Messed!Up
They’re one of many guitar bands knocking the teeth out of the UK the last years and building a massive reputation for their sheer ferocity on stage. With one EP, a few singles, loads of gigs in the UK, and supporting acts as Drenge, Kasabian and Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, YONAKA signed with major record label Atlantic last year leaving the door open for a debut album in 2018.
Leaving UK for an extensive festival tour this summer, YONAKA’s Alex Crosby and lead singer Theresa Jarvis met up with Messed!Up at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark two days after they had a great gig experience at the Open’er Festival in Poland, and talked about the difficulty to break through in the UK and how they became signed to Atlantic Records, an interview ending up in a pinkie promise on being a Glastonbury headliner in five years.
Brighton four-piece YONAKA is yet another rising star on the UK indie rock scene and have already amassed a formidable reputation as one of the UK’s wildest live acts thus gaining an ever-growing fanbase, even outside the UK as the Open’er show made clear. For most people the success seems to be immediate, something happening overnight, but for Theresa and Alex it has rather been a gradual process of climbing up the ladder.
Continuing their walk down the road of fame and glory YONAKA announced a first major out of the UK festival tour this summer with loads of dates around Europe and in the UK, continuing in South and Central America later in the fall. But first they made a stop at one of Europe’s biggest and oldest festival in Denmark.
Touring Europe at last
Welcome to the Roskilde Festival. First time in Denmark I guess?
Alex: Yes it is! We’ve never been here before or anywhere else in Scandinavia.
It has been a very successful two-year period for you and signing with Atlantic last year must’ve been the major thing happening for Yonaka. Tell us about how the band feels after three rather successful years.
Theresa: It’s weird because it doesn’t feel that it has been going that fast (laugh).
Alex: We’ve been doing it a long time and compared to some bands it has been going very quickly but when you live in it every day it feels like it’s gradually going up, it didn’t happen overnight.
Theresa: It feels good though, especially this year when we travelled a bit more compared to last year or when we started and only played the UK. We love the UK but we want to get out and explore a little bit and so far it’s been amazing. This is just in the start of the festivals in Europe this summer and we’ll be going around a lot.
Alex: Lots of European festivals, and it’s really nice to get out of UK for a little bit.
But is this the first time you leave the UK?
Theresa: No, but this summer is the first time we’re traveling around Europe a little bit more, before that we’ve just been in Holland, and it’s nice to get around to new places again.
Have you been surprised of the sudden attention you’ve got?
Alex: I was really surprised when we played Poland’s Open’er Festival, that’s the best show we’ve ever done. I’ve never been to Poland before and it was amazing with all the people turning up!
Like most British bands I guess you want to end up at the Glastonbury Festival?
Theresa: Yes, but I’ve never been to Glastonbury actually.
Alex: But this [Roskilde Festival] is slightly equivalent, right?
Signing to Atlantic Records and an upcoming debut album
With their mix of heavy guitar riffs, British indie rock, pop pieces and even that kind of hip hop tunes making lead singer Theresa Jarvis sound like Gwen Stefani at her peak in No Doubt as a colleague of mine expressed it, YONAKA are one of the most exciting additions on the scene. It’s fresh and it’s something completely new, built on pieces of the old music artifacts that remains from the nineties but coated in a ’10th decade suit.
Having the reputation of delivering live shows of “biblical experiences”, it didn’t take long until YONAKA were discovered in the upper sphere of labels. Atlantic Records, home turf for bands as Death Cab For Cutie and Ed Sheeran, found a video on YouTube and in short YONAKA were signed to a major label. However, it could have ended already at the start when they celebrated their deal by getting completely wasted before a show – which Atlantic happen to attend.
You’ve gained much attention in the UK but in the rest of Europe not many know about you yet. How did you guys end up playing together?
Theresa: We’ve been friends for something like seven years, we met in Brighton, and were all doing different things in different projects and stuff like that before we got together in this, and it instantly felt “Shit, this is good” (laugh). We just carried on and love it!
And last year you were signed to Atlantic Records. How did it happen that they discovered you?
Theresa: They found us on YouTube apparently, a clip from a concert. I thought the whole YouTube thing was a lie like “No one finds people on there”, but they found us.
Alex: Something that somebody filmed on their iPhone when we played in Bristol.
Theresa: We signed to them and then we got so fucking drunk, and later that night we had a show and they came to the show, and I bet they were like “What have we done” because we played so bad, really, really bad.
Alex: And we were like “What is going on, what have we done” (laugh)! But it’s alright, we don’t get drunk anymore, at least not on stage (laugh).
Your music is quite a mix between rock, pop, metal and dark rock that at times goes down well among goth friends of mine. Try to describe a bit of your influences and the development of your sound so far.
Alex: I guess it’s just a response to what we all listen to, and we all listen to different kinds of music. Isn’t everyone like that now? Everyone listen to everything and makes music out of it. But if we like something we probably put it in there (laugh).
And how will the debut album sound then?
Theresa: The album will be out next year.
Alex: This year is going to see two EP’s, just shorter records, no album but we’re planning for the album.
Theresa: And we’re going to release a single later this month.
It wasn’t supposed to be released this year?
Theresa: We’re not there yet. Musically, we worked with lots of stuff but we don’t have the foundation we need yet. We want to put it out and not be forgotten but still keep building on it until it’s time.
Alex: We got more than enough material for an album but we keep writing and feel like the music keeps getting better and better.
