:38:09
Speaker
But we were talking about obviously loneliness is is quite an epidemic at the moment, especially in in males and young males. And we we were kind of just like ruminating on the different kind of ideas behind how you can overcome that.
00:38:23
Speaker
And we were, he said this, said something quite, um that stuck me quite a lot. And he was saying that everyone's a geek about something. So i think... When you talk about how your your friendship group evolves and move on, um you know, I've been in that situation myself and I'm sure there's there's lots of people listening who have perhaps been in that situation where you kind of you're a bit stuck. You don't really know.
00:38:45
Speaker
You're in this kind of middle ground where your old friends have kind of been left behind. They've gone on to different things and you you try you know you're trying your best to keep in touch, but it's just not the same. And then you haven't quite gelled with that new group that you're trying to find at the moment as well. So obviously for you, you said it was, you know, you found solace in,
00:39:02
Speaker
um in the vamps really ah for other people you know it could be just something else you're passionate about and I think this leads us quite nicely into you know where where we met as well obviously we we we're both passionate about the watch industry and and watches and i think if you can find like a something you're passionate about and find a group surrounded by that it's a great opportunity to you know find that group because you've already got a common interest right so obviously we only met a few weeks ago but immediately we had a common interest we were both you're both wearing a Christopher Ward at the time weren't we so yeah um we immediately could could just have that conversation and and we knew we had something in common um whereas I think going from something where you're like you're really in a group on your own you're you're not too sure what's what's going on trying to find like pigeonhole yourself into different groups can be quite quite a difficult process um what do you what would you say?
00:39:56
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And I think i think also the the watch thing is, I mean, it can be nerding out about anything, but I like watches in particular because they bring different groups of people together that perhaps wouldn't have met otherwise. And I think, you know, if we go back to my friends, if I still had, I and like i did feel, it is to an extent, I mean, I've got used to it now, but there was a period of time where I was grateful that maybe I didn't have such a close knit group of friends because like, I just felt like anything I could have said about what I was doing would have made me look like a bit of a knob because, you know, it would be, ah what have you done the last couple months? And you know, my friends would be, Oh, well, uh,
00:40:40
Speaker
been at uni, might've gone on holiday. Like, you know, that that the conventional things that that most people do when they're 19, well, 18, 19, 20. eighteen nineteen twenty s And it'd be like, what have I done?
00:40:51
Speaker
And it would be like, ah like I flew first class to Australia and did like a sold out arena tour. And there's no way that you can speak about that without sounding stuck up or like snobby.
00:41:03
Speaker
and and And especially if like, I would then say, oh, but, I've been struggling with my mental health because, and I don't, I don't blame my friends for it because they are. And actually I guarantee that if I would have said stuff like that, they would have, they would have been cool and helped me, but it is just a weird kind of alienating thing to to speak about what I did back then on a day-to-day basis to people that weren't used to it. And that's why having the three other boys that were going through it with me for the first time too was amazing because we could go through it together and be like, this is crazy.
00:41:39
Speaker
And, but then also have each other to speak to. And I know that we all like have had that feeling of going home when we used to go home for Christmas and it would be speaking about anything kind of vamps related. You would feel a little bit like,
00:41:54
Speaker
weird speaking about it and and so much so that i you know i and i had it with my parents a little bit um where i just feel awkward and and and almost embarrassed to to say about some of the the crazy stuff i'd been up to which which is which is strange so i ended up kind of not not speaking to people about it but um But I think, you know, if we go back to, yeah, the the the watch stuff or, you know, you could compare it to ah paddle for God's sake or or something like that. I love i love activities and and other ah interests that can be almost the focal point of an interaction now.
00:42:31
Speaker
And actually for me, maybe maybe actually this is a hangover from what I just said. When I go to a watch event, um i or like a ah car meetup or something. I love speaking about the the theme, the reason we're there for a long time first. And I think we maybe you and I had the same thing the other day. We'd speak about watches for 45 minutes and then we'd ask what each other does. And then i you know I'd mention the band. And the band is the thing that comes up at the end. And it's not that I'm not proud of it. I love it.
