As lead singer of The Vamps, Bradley Simpson has already enjoyed chart-topping success and garnered legions of fans, and now the British singer-songwriter has released his debut solo album, The Panic Years.
The Panic Years has been two years in the making, with the 29-year-old heading off to New York to write and record the songs. Simpson said it feels "slightly surreal" to have the album finally coming out, laughing: "Should I have a confetti cannon ready to go?"
The record has an intimate, confessional feel, lending the songs a sense of immediacy. This personal approach was no accident.
"I knew I was doing a solo project, I've got to approach this slightly differently than I've done previously," Simpson explains. "I think with that came a little bit more honesty and it's more personal than I had been.
"I owe that to the fans and to myself as well. It's slightly uncomfortable as well. I'm not the best at being open in the best of times.
"That's kind of what I wanted out of the album - to do something a bit different and hopefully show people a different side of me."
He admits there was a bit of an adjustment going from writing songs as part of a four-piece in The Vamps, the pop band he formed with James Brittain-McVey, Connor Ball and Tristan Evans in 2012, to working on his solo album.
"It was a bit strange at first," Simpson says. "For so long I've just locked myself away and written songs, but I think the fact that I knew I wasn't bringing it to people to say, 'OK, this is what I've started, should we finish this off?' - I had to be the beginning, middle and end of this.
"That side of my brain really had to kick in, because usually I'll come with a load of ideas and then it's a group finish. It was really nice to have that challenge and I think after the first couple of times doing it and settling into it, I started to really enjoy it.
"It felt quite selfish at first to do, to be honest, because I've been so used to creating in a collective to then be like, 'What do I want?'," he continues of writing the album. "I'm really happy with it and I hope the songs are connecting with people and helping people in whatever they need."
Heading off to The Big Apple to make the album was "honestly so cool".
"I loved it and I delved straight into New York... getting elbows to the back of the head, people being super rude!" he says with a laugh.
"I think being such a small part of this crazy buzzing city, in this environment where it feels like people are just on their own track, it's quite inspiring to be in amongst that. It instills a bit of, like, aspiration and tenacity in you."
The Vamps band members, who he describes as his "best mates", have been a huge support to him throughout the process.
"I was so nervous to even play them the first few songs," he admits. "Imagine they turned around and said, 'Oh, that's a bit s***'.
"They were just really supportive. It's cool because the other boys have got their own solo projects as well. We're all from different musical influences and backgrounds and you start to see people's personalities come through in their own music."
Simpson is experimenting with different genres and sounds on this album and the songs have a distinctly indie-rock feel that he says is going back to his roots.
"Sound-wise, I knew I wanted it to feel quite raw," he says. "I knew I wanted it to have a slightly rockier alternative edge to the whole thing and then be married up with slightly more pop songwriting.
"It took a while to figure out what I want to do, but I got into music through alternative and rock music, so it's been nice to get back into that."
The album title The Panic Years refers to a "period in someone's life where they feel slightly uneasy or unsure and maybe a loss of a sense of direction," the Birmingham-raised musician said.
"I think the album is this up and down - looking back on the past 10 years of my life - amazing times and then times when it's been a bit more uncertain and a bit harder. The red line is all of those moments but then retaining a bit of optimism and reassurance through all of it."
He says it's "nice to bookmark my twenties with this album".
"I'm not entirely sure how I feel about my thirties, but we'll wait and see how it goes. There will be some wisdom or maybe it'll just be a continued state of panic. For another 10 years," he jokes.
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The album's title track will have a special meaning for Simpson's Irish fans.
"There's one song on there that's in reference to Ireland, the last song on the album. I spent a lot of time there with the band and then for other reasons over the past couple of years. It's a beautiful place, it's got beautiful people. I think I've seen another side to it in the last couple of years.
"Similar to what I loved in New York, it's this tenacious mentality and just moving forward, that feels like a very Irish mentality. Keep your head down and keep trucking on.
"Maybe that's the overarching theme in the album, that head-down mentality amongst all of the chaos."
Simpson has no doubt experienced his fair share of chaos over the years, having broken into the music industry as a teenager.
How does he keep his head on his shoulders?
"I'm very fortunate that I had three of my best mates to go through it all, we kept each other level-headed," he says. "And I'm lucky I've got a great support network in my family and the team around me.
"I always tried to create a clear separation in my mind between my career making music and the other side of my life, the more personal side of things. I always try to keep a distinction between the two and I think that's helped me."
He agrees that the music industry has changed a lot since he broke through.
"As a young artist getting into it, I think it's quite a difficult time," Simpson says. "There's that expectation that you not only need to be writing, producing, all of the creative side of stuff, but then there's this pressure of, 'You need to come up with content, you need to do well on TikTok'.
"It's bad for your head because it's a process. A lot of artists that are breaking through now are artists that have been at it for 10 years.
"There's a bit of a feeling that if one thing doesn't click straight away - what's the point? That's not the case whatsoever, it takes time to build stuff. It takes years of shows to get to a place where you feel confident [performing].
"I think if I can say anything to young artists getting into the industry now, it'd be, 'Just go easy on yourself'. It takes a minute. You don't come out as this perfect package."
Despite some of the difficulties working in music, Simpson feels "very lucky" to carve out a career in the industry.
"If it's up to me, I'm doing it until I'm 80, walking out on stage very wrinkly, that's my plan," he says with a laugh.
And of course, we couldn't let him go without asking if fans can expect new music from The Vamps anytime soon?
"There will be, we're just taking a bit of time. Everyone's got stuff going on in their personal lives, everyone's working on different projects, but at some point, 100%," he says emphatically.
"We're still best mates. We're taking the pressure off for a bit and then naturally it will come."
Bradley Simpson's debut solo album The Panic Years is out now. He will play The Academy in Dublin on Wednesday 7 May.
Read more: Behind the music - Bradley Simpson
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