“We wanted to make something with a little more clarity. A little more clear.”
In the carpeted foyer of a Kensington hotel, drummer Chris Keating is explaining the dramatic change in Yeasayer’s sound.
“The first record is so hazy, and a lot of that is what we wanted, but a lot of it was that we were just learning, and messing around. We didn’t have a specific goal.”
A Brooklyn trio, feted as 2007’s buzz band, and as contenders for Vampire Weekend’s afrobeat crown, Yeasayer have moved on. The group make new-age psych-wave to dance to. At least on this record they do. Debut ‘All Hour Cymbals’ was a background for late-night deep ‘n’ meaningful conversations, all haunted howls and soulful beseechings, drowned in African beats and mysticisms. Surely the follow-up would be along the same lines? Not a chance. The trio turned their back on their former sound, and have wandered down a different sonic route. New LP ‘Odd Blood’ is clean-cut psych-pop. Where their debut was set in the desert of Burning Man festival, its follow-up takes place in the club and on the dancefloor. The tribal rhythms of tracks such as ‘Sunrise’ have been replaced by dancehall stylings and Timberlake beats (see ‘Love Me Girl’). ‘Odd Blood’ has, however, been a long time coming.
This is an excerpt from an article that appears in the March issue of Clash Magazine. Pick it up in stores from February 4th. You can read the full issue online HERE and subscribe to Clash Magazine HERE.
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Two years in the making, ‘Odd Blood’ is the product of touring, touring, and yes, more touring. Keating explains: “We put out that first record, and we were just touring non-stop for two years. I think that every time we tour people get to know us a bit more. Opportunities kept coming up and it was better to just keep working hard. It took us a long time to get to the point where anyone would come see us. We never thought anybody would hear the first record. And then, you know, we took some time off after touring and stuff; it’s really fun to clear your mind and focus on other things.”
While Keating admits that the tours were exhausting, there was a definite added benefit: they supplied the band with enough cash to do things exactly the way that they wanted to.
‘All Hour Cymbals’ was an album made in bedrooms, on days off, or late into the night. Recorded on laptops, through trial and error, over the course of time. “I don’t know if it’s ever that easy to make a record, but this one was easier. The first one was hard because we all had day jobs, like pretty hardcore working, and then working on the record at weekends, or during a day off. We had money this time. A lot more luxury to do it the way we wanted to do it. Because we were touring for such a long time with the first album. Building, building, building. And then we signed with these new labels [Secretly Canadian and Mute], it allowed us to make this album the way we wanted to.” The group rented out a house in upstate New York, and built a studio from the house. Over a three-month period, ‘Odd Blood’ was born.
Chris begins to explain the group’s selection process when tracklisting the album: “We work as a group, but people have done individual demos by themselves, and we just work through it together. I’ve had some stuff that I liked slammed dead, stuff that was a lot simpler, more direct, very beat-heavy stuff. I’ll put it on my own album. I mean, I’ll probably do something eventually, just because it’s fun.”
Ira Wolf Tuton, the band’s bassist, joins the conversation. “I think there’s a lot of ideas that didn’t make it on the album. I think it’s part of the working process. I feel like this album and any extra tracks came out of the same headspace, and whatever we do for the next album, will come out of a different headspace again.” Was there a specific concept behind the album? Keating begins: “I think to some extent, every album is sort of a loose concept. It just depends how much you want to talk about it. Anand [Wilder, guitarist] did a musical, a rock opera, about coal miners. The thing about concept albums is that they’re linked lyrically, and that’s not what we did. We kind of put certain things to the forefront for example, not being satisfied with earthly, organic sounds. We wanted to make it sound like it was from the future. Future singularitarian robot people.”
“And, as far as concepts go, we were trying to use a shorter form of songwriting,” Tuton concludes. “They’re more direct. Clearer.”
Words by Ailbhe Malone
