Interviewing The Young Veins: Getting Even Younger

Two years ago I was navigating the halls of the Staples Center to interview Panic at the Disco before their headlining performance on the Honda Civic Tour–stark contrast to the dark, tiny dressing room we crammed into to talk The Young Veins about Take A Vacation and their first tour as an indie band. So what’s it like to start over? Despite his aura of perma-chill, Ryan Ross said, “Exciting.”

Listen to Pt. 1 of the Young Veins interview here:

or HERE

The quick and dirty version of the birth of The Young Veins–in case you’ve been living under a rock with no wifi–is that Panic at the Disco’s much-loved lyricist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker bailed on the band in July of ’09 to make music more suited to their visions. RyRo and J-Walk gave it a name a few weeks later and released “Change” the same day their old bandmates debuted “New Perspective”. Serendipitous songwriting, right?

So… what is this vision Ryan and Jon have? Simplicity, mostly.

This isn’t a review, but if you’re keeping up with the half of Panic that fled the Disco, you probably know their upcoming album is 11 tracks and clocks in at just under 30 minutes. The goal was to “cut the crap,” Ross said.

There isn’t much mystery to delve into on this album, or lyrical hijnks to decode (google: Little deaths in musical beds from “That Green Gentleman”)–it’s breezy vintage rock, and they’re happy with what they’re doing, dammit. Despite the songs having a retro feel, the guys joked around that the lyrics are very modern:

Listen to Pt. 2 of the Young Veins interview here:

or HERE

Sorry, Panic purists, but Take A Vacation isn’t in implication that this project is just temporary. It’s unclear if they’ve solidified as a 5-piece, but Ross said the Young Veins are “Us”–specifically, him and Jon. Are the other three band members (Nick Murray, Andy Soukal and Nick White) in it for the long haul, or just glorified touring members? (Hey, you don’t hear much complaining from Stephen Bradley and Gabriel McNair of No Doubt, do you?). I’m NOT trying to get any band rumors rolling, but it’s still very apparent that this belongs to Ross and Walker.

For now, they’re just going to set up more tour dates–Bonnaroo, hopefully followed by a June jaunt to the UK.

Take A Vacation comes out on June 8th.