Yearbook is an up and coming alternative rock band based in and around London. They sound like a crazy mix of every band you ever got obsessed with as a kid and put on a formidable live show, as witnessed last month as they supported The Xcerts at their special, one-off album show at the Borderline. They’re also heading out with The Xcerts again in December, so they’ve obviously already won over some Scottish admirers.
Already Heard recently spoke to Andy Halloway from the band who told us a little bit more about Yearbook, their sound and influences, as well as the experience of playing a show with legendary skater band OPM.
Already Heard: Firstly, who are you and what do you do in the band?
Andy: Hello, I am Andy and I sing/shout/scream/wail and play the guitar at the front in Yearbook. Some would call me a front man, other would argue I am neither at the front (in the symbolic sense, not the literal sense, I am most likely in front of everyone on stage), nor a man.
AH: For new listeners, can you describe your sound and who would you compare it to?
Andy: Hard question. I like to think we sound a bit like Brand New and Biffy Clyro beating up Bloc Party, Jimmy Eat World and Radiohead down a dark alley. It’s a pretty vague description I know but our sound is a pretty odd sort of mash up of loads of different things that we all like so it’s hard to really describe it. We have been compared to just about everyone you can imagine though, from Tool and Frank Zappa all the way through to The Arctic Monkeys and Weezer.
AH: Are you influenced by any of those comparisons?
Andy: Yes. Yes we are. Hopefully not by any one in particular though. That would just make us some dreadful covers band. The Antarctic Monkeys or Woozer or something like that.
AH: I picked up a CD at The Xcerts show a few weeks ago, how did that EP (‘All Squares and Circles’) come about?
Andy: Well we had been playing most of the songs on the EP for quite a while so we decided to go into a studio to get them down on record. We left the studio with four tracks fully tracked. In the time between the us finishing the tracks and the producer dropping off the final mixes, we ended up writing ‘Have Patience’ and deciding it was so good that it would of been a shame for it not to be on the EP. We ended up going back for another two days to record that one song! (the other four tracks were done over four days). We were not sure how to release it but we ended up doing a limited run of physical copies (all of which sold out) and putting the EP up for free download (musicglue.com/yearbook/downloads). Everyone seemed to like it so we carried on writing music!
AH: Also, we notice that you played with OPM (‘Heaven is a Halfpipe’ legends) this weekend? How did that come about?! And more importantly how was it?
Andy: A mate of ours who promotes in our town decided to put them on as they were doing a UK tour and had a free date. As with everyone our age we remember ‘Heaven is a Halfpipe’ being the biggest and coolest song in the world in the early 2000’s so when the chance to play the show came up we thought it would be a fun one to play and went for it.
As for how it went? It was surprisingly good. At first I was unsure how good OPM would be since one hit wonder bands are always a bit… shit but they actually put on a really good show. They seemed to enjoy our band as well so you never know; you might see a ‘Yearbook X OPM’ tour one day.
AH: What have Yearbook got coming up in the future?
Andy: Well currently we are in the process of writing some new stuff, as the EP came out a couple of years ago and we need to play some new stuff live before we all go insane. We have some more shows hopefully being booked as we speak. If you keep an eye on our Facebook or our Twitter then anything we have coming up will be announced there first!
AH: Finally why should readers give Yearbook a listen?
Andy: Because we are a good band. Simple as that really. We don’t sound like anything else you’ve ever heard and our music is pretty much all free to download. What have you got to lose!
‘All Squares and Circles’ by Yearbook is available as a free download on Music Glue.
Yearbook links: Facebook|Twitter|Tumblr|Music Glue
Words by Tom White.