Atlantic have quite an artist roster with major bands as Ed Sheeran, Missy Elliot and Death Cab For Cutie to mention a few. Do you feel any pressure to follow in these footsteps?
Theresa: I feel that we’re kind of a wild card because they don’t really have any guitar music on their roster, not that much anymore. We’re a wild card because we have different things in our music, crossovers to different genres that would be new to them.
The difficulties of breaking in the UK
The arrival of the Internet era in general and streaming services in particular changed the conditions to partake on the music scene in more than one way. At the bright side no one could any longer tell us what kind of music we should listen to by limiting the market to what record labels picked for us. Online opportunities simply meant that most who were able to record something also could release it and as such bands and artists as Adele was found on MySpace, just like the Arctic Monkeys, and Ed Sheeran started on YouTube. It’s simply the best tool to reach “ultimate democracy” in terms of music listening. Just think of the many opportunities you have today.
However, on the downside is the massive increase in artists and bands that led to a huge competition about music fans. Standing out of the crowd of those hundreds of thousands of new bands that came with “online democracy” involves completely new models for releasing music, reaching fans, getting airplay and to get some sort of support to break free from some of the many chors you have as a DIY band – as 99% of all bands start out.
In the UK the competition between bands might even be tougher to face because of its history as one of the major music countries. Theresa and Alex point out that work in YONAKA is a neverending job taking its toll, but it’s also good in the end. Being from Brighton with its history of great indie bands as Blood Red Shoes, The Kooks, The Go! Team and everything done by Norman Cook might even come with greater pressures.
The Brighton music scene has been successful for a lot of years with bands as Blood Red Shoes, The Kooks and everything around Norman Cook. Do you feel pressure to lead the way for a new generation of bands or do you get help from the reputation Brighton has?
Theresa: We get more help from it. It’s quite nice to have that kind of competition I would say, it’s not really pressure. And it’s nice to come together with your friends as well and enjoying it together.
How is the local scene in Brighton for bands at your level? Is it a supporting environment for bands in terms of community and venues to play?
Alex: There’s quite a few to play, there’s a lot of smaller underground clubs.
Theresa: I think there’s just one big venue, it’s the Brighton Centre isn’t it (turning to Alex), and the rest are quite small venues but it’s nice
We’ve made a series of interviews with new bands from the UK the last year and always end up in a discussion on how difficult it is to break through in the UK – there’s just too many bands compared to how it looks like in other countries. You cannot of course compare, but what are your reflections as up-and-comers in the UK? How much do you need to work for attention?
Theresa: Very, very hard. We don’t really have a day off, it’s a constant process. You don’t leave like you go to work and then you come home and chill a bit, it’s constant which is good in the end.
Alex: And you have to, you have to be on it every day. You do have to make sacrifices like in your social life. We still get to see our friends but it’s very rare and it’s hard to make plans when you put all you got in it, it takes it all.
And playing live as much as possible is the best way to stand out of the crowd of bands in the UK?
Theresa: Yes, it’s all about playing live in our band because records and stuff don’t sell much anymore and playing live is mainly the thing that helps us.
Playing live has for many bands become the way to reach out to an audience and you play lots of festivals this summer, but how important is festival shows compared to ordinary club tours?
Alex: It’s a major chance to get in front of new people, people who just happened to be passinng by and hear you. We played in front of 2 000 people in Poland.
Theresa: It’s nice because you’re put in a place where there’s so many people to see so much different music, and you get a chance to play for all these different people who may not have heard of you so it’s really important for us.
Do you get more attention on festivals abroad than in the UK?
Theresa: We’ve never been to many of these places we play now, the festivals, and don’t really know what to expect but when there’s lots of people we’re like “What the fuck” and get surprised. In the UK it’s getting better as well. It definitely took some time.
Alex: We’ve just done a few European shows but it’s been really successful and great so far. It’s a great opportunity to win over new fans.
Speaking of playing live; you’ve built a great reputation by doing lots of wold and energetic shows and have been supporting one of our favorite bands, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. How much inspiration do you get from being a support band to acts as Frank Carter in terms of how to perform on stage?
Alex: Really important, you learn a lot from those tours. We played with The Amazons earlier this year and Don Broco, and we did Kasabian for a few weeks ago.
Theresa: Just watching them was really inspiring. You know, you watch it and then you’re like “Shit, I can do that” and then you take little things from everyone because you’re like “Fuck this is good, I want to look like that, I want to do that”.
A pinkie promise on headlining Glastonbury 2023
To wrap things up, what’s the next step for Yonaka? What’s the ambition for 2018?
Theresa: Release more music and then travel a bit, we’re going to South America and Mexico in November. We’re just going to spread the word (laugh), keep doing what we doing. We need space to grow basically.
Considering your festival tour, do you think this will be the major breakthrough year for Yonaka?
Alex: Fingers crossed!
Theresa: I hope so, I really hope so. It feels like it’s growing, especially when you get around to different countries and you realize “Shit, people are singing in the verses”, so it’s nice.
Last, how big will Yonaka be in five years?
Theresa: Massive! Gigantic! (laugh)
Alex: Headlining all the festivals! (laugh)
So if I go to Glastonbury in five years I will see you at the Pyramid stage?
Theresa: You will see us, promise! Let’s do a pinkie promise [and we did].
Photographer: ©Martin Wilson
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