Yard Act have spoken to NME about their new single ‘Trench Coat Museum’ and what to anticipate from their subsequent album.
The Leeds band have been taking part in the brand new tune at current gigs, and NME caught up with the band to speak in regards to the observe and their subsequent steps throughout their current hometown residency on the Brudenell Social Membership.
“That’s going to be the subsequent single,” frontman James Smith revealed. “It’s out in just a few weeks. It’s a stand-alone single and never on the subsequent report. It units up the second album; it simply didn’t match appropriately on it.
“The narrative and the move of an album is so necessary. It’s actually necessary to me that the story is smart. I see it as an advert or a trailer for album two. It touches on the identical themes.”
Elaborating on the themes of the brand new observe, Smith added: “It’s mainly about ego, notion, possession and recognition. I began writing it once I realised what the ditch coat had come to symbolise. There have been a number of individuals who had gone to fancy costume events as me, carrying only a trench coat and glasses. That’s humorous itself, however I realised how a lot I beloved it however that it had turn out to be a cloak to guard me in order that I could possibly be this amplified and extra obscene model of myself for efficiency. I’d take the ditch coat off and simply return to being me.
“The primary trench coat I wore belonged to Ryan and I took it off the coat rack earlier than the primary gig we performed. He was like, ‘Are you carrying my coat?’ and I mentioned, ‘Yeah, it’s humorous isn’t it?’ It was a joke and a trope of what post-punk is. I beloved it and felt extra assured.”
The frontman added: “I used to be additionally considering so much about why I used to be obsessive about my very own picture. I used to be taking a look at footage of myself and seeing what different individuals see. They see this character and cartoon that I leant into. Whenever you do, you get extra out of it. That’s the factor about popular culture: outsized characters get extra consideration. I used to be able to step away from that as a result of I didn’t need to be trapped by it. We’ve got much more to present than we’ve given to date.”
Occurring to debate their second album and follow-up to debut ‘The Overload‘, Smith mentioned: “It’s an album about getting all the pieces you ever wished and realising that the distress and issues nonetheless exist all the identical. It’s an album about being away from my household and being in knowledgeable band for a job – which seems like actually boring material, doesn’t it?”
“It’s a humorous model of that although, isn’t it?” bassist Ryan Needham added. “Our tackle a traditional!”
Smith went on: “Oh, that dreaded second album of writing about being in a van for 18 months? That’s not what we’ve finished.”
Of their musical evolution on LP2, Needham added: “It does really feel like a big stride for us, musically. After doing remixes for different bands and dipping our toes into different genres, we realised the music can do something. James’ voice and lyrics stamp it as a Yard Act album, however we’re fairly free past that.”
Smith then mentioned how the band’s confidence has “grown massively. The label have been nothing however supportive of what we need to do and – whereas I do know it sounds schmaltzy – we’ve acquired a fanbase who perceive that we’re not a post-punk band. They’re invested in that. It’s acquired a lot room to develop away from the place we’ve began.”
He added: “A part of the primary album’s attraction is that we didn’t overthink any of it. I’d put effort into all the pieces my total inventive life and yielded poor outcomes, so for the primary time I simply didn’t anticipate something from this or put a lot into it, and it turned out to be ace. I didn’t need to repeat the method of that, so this time it’s a way more crafted and meticulous piece. Everybody has labored equally on it. It’s been essentially the most fruitful and pleasing factor I’ve finished creatively.”
Throughout their Brudenell residency, Yard Act had been joined by the likes of Nish Kumar, CMAT and Phill Jupitus, with whom they lined Chumbawamba‘s hit ‘Tubthumping’.