We're going to trounce meet Loaf, and we're going to fucking try and say years and Years down. And it was grotesque the way we did it in a lot of ways.
Hello and welcome to Midnight Chat, a podcast of casual interviews with leading musicians, published weekly at midnight to suit these informal and often under researched conversations. This week's episode is hosted by me Stuart Stubbs, editor of Loud and Quiet magazine. On tonight's episode of the podcast, I'm joined by James Smith, the singer of Leeds based band Yard Act, who in January of this year, twenty twenty two, went toe to toe in a chart battle for number one
against Years and Years spoiler alert. They didn't quite do it, but they charted at number two. And with James on this episode, I'm going to get into the margins and just how close the race was. The album that's always challenging for that top spot is called The Overload, and if you haven't listened to it yet, what are you playing at? You should not only check out the record, but I would recommend starting with their videos. It's something
that we also talk about on this podcast. They're all extremely well put together, very funny, and for me, are what yard Acts are all about. It's a good symbol of where this band's at and how they're approaching things. They're certainly having a laugh with it, which perhaps comes down to the members of the band all being in various hindie bands over the years, including Hookworms, Menace Beach and in James's case, a band called Post War Glamour Girls.
All great bands in their own right, but Yard Act seems to be the one that has connected with people. They are at the time of recording this the most booked band of the summer. They're playing almost every festival you can imagine, so maybe one that you're heading to yourself, so there's plenty of opportunity to see them. I have to give a special thanks on this episode to the
Bedford Tavern, the pub in Finsbury Park. They opened their doors early for James and I to go and sit in their empty pub to record this episode, So thank you to the people at the Bedford Tavern. This was recorded back in April. This conversation the band had just returned from America, where they've been for the very first time, and they'd been storming south By Southwest literally a few days before we spoke, and that also just played the Jimmy Fallon Show, which is where we will pick up
the conversation. If you do enjoy this episode and are interested in helping us make some more episodes of the podcast, then there's a link in the show notes to supporting us with a donation of your choosing. It can be amount big or small. It's very much appreciated. It helps us carry on making this podcast. We've had a long break between the last series and this new one that starts tonight, ultimately because we've been trying to work out how to afford it essentially, so any help from our
listeners is very much appreciated. Thank you very much to James. He was a pleasure to talk to and I'm very pleased to see a band like Yard Act signing to a major record label and putting that money to some good use and having a good time. Thank you for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode of the podcast, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. First. Up here is James Smith of Yard Act on Midnight Chats. You've just been to America. Yeah, it looked good on
your Instagram feed. I was following south By Southwest stuff and you did Fallon, Fallon?
How was that great? Was it?
Are they recording that show with a live audience again?
Now? Yeah, so we got to go into thirty rock and do that. I think they're still doing sessions from home, Like I think like wolf allis with the guests night before but they just sent him like a pre record. But like to be able to go in the studio was it was wicked and you know felt like quite proper.
So who was there? Who were the who were like the guests on the show when you were there?
Ethan Hark Okay, yeah, is it just him? It's just just him in a comedian called Jim Jefferies, who I wasn't and I'm not really aware of. But no, he's Australian. It's a shame because because of the because they've only just gone back in COVID was pretty the rules were pretty strict, so there was kind of no mingling. I went to the like I basically spent the day walking past Questlov's door and it was just locked.
Just trying to just hoping you would time it when he was coming out and.
Be like, hey, coming in don't worry about the rules. I'm questaler if I can do what I want? And then and then yeah, about and they start taping at like half four or five o'clock about sort of just gone for his door is just a jar as I went to the toilet, and I was like, the question was in there, but you couldn't get him. I mean I would have knocked on, but you know, there's it wasn't the vibe. And but Fallon came to see us before and after we played, and I didn't dare look up.
But when we because like so the step where we are on the stage, if you're facing out, the audience is directly in front of you, but there's like a sea of cameras in front of the audience, so they can't really watch what you're doing, which is weird, right, okay, But then to the right is where Fallon sits with his desk and his interview. So fro into the left is where the Roots house band is. Yea, And like I didn't, I did not dare look up and see
what the Roots we're doing. Ryan Ryan said. He raised his head and and Tarik and Questlove were just like non in their heads to the overload, So I'll take that. I'll take Ryan's word.
Were you not tempted to just eyeball the routes go the opposite way? Yeah, sing directly at.
Them maybe, yeah, I mean it's down down most people I would. But one of the is the roots.
Yeah, that's pretty They're.
A big band for me growing up. You know, were you tipping point and just being like, yeah.
Were you? Were you nervous doing it?
It's all right, but it's the most nervous I've ever been. I think that the gravitas of the situation. I was aware of that, And for the most part with this band, I haven't been that bothered, which I think has worked in our favor, like genuinely, like I've been quite comfortable with whatever. And then even when we did, like when you do big things and you're like this could you know, this could really do something good for us and it'd be really handy if it did, like Jules Holland and stuff.
