Long-time Yard Act fans are likely to be thrilled by the first words spoken by James Smith in Empty Pledgesthe piece that opens the band's third album You're Gonna Need a Little Music: “I have absolutely nothing new to say.” Don't worry, one of the most caustic lyricists on the British scene in recent years hasn't run out of topics. “It's just that when I came back to Leeds after a tour I happened to meet people I hadn't seen for four years,” he says, sitting next to bassist Ryan Needham in a pub in north London. «After the usual casual chatter I realized how strange it was to talk to people who, in a certain sense, had followed my life on the Internet for four years. “What have you done recently?”. And I said: “Nothing”. That is, it was practically impossible to summarize everything that had happened.”
A step back. When Yard Act released their discordant debut in 2022 The Overloadtheir mix of post-punk, edgy guitars and stories of everyday characters earned them a nomination for the Mercury Prize and the respect of Elton John, who even collaborated with the group on a new version of 100% Endurance, one of the most existentialist pieces on the album. The second album Where's My Utopiawhere Smith was dealing with notoriety, took the band to even bigger stages. Not much to assimilate.
“It's a strange feeling,” Smith says. «I was in Leeds, I opened the phone book and the first person I called was Ryan to go out together, even though we had spent the last six months side by side on tour. I had closed myself in a kind of bubble, to the point that everything else seemed foreign to me. I suffered a lot. I eventually got over it, but I couldn't tell anyone else about it. How do you explain an experience like that? It was all so bizarre and, in some ways, alienating.”
«The first album was about aspirations, the second about their realization. This tells what happens next. It's the moment you understand that success, ultimately, doesn't solve anything. Of course, today we can live doing what we love: writing songs, recording, being together and playing. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. But my insecurities and contradictions didn't disappear just because I got what I wanted. This album is a bit like waking up in the morning and saying: ok, it happened, but the world continues to move forward, you remain the same person, you just have a heavier baggage on your shoulders. And if you want to grow, you have to look inside: the answer won't come from outside.”
Photo: James Winstanley
It helps that You're Gonna Need a Little Music is probably the best album that Yard Act have made. The first single Redeemer is a violent explosion of noise, the title track is the perfect soundtrack for ballads about the end of the world. “With Redeemer we reset everything afterwards Where's My Utopia» explains Smith. «Every time someone thinks they have me figured out, it comes naturally to me to do the exact opposite. I know it's a bit of a risky way to approach things.”
Although it was recorded in Leeds, the album has an international dimension as the band moved to Los Angeles to work with Justin Meldal-Johnsen, a producer known for collaborations with Nine Inch Nails and Wolf Alice. “It was the icing on the cake, even though I had written almost everything beforehand,” Smith explains. «For the first time we isolated ourselves from any distractions or responsibilities, no children to take to school, no relationships to manage. Even during the recording of the first album we were still going back and forth from work. Being on the other side of the world, completely focused on the record kept the whole project together.”
Needham agrees: «It may seem a bit new age, but recording a voice knowing that after three quarters of an hour you have to go and pick up your children from school is not the best. We are not people who romanticize the creative process and we like to think that it is enough to get to work, but distancing yourself a little from everyday life can make the difference.”
In the first album Smith had used the character of Graham, an unscrupulous landlord, as a leitmotif to describe British society with sarcasm. In the new album there is no similar gimmick, although fans will find Janey, the “old flame” of Janey Saidalthough as Smith explains the woman represents the price he must pay for his ambition.
«I am very ambitious and therefore I constantly experience this conflict. My ambition scares me, but at the same time it is what pushes me forward and opens new paths. Part of me just wants to be content, part of me knows I'd end up bored. I'm trying to understand, especially thinking back to the first two records, what it really means to seek success. I'm not always dissatisfied, but that tension is there. How do you live with it? All world leaders and owners of large corporations are driven by ambition and look where this has gotten us. Why then should my ambition be considered more acceptable?”.
Photo: James Winstanley
According to the two, some of the best songs were left out of the album. If Redeemer has already surprised fans with the new sound, the unreleased one On Top it goes further. «It's ours Master of Puppets: double bass drum and me screaming», says Smith quoting Metallica.
The relationship between the band members has never been stronger. In the second album there was a song, Petroleumwhich told the story of how Smith, exhausted after months of touring, went ballistic during a concert in Bognor Regis, getting angry at the audience because it was too cold. This could have put the group in crisis but instead the Leeds quartet, which also includes drummer Jay Russell and guitarist Sam Shipstone, has arrived at this new phase of their career more united than ever.
“We talk to each other all the time, and a relationship like that is much rarer than you might imagine,” Needham says. «At festivals I like to observe backstage the bands that are together and those that aren't together. It's something you would be surprised to see.”
“There's never been room for ego and that's been the case since the beginning,” Smith says. «Even though I was the face and voice of the band, no one ever envied that role. We realized that it made sense for the focus to be on me, but each record progressively dismantled that idea. In this album there are fewer words than the previous ones, I took a step back. Great bands are those where every member is indispensable and I think by now people are realizing that Yard Act is not the James Smith Show. It's a role I played at the beginning because I needed a point of reference, but with each passing record we become more and more of a collective. And this, in my opinion, is typical of great bands.”
And a great band can also afford illustrious fans. “We haven't heard from Elton in a while, but he told us he'd like to make a prog record with us,” Smith says, smiling. “So, Elton, if you're reading this, know that the idea of that album is still there.”
From Rolling Stone UK.
