Words by Ash Kissane

London band Yuck has been met with a whirlwind of hype since their debut in 2011, and praise that landed the new indie darlings an incredible year of gigs including festivals like Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds, Bestival and Primavera Sound. Since the release of their first album in February last year, they’ve played sold out shows across Europe and America, adding venues like New York’s Bowery Ballroom and The Scala in London to their repertoire, as well as an appearance on Later with Jools Holland. Max Bloom (guitar) and Daniel Blumberg (vocals, guitar) founded Yuck from their previous, now defunct, project Cajun Dance Party and a whole new direction that has spurred comparisons to Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. I had the pleasure of speaking to Yuck’s guitarist and songwriter Max Bloom from his London home, before the band cross the seas to play Laneway Festival here in Brisbane this month.

2011 was a massive year for you guys, the first album release in February then a huge tour, what was the highlight for you?
I think the highlight for me and I guess for everyone else was going to Japan. Playing shows generally has been exciting, just watching something grow. It’s been really hard work but Japan was really cool. It’s just an amazing place, really beautiful and I love how they appreciate the small things. I also appreciate small things. I think I have a lot in common generally with Japanese people.

From your touring so far, do think your music is best received there?
Not necessarily, I think it was fun being there. It depends, you can’t really tell. There was a good turn out, the Japanese audiences are really quiet and reserved but the best audiences aren’t always the ones that go completely nuts and jump around because sometimes that can be quite unpleasant. America’s been really good. We got to play a few really good shows and the crowds are really great particularly in New York and LA. The crowd in London was great. The UK is very friendly, it’s been really good.

So Daniel and yourself formed Cajun Dance Party, how did Yuck come together?
Yeah, Daniel (Blumberg) and I were in Cajun, I guess that kind of just fizzled out the way that bands normally do, different interests or whatever reason. I was playing bass in that band and I kind of wanted to be playing guitar, writing songs and I didn’t want to be in that band. So I was just playing some songs of my own and then Daniel heard some of them and really liked them so we tried doing some stuff together. Then, for like a year we just kind of sat around recording, like, twenty or thirty songs but when it came to performing live, we didn’t have a band. We knew Mariko (Doi), who plays bass, from around London so we got her around and showed her the parts and she was really good. Six months prior to this Daniel was in Israel visiting some friends and met Johnny (Rogoff) and they got talking and found they had similar musical interests. Then Johnny went back to New Jersey and Daniel came back to London and said, ‘I met this guy, he’s a great drummer’. So we found Youtube clips of him playing with his band in New jersey and we got in contact with him saying ‘no pressure, but if you wanna come over and play with us in the band and live in London, the offers there’. He was just starting University at this point; we didn’t actually expect him to do it. We asked him expecting nothing to happen, but he literally, like, three weeks later, was in London. He didn’t want to be at Uni at all, just dropped out immediately and moved to London and lived with me for like six months and now he’s just here. He just lives here now.

There has been a lot of hype surrounding you guys and talk of a 90s revivalist, shoegaze sort of sound, how would you describe your music?
Yeah I’m aware of those comparisons and they’re completely justified. The first album is an album born completely out of obsession. I was completely obsessed with guitar music. This was only a couple of years ago, I would only listen to music with guitars in it like guitars, bass, drum, vocals, I wouldn’t listen to anything else just because that’s what excited me at that point. It’s always difficult to describe your own music, I hate that ‘oh, this is electronic music’, ‘no, its house music’. I guess, loosely speaking, you could say its rock music, but the next album may or may not be classified like that.

You guys self-produced and recorded your debut album at home, did you have producing experience beforehand?
Yeah from where I am right now, but no, we were completely inexperienced. The only recording experience we had was recording ourselves in the most amateur way possible and also the cheapest way possible. We were recording onto a small digital 8-track and then mixing in Garage Band, which is like the free music software that you get on any Apple product. We had zero technical knowledge but we were refining our sound and knew how to record ourselves and how to make ourselves sound the way we wanted. We didn’t want to go and record in a studio just because there was really no point in doing that. At the beginning we had tried that and didn’t consider it to be any good so we kind of thought it would make more sense to do what had essentially always been doing, which was just recording in my bedroom. We’ve grown a lot since that point but I think an interesting recording can happen when you’re not necessarily trying to record. If you’re recording in a studio where millions of bands have passed throughout the years and hundreds of bands are using the same equipment and playing in the same room and stuff it becomes a little bit soulless over time. If you’re recording somewhere like your room, it’s not the best acoustic environment but the result is going to be different. I think also the fact that we knew nothing about recording is something you can hear and it makes it a little more interesting I guess.