But with Jules Holland, it was like it wasn't live. We were shooting it at the Bruin now, which we know that room inside out. You know, the crew were dead, chilled out. We had all day to do it and there was no audience, so it didn't feel like the pressure wasn't the same. We knew we had to get it right. We knew that it was going on Jules Holland and it was really important to us that we
delivered something we were really proud of. But falling it was like one take, right, yeah, but they go, you can have a second if you want, but if you do need to redo it, everyone's going to cheer, the roots are going to play you out, and then just don't leave the stage and then we'll just do a second take and Jimmy'll introduce you again and it's like can you imagine, Like he was like, yeah, whatever you need, like you can do free if you really need to.
And it's like but like, you know, we went out, we did it. It was like we're kind of sat waiting all day and then we went out and Jimmy Foulon and Questlove are kind of bantering with the audience off hammer to keep them sort of entertained whilst the camera is set up. And then like and then the production runners like or like you know, like the directors like, okay,
we're ready to shoot yard acts now. So so then Jimmy goes back to his desk and the lights go down on the record and he does his hold on the record, you know, us TV debut performing the title track to their debut album, The Overload, Give It Up, four Yard Acts, and then it's like and then it's just like you see the red light going on, and it's like, all right, now we do it, and so
we just blasted through it. And then all of a sudden, Jimmy falling like runs over and he's like jumping up and down, shaking your hands, go yes, yes, yes, and then the roots all of a sudden kicking and he's like, good night, and then it's like and then it stops, and it's like, okay, do we need to go again?
It might imagine if you said, yeah, like I've lived on the big ending and it's a fake ending the second time would be really depressing unless you'd absolutely cocked it up massively, definitely wouldn't have gone again.
It looked good. I've watched it. It looked it looked like you know, I'm guessing you were you were happy with it. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah, what's fanon?
Like? I mean, I guess you like we met in pre and post show. He's hyped up. I've heard he's always like that.
I was listening to a podcast recently, I can't remember what it was on, but someone was saying, how he is that guy, Like, yeah, it's not an act, he is that guy.
I mean, it seemed since there was as it could have been. Within a few minutes we spent with him and we met his one of his managers and they and they were basically just like he's a massive, massive fan of music, like he has a big hand in choosing the act. And yeah, he's genuinely invested in the in the music on the show, and he and he
loves bands, like you know, that's his thing. Like I know, he's you know, I mean he gets great guests on his show, you know, included exactly and and so yeah, so it's nice to know that it's not like a segment that it's like we put this in for a bit of variety, and he's kind of just falsifying it, like you know, and we were kind of watching from the from the in our dressing room. They're like, show you the TV and he like he was like hyping it up, like he must do that for every arts.
I'm not a regular watch with the show. I can't get access to it easy, but I felt great like having him like making an audience get whipped up for what you're doing. It's nice. It's a nice thing.
I remember, God, how many years ago would this have been? Maybe I'm going to say eight. It might not be eight, could be, it could be any time. But I remember when Eagles, Yes, that.
Was a big moment.
It was a moment.
It was proud.
It was like holy ship, it was like it was really cool. It was and yeah, yeah, you know, you're like, oh my god, that's Eagles, like on let that's mad. Do you know do you know those guys from Yeah, yeah.
I know, I know we're Goldie and Tom Kelly pretty well. I ain't seen him since before the pandam I saw Tom Kelly and he works in a bar in Leed's Call works by swim in there not long ago, and yeah we are, Yeah, we're mates with different members of them and know them from around about.
And I remember that moment and being like it happens every now and then when someone like you know a British band that you know or have followed, or that are local to you go and do something huge in the States, Like it's just such a like kind of a moment and kind of like Yard act on Fan and felt a bit like that's what it reminded me of. Maybe it's because of the Leed's connection as well, but just from what you.
Were doing from a Leed's perspective when Eagles were on it, it really did feel like that. There was you know, the homesound Pride comes out of nowhere, and it was just like, God, that's massive. That's like, that's not just like this band's doing pretty good, like it's good, it's good to see that. Well, it was like that's amazing.
And then there was like Pictures of Time with Bill Murray tattoo, Yeah, Bill Murray, And it was like, yeah, I mean it's when it's just like when it's I mean it is when it's like just normal people and the underdogs in it. It's not the kind of I think I've put ourselves in the same category, you know, like it's not the kind of banuit expect to see
on American telling. Yeah, and it's so it's you root for that, whether you you know, you root for that and yeah, yeah, and it's the shame Eagles kind of just disappeared, because great.
How have you found like the Americans taken to like the British nature of you guys. And I mean, firstly, like when you did the fan and thing, did you were you tracking or were you told about the reaction? Like at the time, I don't know.
