Yeasayer Interview
Arty New York experimentalists Yeasayer have had a good year. A relentless touring schedule and critical acclaim has seen psychedelic debut album All Hour Cymbals conquer an international audience along with success back home.
After a memorable UK TV appearance with Jools Holland and packed out gigs at Brighton’s Great Escape festival, the band are heading back to Europe this summer for festival shows and a support slot with Beck. The tour starts at Norway’s second annual Hove Festival, on an island on the country’s southern coast. Lastbroadcast.co.uk spoke to frontman Chris Keating during some rare downtime...
How are preparations for the European tour going?
Chris: Oh, you know, we’re trying to sleep in a lot! We’ve been practising every day and just doing all the things we need to do to get ready for the tour. We’re doing nothing too strenuous. We’re definitely looking forward to the tour. We’ve been touring a lot lately and you get kind of burnt out by the end of it, but then you get a little stir crazy just staying at home so, uh, we’re eager to get back on the road.
Which bands are you looking forward to seeing at the Hove Festival?
Chris: Well, I was really looking forward to seeing Jay-Z, but I’ve found out we’re not going to be there on the same day as him. I’ve never seen him live before, so that’s pretty annoying. It’s gonna be great seeing Beck, as after that we’re touring with him for a while. There are a bunch of great bands playing there though, so should be great. We’re only there for one day, so we’ll probably miss a lot of the good bands.
You might be able to see Jay-Z when you play Glastonbury.
Chris: Oh yeah, that’ll be good. I heard he wasn’t ‘rock’ enough for people, which is stupid.
You recently played the Great Escape festival in Brighton. What did you think of it?
Chris: I dunno. There were some good bands playing there, but it was similar to South By SouthWest, with loads of people queuing outside shows, not able to get in. It was like that for pretty much every show. It was really annoying to try and go to a show and just get stuck outside, even with a band pass. Even trying to get in the back door through people you know doesn’t even work and it’s so frustrating. I dunno if it’s people overselling tickets for too small venues or what, but we just ended up going back to the hotel and drinking a lot of the time.
What was Jools Holland like?
Chris: He was weird! He seemed like a nice guy. He was a little fidgety. It was a cool show; we don’t have anything like it over here so we were really excited to be on such a good show that’s been running for so long.
What can we expect from the Yeasayer live shows?
Chris: I think they’re a little more lively than the record. We play around with the songs a bit, mostly because we’re a little bored with playing them after two years of touring. They become quite different and people either like them better or like them worse. I like trying out new material on the road. It’s a little more energetic and more upbeat than the record.
Will you be previewing songs from what will eventually be a new album then?
Chris: Yeah, I guess. When we’ve started demo-ing for the new album, then we’ll start putting them out live. It’s a long process, but yeah, playing new songs is what I’m mostly excited about. You get nervous again with playing the new stuff and you don’t get that so much with songs you know well. You get scared of messing up and I think that’s a good thing.
Your music seems quite influenced by world music. Have you travelled much?
Chris: I’ve done a decent amount of travelling. I spent last summer in India and I’ve been in different parts of the world for vacations but I haven’t travelled that much. Mostly we use the band thing as an excuse for travelling around. We get shows offered everywhere and we’re trying to play some more exotic places, like a show in Africa, Eastern Europe or South America. A lot of other cultures have influenced our records and it’d be good to go to those places.
Do you think your appropriation of world music styles is in any way patronising to the original cultures?
Chris: Not really. I’m not trying to emulate another culture or steal from it in any way. I’m just inspired by the sound of any kind of music really. I put on more Western music than I do music from other cultures, but I’m still excited about opening up the doors to other styles. I don’t understand a lot of the stuff Michael Stipe’s singing about a lot of the time! I can put on some other music where someone’s speaking Swahili or Portuguese and still appreciate the lyrical flow and the melody in the same way. I look up the odd word that gets repeated and get some kind of meaning. But, no, opening your eyes is good. It’d be pretentious if we pretended we understood this other culture perfectly and try and steal from it, but we’re just excited by hearing different spiritual music. You can’t fully understand a place, but you can still appreciate it by putting on a record and thinking ‘that sounds totally unique’.
Yourselves and Vampire Weekend have been mentioned as some kind of ambassadors for New York in indie bands embracing other musical cultures. Do you see other bands heading this way?
Chris: I dunno, I don’t think we’re trying to be ambassadors. I can’t speak for Vampire Weekend, but for us, we’re just trying to make sonic collages. If people want to lump us and Vampire Weekend together, I’m happy about that. We’re coming from a certain place and trying to deal with the isolation of that place by trying to draw things from a lot of different places. We’re hopefully taking things a little further to make something new that sounds like it’s from a different planet.
Yeasayer play Norway’s Hove Festival on Thursday 26th June and then embark on a full European tour. Their debut album 'All Hour Cymbals' is out now on We Are Free.
Written by Nick Aldwinckle.
