The Vapors Create a Buzz with Wasp in a Jar
Bassist Steve Smith talks about the New Wave legends’ fourth album in 45 years
In 1980, The Vapors released the ultra-catchy New Wave/punk hit single “Turning Japanese.” Since then, it has become one of the songs that is regarded as a cultural touchstone of that decade.
Now, 45 years later, The Vapors are still capable of creating upbeat, high-energy songs, as they prove with their latest album, Wasp in a Jar (released on Feb. 28 via Vapors Own Records).
Bassist Steve Smith, calling from his home near Brighton, England, explained how the album title neatly sums up the band’s musical aesthetic: “It’s a lyric from the song ‘Forever and Ever.’ It goes something like, ‘You’re my porcupine, always been my valentine, you’re my wasp in a jar.’ It just jumped out to me as a possible album title straightaway. A lot of people tried a lot of titles, but we still came back to that because it’s quite energetic, and it’s trying to break out, and that’s kind of like what the music is.”
So far, early listeners are giving encouraging reviews. “We’re getting really good feedback from people about the album, so I’m feeling good about it,” Smith says, adding, “I just hope that people listen to [the songs] and enjoy them, and make their own minds up about what they’re about and how they feel about them.”
The band recorded with producer/engineer Michael Giblin at his recording studio in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Giblin is also an accomplished musician who has played in numerous bands, including singing and playing bass for the Split Squad, a “supergroup” that also features Clem Burke (Blondie), Keith Streng (The Fleshtones), Eddie Munoz (The Plimsouls) and Josh Kantor (The Baseball Project).
“I’d heard his work on the Split Squad, and also the Fleshtones,” Smith says of Giblin, “and I thought, ‘Yeah, he knows what he’s doing, he’s a good friend, he loves the band — how can it go wrong?’ And then from that point, it really took off. Mike has done a fantastic production job on the album, I think. He really captured the energy in the room.”
As for what makes a Vapors song compelling, Smith says that “Each song has many hooks, not just one. That’s a defining feature of the songs.” But he’s quick to add that this is always an organic process, not a calculated one: “We don’t really make any sort of conscious decisions, musically. We always just approach each song on its own merits, and it develops into what it is.”
He credits Dave Fenton, the band’s lead singer, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter, for being the visionary who blended pop with punk influences decades before that mix became much more commonplace. From there, Smith and the rest of the band take Fenton’s songs and put their own unique stamp on them.
“Dave has always been a keen student of The Beatles and David Bowie and proper musical songs, and harmony and melody,” Smith says, “and we’ve taken that and welded it to the energy and the fierceness of punk.”
Even before they played music together, Smith had long admired Fenton’s skills. “Some friends of mine had a small PA company and they said to me, ‘Look, we need someone to give us a hand. Do you want a bit of money helping us with this gig for this band?’” It turned out to be an early version of The Vapors. “Straightaway I thought, ‘Wow, these songs are really good, and this singer is really good. This is a great band.’ And so that’s how I met Dave.” The following year, that band’s bass player left, and Smith joined as his replacement.
Smith came into the band with a solid musical background of his own. “Watching bands like The Beatles on TV when I was six or seven years old, I just thought, ‘I love this. I’d love to do this. I want to be in a band,’” he says.
He started taking piano lessons when he was seven years old, then picked up the guitar. When he was seventeen, his cousins asked him to join their cover band, which seemed like a far better opportunity than the department store job he currently had.
But there was a catch: They needed him to play bass, which he’d never done before. Undaunted, he quickly learned to play the instrument, and then he performed with that band for the next few years. He credits this experience of playing good songs by other artists for giving him a strong foundation for his bass skills.
When the cover band’s guitarist quit, the band fell apart, and Smith had to find another job. “I went to work in a women’s army camp — I was in charge of ordering all the food. I loved it. It was really good fun,” he says. But then he was invited to join The Vapors, making that army camp job the last non-music employment he’s ever held.
VIDEO: The Vapors “Turning Japanese”
When The Vapors released New Clear Days in 1980, they saw their raucous single “Turning Japanese” land on the music charts in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the band’s native U.K. Their next album, 1981’s Magnets, did well in the U.S. and Canada, but the band — weary of the fickle music business — called it quits in 1982.
Smith switched to working as a live sound engineer at a music venue, and for touring bands. He also founded a punk covers band, The Shakespearos (with whom he still plays). His time with The Vapors appeared to be permanently over — until, in 2016, Fenton approached him about reforming the band.
“I said, ‘Well, why not? For a laugh — it will be a bit of fun.’ I didn’t have any expectations at all, really,” Smith says. “When we were offered gigs, I said, ‘Will anyone know who we are now? Is anyone going to come to these gigs?’ But it turns out they would, and they did. We did the gigs, and they were really good fun. We were offered more gigs, so we kept going.”
In 2020, The Vapors released Together, their first new studio album in almost 40 years, and it ended up charting in the U.K. Encouraged, the members have stayed together ever since, with no intention of putting the band on ice again.
Now, to support Wasp in a Jar, The Vapors will tour the U.K. throughout the spring. They’ll also be in the lineup for the “Lost ’80s Live” tour of North America in August and September. (Other acts set to appear on that tour are A Flock of Seagulls, General Public, Big Country, Icicle Works and China Crisis.)
As he looks back on what The Vapors have accomplished, Smith feels gratified. “I’m really proud of the body of music that we’ve released,” he says. “I think it’s strong. It doesn’t sound too dated. And I think it’s a lot of really good songs in there.”
And even more importantly, Smith refers to his bandmates as his best friends, which makes their reunion all the better. “We’re having the best time,” he says. “We just have a good time, all the time. Really, as long as people offer us gigs, and people keep coming to the gigs, we’ll keep going!”
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