I don't really I don't I don't really check.
I mean we had probably best not to check.
No. I definitely wouldn't google. I wouldn't like to Twitter search our name and find out what the general have you ever done that? I used to do it. Yeah, as we started to get more popular, I stopped doing it because it's once you start getting popular, that's when people start to hate you start to read something about yourself. And it's like, Jesus, this person said they want to deck my lights out, And it's like I'm rubbing someone up the wrong way enough for them to say that
on Twitter puts you on that slight scary thing. It's like, I'm aware that people are aware of me, that who you are. Yeah. Yeah, and then and they actively have an impression of me that that they're sieving enough on the Internet to say something violent about And like.
Although I'd say that most Twitter is so heightened, isn't it.
Yeah, don't actually probably haven't done much, you haven't done much together. Yeah, But I just think on general, you're in the impression of people all in, you know, on the internet, where whether it's typed or whether it's a clip or whatever, you get like you and if you see that pushing your face over and over again, as I know that, yeah, that has been if you're not into it, I'm aware that I'm I could be the most irritating, frustrating face mug on your fucking timeline over
and over again. And and I'm sorry for that, but it's the way it is, like yeah, but yees, So I don't do that now, and I don't really even read nice comments that are underneath our own posts, like I get alerts for them, and I'm kind of not that I'm not grateful for them, but it is it's well to be honest, I wouldn't have any time in the days to no, it's just no, and it's and it is. You don't. I don't need my ego massage in and and if I did, i'd start reading the
negative stuff as well to keep me in check. But I think I can probably keep myself in check just by not looking at it at all.
So you have a because this sort of thing is my idea of hell, because I'm really thin skinned, right, And it would only take one back. It wouldn't matter how many good ones, it's only the bad one that you remember. Are you are you? Are you quite a thick skinned car even though you don't want to read this stuff.
Well, like your monkey brain instantly reacts out of anger and upset like that. That and that lasts as long as that's like a primitive trigger. If someone says anything negative about you, you don't go, yeah, that's true, Like you go what? But then I do think I'm quite good at rationalizing After that, I mainly I mainly put myself in a situation where I've had those same thoughts
and feelings on other bands. Not that I go on the Internet and say it, but I probably did when I was younger, like when you know the wild West
of Facebook. In my early twenties, I probably had a million opinions on bands that I thought with shit or this is the best thing you'll ever hear, and like you kind of get past that and you get more comfortable and so I accept that for everyone's opinion on it and the superlifs they use, and you know, positive or negative to describe how they think about as that is heightened and it just passes anyway, So you kind of learn to cope with it. I mean, yeah, it's
just it's fine. Everyone has an opinion on music, and it's just what it isn't it?
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When I was on my way here, I thought, why are we going to start this? Well, where shall we start talking? Because there's a lot has happened. You have a big thing, I guess was the number one race? Which that looked really fun?
It was?
Was it really fun or was it really stressful?
I think it was stressful for Pete one man career to get to like four places in a day.
Is that your Tom manager?
He was, but now his day's expanded. He's six feet No, he's like he's he's his first role as as sound engineer. In the first sort of six months to a year of playing live, he was also a driver and tour manager because that was what the budget allowed. Now we've expanded and we now have our friend Jilly as tour manager.
And sharing the driving and then you know, hopefully by the end of the year we'll have a third crew member because it's not in fast and you know, and it's also used to be able to give our mates work. That's the we've kept it in the family so far, and that's that's important to us, and it's it's working and that's nice and it keeps us grounded having those people around as well. I guess it was a proper take away off Pete.
I guess, poor Pte. Yeah, poor p it was. It was a proper campaign. You did like you went free. It was great. It was like impressive. It was like, yeah, we're gonna we're going to go for this. Yeah. And it was narrow. Did you know how narrow was.
It at the end? In the end it was about it was like two thousand sales in the end.
But that's not many, right or is it? I don't even know.
I mean, I guess in the grand scheme things it's not. But I mean, so we did. We did seventeen and a half thousand sales in the end in the first week, which compared to what things used to shift is pittance. And it is and you know, we're completely aware that really it's all smoke and mirrors, like, yeah, of course
nothing changes after it. Really, I mean, it shifts perception and that's the main reason we did it, and and it would have shifted perception a lot more had it been a number one, I think, but we're aware that it doesn't really matter. And now you know, sales are never going to be eye popping like they used to be. And like people try and do it with streams now and it's like a billion streams and it's like, yeah, but it's not a billion people have actively listened to
that sign, is it. It's like giant playlists and gyms and stuff. Yeah, but you know when you know, yeah, it's kind of become part of like a cultural conversation or not. And I think that week, for that week at least, I think it was like we just we just stared the music industry head on and went, look, we're on a major label. We've never been in this position before. We're not going to be cool than now
and just go or whatever. We don't care if we land at number six, we're going to trounce meat load and we're going to try and say years and years now and it was grotesque the way we did it in a lot of ways, but it was also like, why not say something happens because it's.
