On a foggy London night we find two wide-eyed BCR stooges venturing nervously down a seedy Camden backstreet. A windowless blue van is parked by the curb, and the door slides open at our heroes’ approach. Two scraggly and disreputable-looking characters beckon the unsuspecting hacks inside, and the door slams shut behind them. In such cramped confines we are introduced to Anand (guitar, vox, etc.) and Chris (vox, keyboard, etc.) of Yeasayer, whose album “All Hour Cymbals” is quite possibly the most exciting piece of plastic to grace the BCR mailbox this year. At least, that’s until my new membership card for the Scotch Malt Whisky society arrives next month.
Yeasayer are clearly all good friends, and as such have a habit of talking all over each other all at once. This, coupled with the fact that I’m completely unable to distinguish between the various American accents on the dictaphone, means Yeasayer will be treated as a collective for the majority of this interview.
BCR: Hey, this is a nice van. How long are you in here for?
YS: A month, we have 17 more dates. In the UK and Europe, this is our longest tour so far, and it's not even in our home country!
BCR: We missed you last time you were in the country, how's this tour been going for you?
YS: Well, last night we played Nottingham, and in Nottingham (laughs) we were up against a huge Vice party, a free show put on by Vice magazine, pretty much adjacent to the room we were playing in. We finished up and walked next door, and we were like "oh, this is where everyone is!" It was actually packed. Like every kid who would've even potentially considered coming to our show was at the free party.
BCR: Overall it sounds like you've been getting a pretty good reception here though.
YS: Yeah! The last time we were in London we played 7 shows, and it got better with each show. People who came to see one show would come back to see two or three more… we'd be like "aren't you bored yet?" It was great.
BCR: In the US you did South by Southwest and CMJ, you made a huge buzz there.
YS: Yeah!
BCR: Has that been opening doors for you since? Has it made things easier?
YS: Yeah, definitely. It had a lot of effect with the media. SXSW was our introduction, it was out coming out ball, whereas CMJ was kind of… what the? are they trying to get in? Do they know we're in here?
[much crashing about as the rest of the band – Ira Wolf Tuton (bass) and Luke Fasano (drums) – arrives to get beer. We manage to shanghai them into sitting in on the rest of the interview].
YS: Anyway. Yeah, CMJ was much more of a whirlwind, kinda 3-4-5 shows a day kinda thing. And a lot of the hype and buzz was in full effect then.
BCR: Is there a trick to it, do you think? Being the kind of band that "gives good showcase"?
YS: No, just like what you do! We just do what we do. Though there is something to having arrangements than can fit any venue – however shitty the musical set-up.
YS: Definitely, certain shows it'll be like, we can't play that song, cause it won't make any sense. Luckily we have enough varying musical styles that we can play pretty much any venue.
BCR: Well you guys definitely do seem to enjoy what you do. There's this sense of joy in your music.
YS: (laughs) You think we've got joy, wait till you see Matt and Kim! [Matt and Kim are the headlining act] They're so much happier than we are. They are the most positive people. They should be called the Yeasayers.
BCR: How do you feel about this "world music" tag that gets bandied about you.
YS: It's in there.
YS: It's not really appropriate, probably.
YS: If it means that we acknowledge inspiration from musical sources other than rock from America, it's apt I think.
YS: I think the danger is, if it seems like we're trying to present ourselves as something that we're not. Which I hope we're not doing. If it's like, these guys are influenced by this, this, this and this, that's cool, but when you call it, say this is world music, it's like, you know, we're 4 guys basically from the east coast of the United States.
YS: We've never been to West Africa.
YS: I've been to India! Once…
BCR: There are plenty of bands who draw influences from world music… with you guys, though, it seems like there's an attitude or an approach that comes through, that you don't see so much modern western music, at least. The joy thing that we mentioned before.
YS: Yeah, I guess you could also say that we draw that from gospel influences, or from musicals… you know, from America.
BCR: It seems like we've been talking to a lot of people with gospel backgrounds lately! But most of the others have been from Texas, or places where they have really deep roots. You guys are from Brooklyn.
YS: Yeah, but we all grew up singing in groups.
YS: Barbershop groups and choirs and stuff like that.
BCR: Did you go to, like, Christian schools?
YS: No, we're not…
YS: I'm a Jew!
YS: I'm a Jew. Half Jew. Half-half.
YS: We're not religious in any way, but for us I think… for me I know music was my religion, basically. I didn't go to church on Sundays, I went to music school on Saturdays. So that's always been the release.
BCR: So what was it that attracted you particularly to choirs and choral music, that sort of religious sound? I read somewhere that you’re a fan of Balkan choral music as well.
YS: It’s all compelling. All different sorts of music are compelling I think.
