Tribal Gathering

Photo by Ben Rayner
 

STEPHEN SAYS: “It’s weird. They sound funny. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard in my life. I generally find out about new music through TV. I haven’t got a computer. Hopefully I’ll get one this year. I ordered Ballbreaker by AC/DC off Amazon once and it took about six months to get here.” Yeborobo are a big adorable mess. They’re one of these childhood friends bands that reads like the class in Saved By The Bell: the geek, the bully, the goth, the cool kid, the girl, the other geek. You just want to wrap this lot up in cotton wool and snuggle them. They all grew-up in Maidstone in Kent, formed an avant-garde art-rock collective and now entertain noisy nerds and arty squatters countrywide by writing and performing songs about life on the mean streets of Maidstone. Yes, they are a Northerner’s worst nightmare.

According to Yeborobo, in Maidstone there’s a triathlon obsessive called Enduro Man who swam to France, a deformed tramp called Pigsticks who stalks little children, and a giant floral sheep in the town centre. Excuse me, I feel a sketch from Little Britain coming on.

Vice: So do you all prowl around town in your face paint like a tribe?

Matt (guitars): Not intentionally, no.

Andrew (singer): The most adventurous we got was going to the petrol station after a gig. There was all these little girls in there who were like, “Wow, is that like UV rave paint?” And we’re like, “No it’s poster paint.” It’s really hard to find decent face paint these days.

You guys are all the rage on the art-squat scene, so presumably you’ve played some pretty peculiar shows?

Matt: Yeah, we played in a mental hospital once.

Rob: No, it was just one of those holistic therapy places.

Andrew: They were having a 24-hour music marathon for the summer solstice. My mum saw an advert up in the surgery and told us about it.

Who else was on the bill?

Matt: There was a really camp barbershop quartet, and a Scottish Highland-dancing group. We got to play at midnight. It was a great gig.

We hear Maidstone is where it’s at if you’re into noise?

Sophie (bass): Well, Maidstone is a really small place, so there’s not much of a music scene there.

Russell (guitars): And the only decent live music venue has just been turned into a gay club.

Andrew: We play down in Brighton a lot too, there’s a really good scene down there. But the squat gigs like the ones we play for the WOWOW collective up in Peckham are where we seem to go down best.

Matt: Did you know that “I am stoned” is an anagram of “Maidstone”?

ALEXANDER EATON
Yeborobo’s “I’m Magick, Gimme A Fiver” EP is out on Slightly Off Kilter Records soon. Check mentalistassociation.co.uk for more.