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Music

Boyz 2 Men: The Yeasayer Story

We chatted with the boys—er—men about their upcoming release, growing up together, and One Direction.

Photos by Andrew Novell

Yeasayer’s recent London fan show was storming. Booming electric vibrations blasted through the players as they burned through tracks old and new. Seeing a band this good in a 300 person venue is a rare treat, and one that’s unlikely to occur again after the release of Yeasayer’s next record Fragrant World. It’s a brilliant effort, nearly devastatingly good at times, and will likely break them into deserved notice in the wider world. A taughter, more controlled album that absorbs and recontextualizes (in their words) noticeably further ranging influences than previous works into a piece that confidently throws down the gauntlet to the many bands that dared to try to ape their sophomore effort. Since Odd Blood’s 2010 release, almost every band in the world has brought in synth on some level, and Fragrant World shows them all just how masterfully it can be done. A pounding record with masterful beats, dirty synths, stunning twisted vocals and some pretty sick hooks; with this release, Yeasayer has, once again, truly raised the bar.

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When I arrived at the venue to speak to the band, two of the members, Anand and Ira, were horizontal on the sofas at the back—a stark contrast to their performance later. We had some idle chatter about laziness in general before Chris arrived and the conversation began in earnest.

So the contrast between the track titles, which are pretty gothic and bleak, and the record title, which has upbeat connotations, is interesting.
Chris: "Fragrance" is not necessarily a positive thing…

"Fragrance" isn’t positive to you?
Chris: Well you can say this boys' locker room is very fragrant.
Ira: Pungent. Foul.
Anand: Fragrance is Victorian. Maybe it was co-opted from the Victorian age and turned into something positive.

So you meant a "musky world?"
Anand: Fragrant does mean pleasant smelling.

Err… Okay. So when did you start writing Fragrant (Pungent) World?
Chris: On tour, we’d write. Started recording back in October.

Did you have a concrete idea of what you wanted the record to be or was it pretty free?
Chris: We just start coming up with ideas and they start collecting together to form an album. Some fit. Some didn’t.

Was the Italodisco influence one of the main ones?
Anand: That’s out already? Fuck, that’s quick. Yeah, that was really fun to do. I think Italodisco made a mark on a couple of the songs, like "Damaged Goods" and "Reagan’s Skeleton," but it wasn’t something that we wanted to necessarily fully immerse ourselves in. But it was definitely one influence that we wanted to recontextualize.

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What were some of the others?
Anand: A lot of Triangle Record bands that we were into. SBTRKT, Balam Acab. Electronic stuff we were into. James Blake and minimal electronic stuff coming out of England.

That’s pretty cool that those influences circle back into your sound, having all come up after you.
Ira: Yeah, we’ve been around in the UK since 2007 and we were always a little disappointed with the rock bands.
Anand: I feel English people have been disappointed.

Yeah, we were.
Anand: Then, suddenly, in the last 2 years. We went on tour with Bat For Lashes, which was really awesome and that was when we first heard like the xx, and it was like things are turning around in England.

You’re right, it does seem to have noticeably turned around about then. Before that, everyone was looking to New York, and that’s when your last record came out—at the peak of the Brooklyn hype band cycle.
Chris: We got lucky.
Anand: That’s why we’re moving to London right now. That’s where you have to be to make good music.
Ira: It’s great, because there should be a resurgence of good music here. Throughout the last 50 or 60 years of pop music, so much of the major influences on global music were, like, 60's, 70's, 80's British bands. It’s good to have the English perspective back.

How’s the new stuff been going down live?
Anand: We started touring end of June—middle of June.
Ira: I think, for a bunch of music, nobody’s heard it’s going well. I also think—well, approaching a record and approaching live stuff is two very different things, and every show is a learning experience and you’re constantly developing the show and honing it down. Maybe you do more of that in the beginning of tours, but hopefully, you continue to do that so there remains some dynamism to what can become very repetitive.
Anand: We’ve only been playing these songs for a month in front of people, so I still find it a wonderful challenge every night. Using these new pieces of machinery too.
Ira: No booing yet.
Chris: No chorus of booing.
Anand: It’s always fun to, like, interpret what people in the audience are doing. Like, if they’re onstage leaning over and looking at a set list, is that because they want to know what the new songs title is that we are playing right then? Or is that 'cause they want to see how soon you play a song they recognize? Or if they’re whispering to each other, is it because they like it?

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Do you think about anyone, those super keen fans or others, when you write?
Anand: I mean yeah, with a song like "Damaged Goods," I was definitely thinking about the band Health. When you see all these different bands on tour and you’re having all these conversations about composition and songwriting and sounds and stuff…For some reason, they were in the back of my head when I was writing that, and then for some reason, you think about someone else writing a song like "Light Asylum" or something. It’s an easy way to remove yourself from the objective.

