With a meteoric rise in the twilight of the pandemic, Leeds based post-punk indie band Yard Act have made a name for themselves with lead-singer James Smith’s punchy and political lyrics and they can already claim Elton John and Cillian Murphy as fans. Despite only now being able to play to an audience of their own, their first album ‘The Overload’ debuted at #2 in the UK Charts, and is the fastest selling debut album on vinyl this century. Sam Slater and Cameron Baker talk to bassist Ryan Needham about the challenges of the pandemic and their journey so far.
Congratulations on The Overload debuting at #2 in the album charts, and just ahead of the late great Meatloaf – just what has it been like navigating the challenges of the pandemic in order to get here?
Yeah that no.2 is pretty gnarly, who’d have thought!
We started the band, did a few shows pre-pandemic and we all followed the same footsteps we’d done in previous bands before and it was dead good fun. We played to about 30-40 people and then the pandemic hit. At first we thought lets wait two weeks and it’ll be fine, which obviously we were incredibly wrong about!
Then James and I did a few demos and just started recording really and putting stuff out online. It’s a cliché thing to say, but it happened organically and felt like one step after another. I think having the luxury of a lot of free time to just concentrate on music is something I wanted to do for years, and we really got stuck in. We’ve all played in bands before but because of the pandemic everything was completely new and fresh.
People always talk about how the creative process having restrictions is super important as it means you don’t just do the ‘normal’ thing and every single element of building the band and the formative years of the band were forced to be different and that was important for us. Having all done bands before, you run the risk of repeating the process but this time that just wasn’t allowed to happen, it felt like my first band again and like were all sixth formers, it was great.
It then all kinda built up and we got a lot of support from Emily Pilbeam and BBC Introducing were really championing us early on and that led to some 6 Music stuff and the Radio 1 stuff broke, and the last gig we did before the pandemic was to 30 people and when we came out straight away we played Standon Calling to about 3000 people – it was a festival so it wasn’t ‘our’ crowd but that leap is weird and it was really exciting.
Do you think it is even harder now for bands from the North to break into the scene?
Yeah… that is a big topic.
From where I’m sat down, I’m in the North as you are, it feels like the North got hit harder but maybe that’s an unfair thing to say. From what I’m reading – and I’ve tried not to read the news as much lately cause it’s driving me insane –it feels like the cultural industries in the North got hit pretty hard.
Historically, that’s always been the case anyway right? London is where most of the creative industries have always been and I know that’s slowly changing but it’s definitely a thing, although that’s not to say there aren’t incredible people in the North because there is and always has been.
What would you say your main musical influences have been in general, and did the fact you’ve all been in different bands pose any difficulties when you were starting out?
I’m the oldest person in the group, I came into music at the height of Britpop so you know, guitar music just was the music at the time - like Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Elastica were kinda my thing.
I just got really into no-wave – in the mid-2000s I loved a band called The Rapture and in the lockdown I really got into this podcast where one of the band were interviewed and he talked about their influences – stuff like ESG, Liquid Liquid, Metro Area and then all the no-wave stuff like James Chance and DNA and things like that. Cause I decided I was going to play bass in Yard Act, and I had never played bass before, I was listening to these basslines that were kind of a bit punky.
James’ background… he has been in various bands but the main influence he lent in to was… well since the age of 14 he just loved hip-hop really which started with Eminem and then moved into stuff like Nas, Wu Tang, and he just kept getting deeper and deeper into that kind of thing. I think that comes across and I honestly think his flow is absolutely incredible.
Then Jay (Russell), the drummer, his dad is a metal producer who’s made albums with Napalm Death which we didn’t find out until after two years of knowing him! He’s got a massive love of music but his background is Slipknot and stuff. Sam (Shjipstone), the guitar player, he’s into Talking Heads and jazz inspired stuff really.
So yeah it’s a weird mixture! Everyone is just sort of doing their thing and with it being so stripped out there’s so much space for people to do their own thing you know. The focus of the band is undoubtedly James and the lyrics, they’re incredibly important, and our role is to do our own weird thing and leave James enough space to weave through and that is our main job – to harness the flow of the lyrics for what James is doing up on the top.