00:43:00
Speaker
But sometimes I would feel definitely in my earlier years that the vamps conversation would dominate the whole social situation, which I thought was really unfair on the other people. And I didn't like that. So now I love that I can speak about these other things. And and you're connecting on like a personal level without this other thing kind of hanging over it all.
00:43:19
Speaker
um and i And I also, i found as well, like, it can be comparable to people are going through poor mental health episodes where like, you know, if you you go to like the driving range or something or like Topgolf or whatever, and you're doing an activity, even just going to the gym with your friend, you're doing another activity.
00:43:37
Speaker
And then there's less kind of emphasis on ah conversation that might be difficult to have. So like yeah I've had it loads over the years where we'll be doing it. I might might even play PlayStation on and on the headset and it might be when I, you know, going through like a period of depression, for example. And like whilst we're doing this other thing, i you know, I felt it's a lot easier to open up about other things going on. And I think that, you know, watches do that, cars do that.
00:44:01
Speaker
ah Those social situations that sort of like ah dilute the severity of a really important topic. So I'm all for that kind of stuff. Yeah, for sure. And i mean, ah don't want I'm conscious that I've asked you questions, which maybe say it as if it's, you know, a bit more of a, the more challenging aspects of of what you do and and things like that.
00:44:22
Speaker
um so I guess one, one other question, just slightly linked to what you said about you, you'll start and you'll lead the conversation, we're obviously talking about the the common interests first before you get on to um to what you do. And and like again, that was that was one of things that really really enjoyed about you, to be fair, like the connection we had beforehand and then just geeking out over that that subject before you even mentioned it. And kudos to You are very humble in the way you come across with that stuff.
00:44:49
Speaker
um Thank you. when When you are meeting new people, like obviously we had that experience the other day, we were obviously in the same scenario, but when you're meeting new people and new, you know, new friendships, perhaps, you know know you're married now, so, um, not so much an issue anymore, but even like relationships, were you ever concerned that there's, there was like an ulterior motive, like obviously knowing, you know, knowing you had that kind of notoriety and things like that. Did it ever, did you ever like, did that ever come across, um, you know, as as a concern of yours when you're meeting new people or getting into sort of new relationships?
00:45:24
Speaker
Well, I was quite fortunate with, um, with that side of things. And I know that there's a lot of people that really struggle with that. I mean, my like dating history was I was with a girl for four years at school um and then the very first part of the band were together and then just the nature of the about me just never being around her going off to uni, it just didn't work out and you know relatively amicably ended. But then I went from that to so I ended up dating a like a a very famous actress at at that point, um which which was funny because it was almost as like the vamps had exploded on onto the scene, but I was dating someone that was a hell of a lot more famous than I was.
00:46:09
Speaker
So I knew from her perspective, I don't think there was really an ulterior motive to hang out with me she didn't need to you know i wasn't going to get her into any club that she she in fact it was the other way around um like you know sheet she'd get us in places um so i had that and then and that didn't work out uh but then when i met my wife um that was again like it was still very very early and in the vamps world and so much so that she i think we'd only had like i don't even think our first album had come out maybe or maybe it was around then but
00:46:42
Speaker
She knew of the band, but it wasn't the band wasn't the reason that that we we were together. if If anything, she actually probably would have preferred me to not be in the band because she didn't really want the that attention. She hated the music.
00:47:00
Speaker
Well, is yeah, I mean, no, she liked music, but I mean, ah we i wouldn't say we were her favorite band. she you know she She's not particularly musical, which I think actually for me is part of the reason it's, you know, we've lasted so long.
00:47:16
Speaker
um i the The challenges of of dating whilst being in the music industry, well, for for us, were definitely there.
