Yeasayer – Interview – March 2010
By: Sian Norris
Ahead of their show at Bristol’s Thekla, our expert on all noise being made in the Avon region, Sian Norris, met up with Yeasayer’s Anand for a chat that went like this...
“We were all friends who met and played together,” says Anand, explaining the band’s roots. “We played together in high school, so it seemed natural to work together again after college. I knew Ira through family connections, and then the band came together in New York.”
It seems you can’t move these days without bumping into a band that are from hipster Brooklyn, and Yeasayer form part of this scene, a hub of exciting, experimental indie electronica that is taking both the ‘States and the UK by storm. “Some see us as part of that scene,” Anand explained. “And that’s cool, that’s fine. We consider the guys from MGMT, Dirty Projectors, all that lot, to be some of our best friends.” Fact fans will know that Yeasayer supported MGMT on tour recently. “I love it around there, it’s a really exciting place to be, to be part of.”
You don’t have to listen to many of their tracks before you realise that the sound coming out of Yeasayer’s new album is something a bit different, peppered with influences from around the world and all across the music scene. This is a band, after all, who manage to integrate an Eastern or Indian influence without coming across all Kula Shaker. With such a wide variety of sounds and impressions, I was curious to discover who the band considered to be an influence.
“I love David Bowie, I love Michael Jackson,” Anand explained. “Cyndi Lauper…This album has very much been influenced by a real range of people, from Chaka Khan to the Real McCoys and the Wu Tang Clan. We try and take from as many influences as possible.”
Anand’s musical heritage accounts for this range of influences. He played cello growing up, and was always singing, acting in plays and being shaped by the musical and artistic scene around him.
“I’m currently listening to a lot of American bands, New York bands. People like Sleigh Bells, Javelin... but also Wild Beasts and These New Puritans.”
You only have to lift your ears to realise that there has been a massive resurgence of fun, playful electro indie pop, a wave that Yeasayer are definitely riding high on. Dreary guitar boy indie is out the window and Lauper-inspired schtick is definitely back in.
“I feel with our music we are trying to reflect the audience’s desire to let loose. It’s really powerful for us to play in a live setting and see the audience’s reaction, see them dancing and really getting into the music. We didn’t want to play music that was boring, we are always trying to sound fresh.
“The way we approach songwriting influences this. Usually we start off with separate ideas that we have worked on individually and then the music is brought to the group. It’s really a collaborative process – working out the lyrics, the arrangement and the production.”
It has been 3 years since Yeasayer’s debut album and I wanted to learn more about how the music has evolved into 2010.
“I feel like this album really strips away the layers that clogged up the first record,” Anand explained. “There’s much more breathing room for the instruments, and we really pared down the vocal. I think it really reflects our lives and where we are in our lives. We’ve replaced the old signifiers with new signifiers, so we’ve replaced a lot of the old tribal drumbeats and African guitar with new ideas and new sounds. We wanted to create something that would be as powerful as a Beyonce song on pop radio.”
An ambition I am convinced they have achieved. The live performance at the Thekla was fascinating - the music was energetic, strong with an alternative twist, emphasised with primal yelps. Big, noisy pop lifted the songs after the initial brooding, dark intro, creating a real feeling of fun and enthusiasm for the music. Each song sounded unique, one was folky with a country twinge, another had a real hip hop feel, dancehall was flung into the mix, as was RnB, but nothing felt forced and everything had a strong, Yeasayer stamp on it.
The vocals really soared through the crowd and although the tunes were often spacey and loud, you could really sense what Anand meant about the album being pared down - there was enough space for every sound and instrument to make the most of the song, moving easily from the edgy and alternative to the bubble-gum pop sweetness of early Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. Just as you think you’ve got a handle on what they are doing they throw in some ragga, or some Indian style music and takes you off on another musical direction. They pissed off genre and maintained a sense of individuality that meant you knew who you were listening to. I loved the way that they can sound like they’re ‘singing an old folk song, that you’ve never ever heard but you still can sing along’ (to paraphrase Devendra) whilst indulging in some spectacular mashed up pop sparkle.
This year sees a whole load of festivals and touring for Yeasayer, so you can catch them live at Coacella, Lallapallooza, Austin City, Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, Primavera and a headline tour, before recording a new EP and getting started on a new album.
As Anand says, “it’s going to be a really busy year.”
SIAN NORRIS
Artists in this article: Yeasayer