Lyrically, you do come across as quite a political band. Do you think a lot of people are relating to those messages in these continuing difficult times?
Well yeah they definitely are. It’s not like we’ve released an album and six people bought it, it has gone out there and its in the world and it has a lot of social commentary and its saying stuff and its important to keep your eye on where you fit into the cultural conversation and landscape as a band, you can’t just put something like that out there and just ignore it like it would be a bit of a weird move.
The whole thing is kind of a conversation really, it’s not trying to pour fuel on the fire, but James is saying like – look, the UK since Brexit has been divide and conquer and controlled by the right wing media and everything is so polarised, and it’s like the left think they’re right and the right think they’re right and everyone else is fucking wrong and its just horrible. Kinda the message I get from it is, lets just talk about this cause otherwise everyone feels like shite!
So yeah people have been engaging with it both positively and negatively, I feel like the message is good – just you know talk to people and have some compassion although its fine to be angry sometimes. Songs like Dead Horse is definitely kicking out. James writes all the lyrics but we do talk about them a lot but I think he’s really incredible at doing that. The main key of it to make it more palatable is to give it a lot of humour, I think that’s really important in these times too. I think we’ve now got a responsibility to keep on top of where it’s landing. If you’re putting out – this sounds heady – something you consider to be a very current cultural text into the world, there is a certain responsibility that comes with that I think.
That sounds way more heady than any of us consider ourselves but I don’t know the more I think about it I do believe that because people are engaging with it and its affecting people and its like you need to own that really. But also the thing I like about it most is I can just play daft bass lines and get a good groove going and get a room bouncing as well – that’s equally important as well, the hedonistic side of it. You can block the lyrics out and still have a good time.
You’re obviously going on tour soon and it must be exciting to get a chance to finally play to your own fans face to face, is there any place you’re looking forward to playing most?
Well… this kind of contradicts that but my main one sweet spot of being in a band and my favourite thing to do is just playing festivals I absolutely love it. I prefer it to being in the studio and I think I prefer it to our own shows. Again, it’s another massive cliché but it’s just the concept of winning over people, especially when you’ve been thrust into people’s faces like if you weren’t really into Yard Act, these last couple weeks must have been fucking horrible! I’m aware that anyone I’ve spoke to says – ‘I can’t stop seeing that stupid logo everywhere’ – it totally works!
There’s an element about festivals where people might go ‘I’ve heard about you and I’m not sure but let’s have a look’, the underdog vibe is good for me. I also like the fact you don’t have to turn up and soundcheck, and there’s probably someone there you’ve known from a previous band so yeah socially its good so I’m really looking forward to those.
But yeah also really looking forward to going back around the UK, this first run we’re doing is venues we’ve all played before. We did this show at the Belgrave Music Hall in Leeds on Tuesday for Independent Venue Week, and it really hit home how important they are, and to us as well. We all come from that background so yeah another round of those venues before we get to play things like Coachella is totally weird, but amazing.
Just to end on a cheap open-ended question – what next for Yard Act?
Well with the album just out we’ve got a lot of hard work to just go and play it to people, which is amazing – as long as everything stays open. I just want to get into that cycle of playing and just before we start album two, and there’s a load of ideas already, just get out and play more
The way this album was made was sat around computers and we’re having to re-learn it now as a live band which is great, but I think… I don’t know maybe the next one we’ll do the same? But its nice to hang out and get tight with everyone, that thing we missed for two years whilst everyone was indoors and get some volume on. You just write differently when something is 100 decibels compared to when you’re sat there quietly at midnight trying not to wake your partner or your neighbour up cause you’re trying to sing something and you’re embarrassed about it!
So yeah we’ll get stuck into the writing process I guess and just work hard touring this record, which is amazing because none of us have been able to do music full time until the start of this year and it’s the first time any of us have done that and we’re getting stuck into that. It is a bit overwhelming really – when you have a job, music will always just be a fun thing on the side to do with friends but now I actually get to do it as my job, and that takes a little adapting you know but it’s incredibly fucking privileged and I’m extremely grateful at getting the chance.
Yard Act's debut album 'The Overload' is out now and tickets for their upcoming tour are available here.