YS: It’s really enjoyable to be in a group. I mean, I love being in a group, singing with tons of people who can sing and you’re putting together this sound that has an incredible mood to it, and you’re all in it together... Growing up doing that, that’s an experience I can’t trade for anything. As soon as I have kids, you know, I’m putting them into music as soon as possible and putting them into group settings where they can make music with other people.
YS: Also in terms of a rock band, or in terms of a band, I wanted to hear more harmonies. We wanted to hear some harmonies in a band context. And people totally do that, and that seemed exciting.
BCR: Get that Beach Boys thing going on.
YS: Yeah, absolutely!
YS: Yeah, if it works, maybe there’ll be less of it on the next recording, who knows. This one, this one is all that’s there though.
BCR. So, you guys… would you call yourselves hippies?
YS: No!
YS: No, no.
YS: No.
YS: God, no.
YS: Well, you wouldn’t call yourself that. It’s like, people call you whatever they call you.
YS: Devendra’s a hippy. He spent half of his recording budget on crystals! I hate talking about astrology, I hate crystals, I don’t like Sedona…
YS: We don’t smoke weed.
YS: We hardly ever… listening to our record high is really boring!
YS: But we do like a lot of music from the hippy era. But I don’t know what… what it really means. But you couldn’t exclude that music. I don’t think we exclude many types of music, so you have to look at it like that.
YS: Is Timbaland a hippy?
YS: Yeah!
BCR: Definitely.
YS: With a name like that?
BCR: On your Myspace page, you’ve got your influences listed as… did you actually do that yourselves?
YS: Yeah, we did it
BCR: Your influences are listed as the Dead Kennedeys, Just Blaze, Burzum and Leonard Cohen.
YS: We put the Dead Kennedys on there?
YS: Yeah, I switch it over every now and again.
BCR: Burzum is someone not many people would admit to being influenced by.
YS: I was reading the, what the hell’s the name of that book? The black metal bible at the time, and I couldn’t even tell, you really.
YS: That one song that he does is so sweet.
BCR: Well, his music has got better since he’s been in jail…
YS: Oh, was he the one that killed the guy?
BCR: Yeah, the guy from Mayhem.
YS: Oh, he killed that guy.
BCR: You don’t have those kinds of plans for anyone? Rival bands, maybe?
YS: Well, we don’t really… we’re trying to develop a beef with Pete Doherty. But it’s not going anywhere – he’s just too damn charming!
YS: We really like him, in spite of ourselves. And Babyshambles is the best name for a band ever. It’s better than ours.
BCR: Do you have Babysham in the States?
YS: No, we barely have the Libertines.
BCR: I meant Babysham the drink. It’s where the band get their name.
YS: No?
BCR: It’s kind of a pear cider thing. It tastes like sweat, actually, it’s disgusting.
YS: We’ve got something called Moxie in the States.
BCR: Moxie? Like, spunk?
YS: It’s gross.
YS: That’s Moxie. That’s the Moxiest thing you’ll ever taste in your life.
YS: It’s kind of like Coke mixed with gasoline.
BCR: I’m interested in hearing about your label, Now We are Free. It sounds like the label was created just for your band.
YS: Yeah it was, yeah.
BCR: That’s a compliment, right there.
YS: Well it’s not hard to create a new label, you just make a website! It’s the same label, it just has a new website.
YS: Jason who runs Monitor Records wanted this to be like a totally separate, new project, so he was kind of going out on his own and doing this. So yeah, I think we’re the only releases on it.
YS: He downsized from Monitor, from his one employee, now he’s got zero employees!
YS: We’re actually his interns.
BCR: The promo material they send out, well we read a lot of this kind of stuff, but his has this kind of breathless enthusiasm, he clearly actually means it too…
YS: He’s a fan, yeah.
YS: He’s got all his eggs in one basket.
YS: Jason’s part of the family.
YS: He’s screwed if we fail.
BCR: Does that mean he lets you get away with murder though?
YS: Not that I’ve noticed.
YS: We push him as much as we can. As much as the money will allow! He’s down for any cockamamie plan we want, as long as he can pay for it and its not too outrageous. He never said no.
YS: We do what we want.
BCR: Well it seems to be working for you.
YS: I guess, well there were eight people at our show last night!
BCR: OK, last question: If you guys were Fleetwood Mac…
YS: We ARE Fleetwood Mac!
BCR: …who would be Lindsay Buckingham?
YS: Oh easy, he’s the guitar player [points to Anand]
Anand: Oh thanks you guys!
YS: We already decided you’re [Chris] Stevie Nicks.
Chris: No way, shit!
YS: You [Luke] can be John McVie, and I’ll [Ira] be Mick Fleetwood.
Luke: I’m gonna be a big ball of misery! …and then Christine left me…
Chris: I’m getting a roadie to blow coke up my asshole.
