The Vaccines‘ guitarist Freddie Cowan has revealed ‘Begin Again’, the third single to be released as part of his upcoming solo album. Check it out below.
The new track will feature as part of the artists’ new solo endeavour, Freddie & The Scenarios – a project that sees Cowan take on the role of frontman alongside some other famous faces.
Entitled ‘Begin Again’ the latest single is centred around the motif of ‘rebirth’, and explores themes of self-doubt and fear, as well as the importance of transforming your outlook.
Joining Cowan on the track are his recently-appointed bandmates – all of which form supergroup, The Scenarios. This includes a reunion with The Vaccines’ original drummer, Pete Robertson, and the band’s current keyboardist, Tim Lanham.
Nick Pini, the bassist for Laura Marling, also features as part of the line-up, alongside Japanese guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei and Kings Of Leon producer, Ethan Johns on percussion. The single is taken from the band’s first album, ‘Answer Machine’, which set to be released on March 23.
In January, the guitarist spoke to NME ahead of the release and shared an insight into his motivation to pursue the new project. Here, Cowan explained that the new album was emotionally driven, and that he developed the tracks after facing an outpour of repressed emotion during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“I realised that maybe the reason I want to be doing so much all the time is because I’m quite unhappy or uncomfortable or I have a lot of things I’m running away from,” he said. “In lockdown, there was nowhere to run so I had to start dealing with those things and, as I was dealing with them, the music started coming. I just had so much anger and nowhere to really put it.”
Elsewhere in the discussion – which revealed the emotive meaning behind the debut single, ‘Sonic Bloom’ – Cowan shared his appreciation for former Vaccines’ drummer Pete Robertson, who left the band in 2016 to pursue “new challenges”.
“Pete is such an incredible drummer,” he said of why he wanted Roberson to take part in the project. “He’s phenomenal – calm and so conversational, he just speaks with the drums.”
A digital version of ‘Answer Machine’ is available now on Bandcamp, with a full release is set for March 23 via Ivy and WeRock. This April, Freddie & The Scenarios will perform a series of live shows in Mexico. A range of UK dates are also expected to be announced later this year.
Additionally, The Vaccines are set to support Noel Gallagher later this year at an upcoming event in Brighton. The former Oasis guitarist will be performing an outdoor set as part of his High Flying Birds project, set to take place on July 30.