00:47:27
Speaker
ah But fortunately for me, it wasn't because I ever thought that she well was like using me to to open doors or whatever. I've been very, very fortunate, to be honest, mate.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's good. I think you've got that kind of common interest already and you you kind of are on the same sort of page really, aren't you, with knowing what what the um what the relationship would come with.
00:47:50
Speaker
Just to flip it on its head then, because I know we've obviously he focused on some of the more challenging aspects, but ah just plain and simply, what what's kind of the best things that you've you've had from this sort of notoriety in this experience?
00:48:02
Speaker
I think the best things for me, and again, it's it's annoying that you don't realize it necessarily when you're doing it. um Just the the amount of travel I've been able to do. um I went from, i mean, you know, I said how supportive my parents were for my music career. I guess the trade-off of that for them was not having the money for us to go on expensive holidays anywhere. So really before the vamp side, the holidays for for the McVeigh house were going to France and staying in sort of like a key camp or, um which actually quite expensive in hindsight. It's daylight robbery, but, you know, it's going to France, maybe staying in like a,
00:48:39
Speaker
well, Airbnb wasn't a thing, renting like a little thing somewhere or um I'd been to Gran Canaria once um for my 16th birthday. That was it from the travel perspective. I didn't even go on a plane till I was i think I think actually I must have been about 16 before I went on a plane because we were thinking with the music at some point I would hopefully be able to go on a plane. So I went up to Manchester with my mom on the plane. like That was how primitive my my travel and and experience as well. so So being able to then go from that to go around the world four or five times and go to... um Honestly, i'm i'm I'm very fortunate that I can maybe count on
00:49:20
Speaker
one hand, maybe even half a hand countries that I haven't been to that I want to. um So that's been absolutely incredible. And i actually find that the the experiences are are now in in a way currency when I go into conversations with people, maybe, from you know, like if I'm going to a ah watch meetup, for example, um on my own,
00:49:43
Speaker
you know, the vamps actually, you know, there but there might be ah name recognition, but if I'm speaking to people that are, I guess the polar opposite of the demographic that perhaps like the vamps, my travel is, is something that I, that I can use in conversations, which I never realized at the time, just how valuable that, that would be. So, so I would say that, um, I think also having a Having the ability to to share. I mean, anyone can, I guess, post stuff on TikTok and stuff now, but I love the fact that I'm able to to write how I'm feeling and have that ability to turn it into a song and and release it
00:50:21
Speaker
um And now actually to have an audience that's receptive, that that is that's incredible. um I think having the bond with three other guys is, and also to have shared the experiences that we have is something that genuinely know no one else other than the four of us will will be able to share with anyone else because there's been so many bizarre ups and downs that that we've just gone through. And I think whenever I try and explain the relationship within the vamps it's really hard because it's like we're not blood related but we're like brothers we're the best of friends but we're also business partners so there's no other real way there's no like there's i can't think of another of another setup that that's the same as what we've had um because normally you have one or two out of the three but like we have we have them all like they were the best men at my wedding
00:51:18
Speaker
But then, you know, we're all we're we're all partners and in in the company of the vamp. So it's said it's a bizarre thing. And I think having those relationships or that relationship with those three boys is is is incredible. um And then obviously, like ah being very fortunate to to not necessarily know what a Monday morning is. Yeah.
00:51:40
Speaker
I sometimes like to caveat that though with saying I also don't really know what a Friday night is or a Saturday is because it all kind of rolls into one, but I appreciate no one's going to be, a no one's going to be feeling sympathetic for me there.
00:51:53
Speaker
there so there's so There's so many things. I think the people's great. To be able to go to India, for example, and just walk around and be able to meet people and or walk around Manila and or go to Phillip Island in Australia. Like all these places that I've been and i and I've met people and ah just that's the stuff that I really hold onto, I think.