You didn't get any kickback on that, though, did you not?
Really? No, No, I don't know we didn't.
At all, because I feel like we've kind of got to a point. I mean I'm talking maybe I'm just talking about my own opinion as I've got older, but I feel like indie fans quote unquote have now got to a point where, because those numbers aren't what they used to be, everyone's on their ass and it's hard, like everything like in music is hard that now people are like, you know, if uggs are going to give you a thousand pounds to say you like that shoes
or whatever it is. I feel like we've all got to a point where like that's fine, if that makes if that gets my band to make a new record, it's fine, you know. And with your with your campaign, it was just yeah, it was great to see you just to just go for it. Were you remotely disappointed that it was two and not one?
For about five minutes when we found out we were on that, we were on that high of like the whole week was so exhausted. And then we you know, we got blasted at the bread Now on firstday night after the last show, and you know, like our booking agent was there, all our manager was there.
And do you find out at midnight?
Now you find out at like nine in the morning, right, But some of the some of the boys had stayed up all night waiting. I'd gone to bed, and I met them at the Weatherspoons and I got a phone call at half nine saying you've come in at number two. And I was like, oh, that's all right, you know, after like and I was like, that's fine. I was like, we're at the Wetherspoons. We've got some champagne. And it wasn't it was prosecco. That was Island's man sucking budget
marketing manager. We've got champagne for you at the Wetherspoons and it was prosecco. I was like, would it have
been champagne if we were number one? He was of course it fucking would, And he was like yeah, he was funny, like he was brilliant, and we just totally we just loved the whole thing of it, really, and then we and then we all went out for a really nice pub lunch and sort of decompressed on a week and that's when we really reflected on what it was really about, and it's like, oh shit, we all just everyone just went hell for lever on something that
we really believed in and sort of whilst knowing as well that it was totally like this strange position to be in, but we took it like we took advantage of the chance and kind of ran with it. And yeah, we're just completely honest about our intentions with it. And it was like, we booked about fucking ten in stores in trying to shift more records, and now I've got to fucking go and do them all, which is like, but they're only good places doing in like Warrington where
I grew up, in Derby where Ryan comes from. So like you know, they're good, like good, meaningful shows. But it's made may look like absolute okay, but it was. It was. Yeah, it was worth it and I don't regret any of it, and you know, it was exhausting. We did twenty one shows in seven days, I mean and not sorry, twenty one in stores. I think we
did sixteen shows five five and we're just signings. But like it was relentless, and we were running on like we were running on empty, and it was like it stops. We just knew that it stopped. As soon as the chart week ended, we were like, then we'll rest. And it was fun. I had fun doing it.
When you like finished the record whenever that was last year, I'm pretty last March, last March, and you had it ready, Yeah, did you have any kind of goal or expectation of like this record. Obviously you're we're gonna put this record out, but had you signed at that point You hadn't signed.
So once when you on the strength of just the music and the type of music it was and the way it sounded, did you have any thought of it being in the charts at all, let alone get into that point of a number one.
Nice, not at all, but once it because basically off the strength of our wealthy EP had sold, we were kind of told, like chance, this album will go top forty, which for us was like what we'll have like an home in the top forty. And that's because you need to sell that two thousand records to getting the top forty or whatever. That's all you need to do in our week one sales is two thousand and the other thing that is often overlooked is that week one is
not all your sales sold in one week. It's your pre orders from when you start campaigning three months before. Sure, So it's it's a bit of a again, like I said, it's smoker, and I don't mind admitting that, because of course you've got to face the truth head on, aren't you. Yeah, but also go along for the ride and have fun
with it. And then yeah, we were kind of told, you know, like based off the sort of buzz you've kind of got and how well this is so like you should get a top forty with your debut album. And that was like the time we were going to self release it. But we were talking to quite a few labels, but nothing was. Nothing felt right, and even like the big indies that we were speaking to, we were kind of like they want they want this much to do that. We were like, no, like we don't.
You know. It was like it was like I love this label, this is my favorite, one of my favorite labels of all time, but I can't It's I can't give them that much for what they want to take and give us up. You know. It's like and that was That's when we kind of that's when like loads of major kind of labels got in touch and we liked, we're like, none of these work. This is all weird.
But then Ireland kept coming back and they totally got what we were about, and it was like we knew it was like a completely different sort of world to what we were used to, but we're so used to the indie world that we kind of know it's limitations because it does have limitations, and we were kind of like, if they're going to put this money in, then I don't know. We were just at a point where we're like, shall we just see what happens if we let a major label go with it?
