Australian Band VACATIONS Return With New Single 'Next Exit'

Platinum-selling Australian band Vacations share their new single, "Next Exit," written while on their first sold-out tour of the States in early 2022. Produced by lead singer Campbell Burns and John Velasquez (Zella Day, Gatlin), "Next Exit" is the first single from the band since their 2020 album, Forever In Bloom, and follows a breakout 2022 year with two sold-out tours of the US and Mexico and over 700 million streams in the calendar year alone.

Burns says of the new single, "It was one of the first songs I started writing for the next album. I was at a recording studio in Austin during our first (sold-out) US tour and just had the intro. The idea sat with me for a few months, and I'd keep revisiting it, trying to see if I could interpret something new. There was one session where everything clicked. Songwriting is therapeutic in that sense, sometimes I don't entirely understand it, and I need to just sit with it for a moment to take it all in."

He adds, "Conceptually, it takes on the idea of being stuck in a loop of repetitive behaviour. Feeling stagnant and unsure of the future ahead. You could easily draw this to us as a band navigating COVID, or on a more personal level with relationships between friends or romantic partners. I always like the idea of multiple interpretations. You can have your own meaning, and I can have mine. Together, we still connect over the music."

Vacations' Jake Johnson wrote and acted as creative director, with LA-based Nicole Lipp directing the video. Inspired by classic cinema, the band chose to shoot on 16mm film to ensure they captured the aesthetic they were looking for.

Jake adds, "making the video was like getting this massive weight off my chest. There were a lot of strong feelings that needed to come out and be expressed after the last several years and everything that has happened to us as both people and artists. It was a really wonderful, cathartic experience, and the filming was unlike anything we've ever attempted before."

A DIY affair from the get-go, the band Vacations formed in 2016 primarily as a songwriting vehicle for Campbell Burns, Burns later adding band members Jake Johnson, Nate Delizzotti, and Joseph Van Lier. Their song "Young" is certified Gold in Canada, Australia, and Poland, and was certified Platinum in the U.S. in early 2023.

Their single "Telephones" is also certified Gold in the US, with the band racking up over 1 billion streams globally and over 1.1m Shazam's. Their two sold-out U.S. tours included performances at Austin City Limits, Elsewhere (Hall), Meow Wolf, and even saw them go from The Roxy (500 cap) to The Fonda (1,200 cap) in a matter of months. Catch them next on their sold-out tour in the UK starting in May.