00:52:15
Speaker
The experience side of things. yeah yeah i mean that's cool like it's it's interesting because as you say it's very rare to get people and they have all four normally if your business partners and friends one something breaks down either the business side of things yeah that or the friendship does so yeah that's really interesting and and it's it's really nice that you've still got that and you're still friends all these years later and and it sounds like you're you're still as good friends as you always have been um So I kind of got, I've got one one final question really, and then we can, we can wrap it up.
00:52:45
Speaker
Um, it's one ah tend to ask my, all my guests, but in various different guises, so to speak. So i guess the one for you would be what, what would be one thing that you wish more people knew about you?
00:53:03
Speaker
That's really hard. Um,
00:53:07
Speaker
Ooh, the thing is, right so sounds like a name drop, but it's really not meaning to be. But Taylor Swift once said to the head of our record label, who then said at the time, who then shared it with us, he said, you can either that like, so what Taylor, I don't know if she still does this, but, you know, she made a decision. It's like, either I'm either i'm Taylor Swift, like off screen and then Taylor Swift on screen.
00:53:32
Speaker
And, you know, that's a choice a lot of people make and you have like two kind of lives that, you try not to interlink. But but i think she I think the point was that he said she made a conscious decision at some point years and years ago for maybe one of her albums to just like embrace everything, be transparent and interlink them.
00:53:50
Speaker
And I really took that as a bit of an interesting life decision because I was thinking you know in those early years, I'd just met my wife and going through like some mental health things and i was like either i ignore that and avoid that or i embrace it and i'm fully transparent and then i can't get caught out and i will i'll just do that and doing that was was a really really really big thing um
00:54:22
Speaker
I think, wait, what was it what was the question you asked? um Where was I going with that? What's one thing that you wish more people knew about? yeah That's it. That's it.
00:54:33
Speaker
So what I was getting at with that, there's there's nothing massively that I'm like, I wish I'd acknowledged and addressed that or like, I wish that hadn't come out, blah, blah, blah, because I've always tried to be very transparent. And, you know, sometimes that's to my detriment where I can overshare things um or, you know, embarrass myself. But I like that I've tried to be like that.
00:54:55
Speaker
So people know ah lot about me ah specifically now. I think what I would have liked more is in those ah like early, early days, when I sort of said before how I felt really shy and and underconfident, I wish that I'd been a bit more vocal about that because I think even still now, I mean, maybe it doesn't help that I'm the oldest in the band and I was more serious then.
00:55:21
Speaker
um i wish that I'd, yeah, I wish people had known how awkward I felt back then, as opposed to coming across as rude. It was more of a just trying to figure out who I was for a start, but then also how to behave in social situations.
00:55:37
Speaker
Yeah. I can imagine that that if you were to do it the other way and like split your personality, so you have your on-screen versus your off-screen, you must like, it's exhausting. it must be exhausting enough doing the one, but like trying to keep up the two as well. I can imagine that's just...
00:55:53
Speaker
Yeah, can imagine that's just like double double the effort. It must just be so draining on you to to even have to do that. So yeah. ah Awesome. ah Really appreciate the insights, mate. Been really cool to sort of hear your side of the story. And as say, you're the first first sort of guest we've had on who's had that sort of level of notoriety so to speak so um appreciate your sort of candor and your honesty with with all the answers um not at all man where should people go if they want to hear more of your music um i know you've got a new track out soon with your sort solo stuff where can they go
00:56:28
Speaker
um So, I mean, people could just, this sounds like such a dick thing say, but if you just Google my name, James McVeigh, stuff will come up. And then if you're if you're interested in the vamps, then put the vamps in. But ah yeah, just Google it, please.
00:56:42
Speaker
And thank you. and And you're on Instagram as well, aren't you? I am. I think it's just my name. I can't remember. I'll them in the show notes anyways. so All right, brilliant. Thank you. Thank you, Thank you.
00:56:54
Speaker
Lovely stuff. James McVeigh. Cheers. Thank you very much, man. Thanks, man.