But not something that would worry you. Do you ever get writer’s block?
Anand: Yeah. I can’t speak for everybody else, but for me, writer's block is like not sitting down in front of a computer and working on something, just choosing to do something else. Usually, if you actually sit down and work on something, then things will come.
Chris: I have days of unbearable laziness …
Anand: Back to what we were talking about…Where I can’t get back to wanting to do anything; it’s like, "I do not want to do this and I know it’s good for me and I know I’ll feel better if I come up with something, but still it’s getting out of that chair…"
Chris: Or if it’s a really nice day out, or I really want to see the Batman movie, I’ll have to get up and go to the movie theater, and you go out to the bar after and then the next day is fucked.
Anand: Yeah, 'cause when you’re fully immersed in working on something, you get this insane tunnel vision. You don’t want to talk to anybody you don’t want your wife to come into the room so you can just sit there for a like a week and not eat or drink or anything, and that’s a really fucked up way to live your life.

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Do you do that together or separately?
Anand: We write separately and the come together to work on the album, and once the album’s done, we come together to work on the live show and that transforms the songs even more.

Was there anything in particular that you came across on your downtime that influenced this record? Either personal changes or external experiences?
Chris: I think both. You’re always taking in influences. On tour, you go to museums or book stores or see headlines and write down things you like. Mostly from not musical sources. Stories you want to tell or things you want to express. They exist in the music.

So you’ve been doing this since 2005. You really have grown up together.
Anand: Well, you know, relationships just shift at different times and you have different relationships with each other. Even just the physical closeness. Having to live right next to each other at times.
Ira: Yeah, can you move away from me? This couch is not big enough for the one of us….Yeah, you know, that’s one of those questions. A lot of the time, we do an interview and it’s oh-so-singular about the band, whereas so much of what we do and so much of what we are is not in this circle.
Anand: I’ve never smashed a bottle against his head.
Ira: He’s wanted to, just not yet. We’ve got pretty good impulse control.

Well you seem very "together." This doesn’t seem like a hardship—hanging out together doing promo—though you seem like you might need a nap?
Ira: I just want to dry my laundry…My clothes never get dry.
Anand: I just want to buy a backpack. Know any good places?

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[Conversation goes off on backpack hunting tangent…]

The new songs sound a lot more grown up and sophisticated. Do you feel much wiser?
Anand: Yeah, though I kind of want to get back to something a little more primitive. More naïve.
Ira: Yeah, our next album’s going to be called Girls, Girls, Girls, Yeah, Friday, Friday, Whisky, The Weekend

That’s a Katy Perry song isn’t it?
Beaches, Beaches, Beaches, California….That’s the end of the interview, right?!

Yeah, that’s all I’m going to write. "Yeasayer is scrapping the about-to-be-released record and taking a new pop direction." Actually, do you listen to mainstream music, or charts?
Anand: I haven’t been thrilled by any Top 40 singing-melody song.

Are you even aware of what’s even in the Top 40?
Anand: Ira’s really good.
Ira: I am, but in a way that I’m just entertained and amazed. It’s not like, "Well, that’s an interesting way to produce…" It’s more like, "Holy shit! Is this really what we’re listening to right now?! Is this the biggest song right now?"
Chris: One Direction.

Yeah. That’s our (the English’s) fault.
Ira: It blows my mind. I mean, Adele is going to be the biggest selling record of all time, especially in a climate where people aren’t even selling records. How does that make sense? I don’t know.

When were you able to quit and focus on music alone? Did you ever have to do anything else?
Ira: Once the first album came out, like 2008, not right out of school. We had 4 years of working and trying to make it happen as a band.
Chris: I personally think I’ll be going back to [unintelligible]. Well, I can’t, I don’t have the skills.
Anand: You didn’t then…

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Do you ever produce for other people? Is that what you’d do if this all ended?
Yeah, eventually. It’s a good thing to do when you’ve stopped touring. When you physically can’t take touring. Eventually you just break down. The boredom. The bus. The being around 11 men all the time.
Ira: I thought I was a boy. I’m a man?
Anand: You’ve turned into a man…
Ira: Yeah, that’s what’s happened; I’ve turned into a man over the past 6 years.
Anand: Yeah, Boys to Men.

So there you have it: Yeasayer, the story of boys to men, for better or worse. Actually, definitely better. Go see them live and definitely go preorder the record, as it’s one of the best of the year.

Preorder: http://yeasayer.net/fragrantworld/
All live shows: http://yeasayer.net/fragrantworldtour/

Live Shows in UK and Europe:

Wed 11 July The Lexington
Thu 12 July The Lexington
Sun 16 Sep Berlin Astra
Mon 17 Sep Amsterdam
Tue 18 Sep Copenhagen
Wed 19 Sep Gothenburg
Thu 20 Sep Oslo Rockerfeller
Sun 23 Sep Cologne Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld
Mon 24 Sep Brussels Ancienne Belgique
Tue 25 Sep Paris La Gaite Lyrique
Thu 27 Sep London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Fri 28 Sep Glasgow Arches
Sat 29 Sep Manchester The Ritz
Sun 30 Sep Dublin Button Factory

@suzeolbrich