Yeah, And I guess that's probably part of like because you'd all been in bands and you've been on indies, and it's also like, well why not just try something different?
Right, Like that was exactly it.
Let's just do let's just try a different thing and if that doesn't work, it doesn't work, and yeah, that's fine.
That is it. It's like, what's the worst has happened? It's like you'll get dropped after one album and then you're going to do what you did anyway, and it's like cool, sure, let's try it then, And it seems to have fade so far. But it's the other thing is that people always think that, like people put so much on the future in the longevitive stuff, but that's also not the most important thing. Like bands don't have to exist forever. And I think we just knew that
we would do music. We'd all hit that point in our lives where we knew that we were never going to stop making me I've said this in so many interviews, but it's just because it's true. Like I would play, I will write songs and release them to no one, and I will play. I will play gigs to ansty rooms. I won't tor to empty rooms because I'd be boring, but I'll still go out and play shows to a handful of people when all this ends, because I just
love it, and I do, and I love bands. I've realized that as much as I love music and song right and I love bands, I still love the romance of a band. And they seem to be making a comeback at the moment, and I think, I don't know, maybe after the pandemic and people being isolated so much, they want that camaderie of a band again. They want to see people together and see themselves within that.
I don't know, but I think that's a really good thing that comes with getting a bit older. As someone who's older now, is like when you're a younger and you see, like, so you see a band that had that moment and then now that they went to the top and now they're back down and playing in your local path to a few people. When you're a kid, when you're like a teenager, and you see that, you go, this is so sad? Isn't so depressing for them? But
you can't really see that. They're they're enjoyed that, they're actually they want to be there. They're not doing it because they they they they've just got to that point where they're like, this is what I do and I used to do it to lots of more people than I do now, and that's fine, Like it's completely fine.
The exact thing happened with a you know, a younger friend of mine when we were watching a show in Leads where someone who you know, they are in a legendary band and their side projects sort of plays to twenty or thirty people and me and Ryan and our friend were watching them and like we were like, it's fucking so good seeing his old dudes just rock out, like they just love it, you know. They were like
they were they were great. They were so good, and they just like there was probably a bit of disheartenment that they were playing at thirty people, but they were just playing their songs and it's like they've never given up. I think me and Ryan saw ourselves in that band that night and it was like we use the term lifers, like we're like they're lifers. And I remember when Ryan first said to me, you're a lifer and I was like, and he basically was like, we've seen like you're not
going to give up. Like this is basically him and a couple of other people that are in bands in leads like Pulled part by Horses and that, like Ryan was in Menace Beach. They were like, you know, you've just kept going and you're not going to stop. I was like, no, I love it. And it was like you're a life and you're not like moaning that there's ten people at the show, because we've all been in bands with people who do that and they bring they drag you down and We're like why are you here?
You know, like what did you expect? And a lot of people are entitled and expect stuff, but maybe like yeah, our friend anyway, she was like, this is so depressing. I was like, it's not.
They're amazing.
Look at them going and she was like, but no one's here. I was like, yeah, you know, if if a legendary band plays thirty people but the other twenty seven thousand and nine hundred and seventy aren't around to hear them play, did it happen at all? Like you know what I mean, it's like that. It was like, no, it's this is this is what it's really about. All the other stuff comes and goes as exciting as it is. Yeah, I don't know, you don't want it and you don't
love it, but it gets beyond that. Yeah. So that and yeah, I was like and I think I said something like pastronizing and say like when you get older, you'll understand because it's like, no, it's these guys know what they're doing.
And what was your first band? Then your very first band?
My first band was post war was one before. Yeah, I played in like sort of covers bands and that as a teenager, and I didn't actually know I did. I had a band back in Warrington called City Lights with a couple of friends from school. But you know that was kind of yeah, a lot of covers and small time smart, small town small time. No, it's good. It was really important for me that band, and it.
Because post post war Glamor Girls did well for a first band, for your for essentially.
Your first band. Yes, I started that in Leeds. When I came to Leeds, I went to the College of Music and and and that that band's city Lights actually ended because our singer, I was the drummer in band, and our singer Joe passed away and and that hit me so hard that I kind of said I was never going to do a band again, which is very a dramatic thing that an eighteen year old will say. And I was just going to go to union, you know,
make beats. It's going to be a beat maker. And yeah, and then I slowly found the rest of the members of Postwar Glamour Girls, Alice, James and Ben and yeah, that went on for a long time, but that was completely, you know, pretty much completely ignored by the industry, and we just couldn't really, we did some really big things considering we couldn't get a break, you know, like.
Three records he made, Yeah, we.