When you were first writing material and recording, did you have any ideas in mind how you wanted to sound?
It was just trial and error entirely. This album is complete trial and error. There are kind of two different types of album, there’s a collection of songs that have been grouped together or an album that has been written from start to finish as a cohesive whole. The first album was a collection of songs that were grouped together which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing at all, I like albums like that. We didn’t have any direction and you can kind of hear that on the album. Unintentionally it goes from one thing to another sporadically, in loads of different directions. We weren’t necessarily focused, we definitely didn’t sit down and discuss what we wanted to sound like, it was something far more instinctive. Just the feeling of wanting to be something or when we had a song or felt inspired we just acted on instinct and record it straight away.

Last year you played some major European festivals like Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds, Bestival and Primavera Sound, which was your favourite festival to play at?
We all enjoyed Primavera in Barcelona. I don’t really like festivals, they’re kind of gross and muddy and I don’t like camping and whatever. But this isn’t a camping festival, it was on solid concrete, there was no mud, which was nice and the weather was really good. They literally had the best bands, if you like that kind of music then it’s the perfect festival. They had bands like Pulp, Explosions in the Sky and The Black Angels. Every single band was just unbelievable, bands that you would pay a lot to see individually and they were all in one place. The fact that we were on the bill was very special for us. We got to play a gig in front of a lot of people and we didn’t expect that at all. We were the first band on and there were loads of people, we just didn’t expect that. It ended up being a really amazing trip.

So you were playing huge festivals, as well as sold out shows across Europe, and then Later with Jools Holland, how was it playing a TV gig for such a massive show?
That was so freaky. So, so, so scary. I mean I watch Jools Holland, when I found out I was so, so happy. Actually being there and playing was just a massive mind fuck. You watch this on TV every week and suddenly you’re in that place. There was a day of rehearsal beforehand and everything there was really carefully organized. I was so freaked out and everyone was late, I was so pissed off. We had to meet at this studio in North London and they were all late and I was like ‘what the fuck, why are you late?’ like, unbelievable. It was the rehearsal on the day and if you missed it the camera guys couldn’t plan what they would do with their camera angles but we made it with a minute to spare. A minute later they would have had to move on. Actually doing it I was so nervous, especially because it’s live. Every minute was kind of disbelief, like, ‘I can’t believe this is actually happening, I’m gonna fuck up’. I was really drunk at the time, that’s the only way I could get through the nerves.

Are there any bands that have impressed you lately?
I really like Wilco’s new album. There’s also a band called The War on Drugs that I think are really good. Also, there’s this band based in London called Fanzine who are really amazing. They write incredible pop songs. And Gross Magic, they supported us with Fanzine on our UK tour.

Have they been your favourite bands to tour with so far?
Yeah they’re lovely boys. The Fanzine guys are hilarious. I’ve really liked all the bands we’ve gone on tour with. The Smith Weston’s have made probably my favourite album of the year, I think it’s unbelievable. We got to tour with Tame Impala as well and that was really nice. Also, Unknown Mortal Orchestra from New Zealand, do you know those guys?

Yeah, they toured here last month.
Yeah I think their album is really good as well.

Are there any musicians that inspire you personally?
I really like George Harrison. I’ve always been really into The Beatles, but I think all things must pass. His first solo album is one of my favourite albums. He’s always been a really inspiring guitarist.

We’ll see you guys in Brisbane for Laneway Festival at the end of the month, what else does 2012 have in store for Yuck?

Yeah, I guess writing and recording a new album and also playing a few shows. Mainly writing and recording though.

Originally posted on Moustache Magazine.