Did four and four years well because yeah, because we did a live album. But the live album had news songs on it, and we and we rewrote it as a six piece. We did a lot on a shoestream, but I was always obsessed with moving on and we never really let anything sort of gestate. And I could never also wait for responses from emails. I was like, this person clearly hates so let's just do it on
our own. And you know, like looking back, I well, I was a twenty one year old managing a band of twenty one year olds with no understanding of the music industry. Was because he was a pretentious twenty one year old was obsessed with I just want to make my art and I don't want to be a part of this industry that has no interest in me. And what it really was was that, like people get a thousand emails a day, and if they don't replies me in two days, it doesn't mean that you can't send
a follow up, you know, it means that. So yeah, so that was a weird. Yeah, it was a weird time. But I just feel like I learned so much in
that band about myself. And I grew up in that band basically, and I was so angry in my early twenties just at the state of the world, which now it was like a place I'd love to go back to, yeah, yeah, and just you know, kind of stuff that was going on in my personal life as well, and I didn't think about it at the time, and I just wanted to challenge music and that's all I ever wanted to do. And as I grew up, I kind of couldn't maintain that anger that I had that I used to have.
I was like, this is some signing, and I felt like I couldn't deliver it anymore. And I started feeling like I was doing an impression of my younger self, right, and I don't, but I don't think I had the sort of self belief or the guts to be me. Yeah. And so that band kind of came to an end because because everyone was kind of moving away and stuff, and we've given it as long as everyone else was willing to give it before they were ready to do
other things, you know. So now I did this band cruel world, which I was like, we just again, we just couldn't catch break. But like musically, I was just so into it, and that was like really sort of like so right. I kind of went the opposite so far away, and I didn't want I was so sort of ashamed of my own voice that I kind of tried to neutralize it as much as I could.
Do you mean like the sound of your voice.
Yeah, the sound like I've never liked the sound of my own voice, like I don't think many people do, and is nice that I've enjoyed it.
It's like a goose. No it's not you, but you know when you listen back to your voice, Yeah, it just sounds like a kind of monotone, honking goose. That's how I described it.
Right, Well, I find it quite comforting. I'm going to listen back and see it. Yeah, if it sounds obviously, everyone sounds deeper in their own head.
Ye, you've got.
A lovely voice, thank you. That's just what I clarified. It moved on.
I'll just be clipping that bit and yeah into a stick.
Yeah, maybe certainly that my beats folded, I'll make you
a beat. Yeah, I got so. Yeah, I just was like, but I was also convinced that the way that I delivered those songs and the aggression and the anger in my voice on those records was like the reason that we hadn't had the success that I wanted, And so I started neutralizing everything, and I think it culminated in like some songwriting that I'm really really proud of, but I suck my own I like deliberately edited my own personality out of these songs because I didn't have the like,
didn't have the sort of guts to be myself again at this point, and like post what I felt like it was a really extreme version of myself that I then couldn't get to grips with changing, and so I stayed stuck in this sort of impression of angry me, which was kind of I'd learned to cope with my anger in a different way. And then cruel World kind of became me going, hey, I'm so mellow and relaxed now, which like most of the time I am, sorry most
of the time I am, but so relaxed. I just like most of the time I am, but it's not I'm not one thing or another, and I'm and I think Yadat. By the time that came around, I find as it started to do well, I started to have the confidence to be completely comfortable with who I am and accept that I do have these bursts of anger and frustration, but for the most part, I am on this level which we're at now, and I think that's
kind of how we approach everything we do. The performance is kind of in me being me, Yeah, which is nice.
So now when you hear yourself back, whether it's like on a recording like this or singing.
Yeah, are you at piece with it? Yeah? Because I just realized it doesn't matter anyway. I'm not. I'm I'm like, I don't know at what point it happened, but I I think I basically think once we got an audience that we realized was sticking with us for the time being, at least I felt I was like, they just like me doing what I do, and so I don't need to study myself or worry about that. I don't need to worry about the people. I'm not conscious of what
the people who don't like it think anymore. Yeah, and yet I think it's what I don't know, Like I'm not being smug about it. But I think it's what everyone's trying to achieve in their own life, is to be comfortable in our own skin. And I feel like I'm finally as close as I'm going to. I've got there for the time being, and I'm really.
Very young to have got there. You're like thirty one.
Yeah, thirty two this year, thirty two.
Yeah, that's good going, I think if you've sussed it, yeah, I mean it might.
Not last time. No, no, don't. Well, I've had a good run. I've had a good run in life over the last few years after quite a turbulent you know, late teens, early twenties, I feel like everything's kind of come up James for a little bit, and and I'm not taking it for granted that there will be turbulence ahead, because no one gets that easy run, you know.
Can we quickly talk about your videos? Yeah, of course, because I'm a big fan of all of them. Yeah, particularly the Magic one.
Ah, Yeah, that's my favorite.
I mean, I'm going to put a link to all of them in the in the description of this podcast, because they're all worth a watch. How one question I've got is who are the who are the people in them? Because there's like there seems to be like some recurring actors in there. Yeah, who's the who's the guy with the braces, the bald headed guy?
Ah yeah, Gareth, Yeah, I appreciate.
Are these people you know? Are these people that you cast once and then thought we'll just get you back for like other ones.
Most of them are people that the production crew know, like family and friends and a couple of castings. Some are like street castings. So like Kaylee, who is the dancing orphan with the lettuces. She appears in Payday and The Overload. She when we me and James Slater, who directs the videos, we went to Lee's Bradford put car boot to do a recie see if it would be a good location.
Was it shot there?
Yes, yeah, yeah, and yeah there was. There was two castings from the car boot. One was Kaylee's mom was just running a stall and Kaylee was just like dancing next to the car, just entered saying herself. And James and Jack and Rosie, Jack and Rosiere, the producers, they they were just like, she'd be great for the video. Let's go and ask if she wants to do it next Sunday, like let's get that dancing in the video.
So she was just a punter at the car boot dancing and she and she was like, yeah, I would love to do it. And she came back. And then the One Eyed King he him and his partner live in their camper van and they visit the car boots to sell sell their wares every now and then. And we were like, would you be up for wearing an eye patch and a crown and being in this and he was like, yeah, of course, And and you know, they're like, you know, I follow them on Instagram now
I follow that. They live the hashtag van life and they just travel the country with their dog, having van meet ups from that, and so it's nice to stay in touch with them. So Gaff is Jack's stepdad, and he's just the loveliest man. And I can't remember what he does now. I think he's I don't know, I can't remember what he does. He's great, he's just great.
He just came along and then he's just like I think, I don't think he'd even heard of us before the first song, and he's been in three of the videos and he's like he's a big fan now, like he's he drops his messages and that. Yeah, it's great. There's loads of wicked people in them video.
I think like you did some pretty good acting in them, right, Like you know, it's Land of the Blind, isn't it with the Magician one? Yeah, yeah, where you're sporting a goate.
Yeah yeah, su yes, yeah, slick back to David Brent with the slip.
But there's that bit where you make the fifty pence disappear and you crawl out the room.
Yeah, I'm going to make me and this fifty pence piece disappear.
And that that was I love that.
Yeah, yeah, that wasn't meant to happen.
That's prettiant. But the but but yeah, there are parts that there are bits in all of them where you like, have you ever did you act at school?
Yeah? I was in the place and that I used to Yeah, I used to like, yeah, yeah you did play did the artful Dodger? And Oliver did say that? Yeah I did.
Did you have to do a Cockney accent for that?
Yeah? Of course it's dead easy. I won't do it now, yeah, yeah, yeah I played think what else I did?
Yeah?
I did fat studies at a level as well. Basically there wasn't enough subjects that I would have been allowed to do if I hadn't have done like all the pretend subjects. So I did fat studies, Media studies, English Language, and music Tech. That was me. That was me, big four and yeah, I always loved it. And then I went Then I kind of went off it because of some of the other people who do it that take it so seriously.
But I did it as well exactly.
I know, did you continue it? Did you pursue it?
I pursued it. Yeah, Well I went to when I went to UNI, did film and drama amazing.
Yeah.
Yeah, but I knew as soon as I got there to day one of the drama side of it that.
Hang on, Yeah, I'm out of my league here. Yeah.
Yeah, because you know, when you're in school, you can be it's quite easy to be the best in your school.
Yeah yeah, you were you the best in your school. Well, sounds like that's what you just said.
Well, I'm going to you know, I'm going to lean into that and say, yeah, but there is there is a caveat by the end of myol by my sixth form, Yeah, there was three of us in the class cool and one of them then got kicked out, so we could only do two.
Man plays deal logues, yeah, and actually a deal logue, right, Yeah, that's what we did a lot of wreck And if I'm honest now i'm thinking of it, I think I was probably the second best in the class, nah to it.
But you know, but you know when you're like a bit younger than because by then, you know, by then I was fifteen sixteen. When you're like, at my school, if you could remember the lines, you were the best. Yeah, yeah, you didn't really need to actually put anything down.
Yeah.
But then you go to like university and you go, oh, there are people there who are like theater people studied, and so I was. I was instantly I moved away from it. I completed the degree, but I moved away from it. But I know exactly what you mean. Actors can be the worst, can they?
Oh?
Yeah, I mean not all of them. I don't want anyone thinking I'm down on all actors, but some actorly people when they're being actors a lot of the time, it's a lot.
Yeah, but you're always forgiven when they do something amazing. Yeah, they have to be in that frame of mind where they are already amazing when they've not proved anything, which I guess musicians do as well a lot. Well they know they don't. I don't know. It's a weird one. Yeah, basically, there was just yeah, it's just want your people, I'm going to do see drama because I'm going to get to slide around on my knees in the schoolhole for
a couple of years and funny about my mates. And then when it gets to a level and they all go, we're not doing drama now, we're doing like physics and maths and that, and you go, right, whom I left with and you know, some of my best friends. But it's yeah, it's it's it's the people that take it very seriously, who can't act that really again because like I never had. But also it's like it's the people that like it's like the great, the great actors, like how do you have to be very resilient to do
that in high school? The serious stuff like I just did pratted around and said we did comedy because it was like that was easy because that was just pratting around as far as we're concerned. But for someone to deliver for a fourteen year old pimbly kid to do some brutal monologue about like the you know, like the fucking like Irish famine. Like it's it's playing like a fifty year old like starving man. It doesn't work quite the same as a fake.
Yeah.
Yeah, Like it's like you're going to go for those deep, serious subjects and you should be encouraging chilled there's you should be encouraging children to do that at that age, Like you should be getting to try and tap into something deeper about themselves and to convey and deliver something
that's so emotive it can make a teacher cry. But you're going to have a bunch of immature lads on the front row sniggering, like I wish that's not how the world worked, maybe changed, but I mean that's what it's like for me. But that's that's my own immaturity, you know what I mean. That was I was a late bloomer and it took me a long time to grow up. So yeah, so I have nothing but respect for those people. I do, but that wasn't where I was at at that time in my life, you know,
And so I didn't really pursue it. I did do fat studies and I did. I did really enjoy it, and I wrote me and some mates wrote like a musical about Summerfields, the supermarket that's kind of our perfect field is gone now Yeah yeah, I think we all used to work at the one in the village, so that was kind of that was what it was written about. And there was like a turf war between that and the co Op, which was quite That was what it was about.
Well, history has proven co Op one. I think they bought I think they bought out Summer Film.
Yeah.
I think that's why. That's why there's maybe that's what's ripe for a sequel.
Yeah, co Op. Yeah, Summerfield strikes back. Yeah.
So the another thing I wanted to ask you just about the videos is what is with the fifty p the recurring callback to fifty pence pieces? So I guess we play on I should explain that this is something that recurs through these through your videos.
Seeing every everything in the whole universe costs fifty everything costs fifty p which is kind of communist in a way, but that's not the fifty p to me really symbolizes, like obviously, the first album really kind of leans into nostalgia and like, you know, I wrote a lot a lot of it because a lot of it was written during lockdown and I wasn't really sort of out and about experiencing things. I kind of delved into my own past quite a lot and sort of my own childhood
and upbringing to kind of you know. So it's got like a real sort of retro sort of slant to it. The album, you know, it kind of plays on that it's set now, but it's also set in this like rosy past of in England gone by when things were simpler, because everyone loves to think everything was better in their day even though and fifty P for me felt like the automate symbol of a lot of money but worth
fuck all. Like like fifty P is like, like you know, I always think about the fifty P mix because that was like that was like one day, that was like birthday mix. It was like fifth you got fifty P or the kid with the fifty P at school was swinging yeah, like you know pound that's like the league you put that and you put that in your piggy bank, like you say.
That's a banker.
Yeah, yeah, but fifty P was it felt like a lot of money. It's also for course, it kind of to me symbolizes like our It kind of symbolizes our first for wealth and our our view of it and how we sort of see it and what it is. And do you remember those like windy penny press machines that would like press like a logo of where you've been, like.
It flattens it to an oval.
Yeah. I wanted to do one of them on tour that we could have a yard at one where you put your fifty p in and you press it and it flattens your fifty p and you get it back with a yard that logo on it. And there must be someone out there that can make that contraption. It's only cogs and it must be a press, isn't it.
Yeah, Because you know every ceaside town will have that. Yeah, so there's somewhere that makes the stand he's got inside town, right.
But I've never seen one with a fifty P. They might have to trigger, like they might have to re reshape the shoot, but I think a fifty p might be too thick. That's what I mean. You're going to need some real strength, like.
Someone with a big arm to be put in there.
Yeah, what's Pete's arm, Like Pete's arm, well, friends, which is mixing anders because that's slightly bigger.
Because it could be a new job for Pete.
Pete does need more work. Maybe maybe our next crew member will be someone with a big arm. Just one big arm, require one big arm. Yeah, I did want to get one. I'm done there. But again, this was you know, like when I suggested it, like spitball, it was like, yeah, you could, like it could be like one pound fifty to get you fifty p press and I was like, no, it'd be fifty p. It's a freebie for anyone who's got fifty p on it. I'm not trying to capitalize. Yeah, yeah, it's got to be
it's got to be money it mate. Thank you for coming on the podcast.
I never know how to end. Don't you think we've missed anything?
No, I don't even know what we've talked about, but I have nothing to say. Perfect.
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