London’s Yuck has been setting the blogosphere afire over the past few months after the release of their self-titled debut record arrived in February. The band’s use of throwback guitar work stirs up indie nostalgia from such 90’s giants as Built to Spill and Superchunk. Yet pigeonholing them would be an injustice, as their varying record ranges from hook-heavy head nodders such as “Get Away” to poignant, slow tracks like “Suicide Policeman”. Amidst stops at SXSW, NYC, London and a host of shows along a new tour with Tame Impala, frontman Daniel Blumberg spoke to us while working on some mix tapes for an EP he made last year.

Apes on Tape: So how did your record deal with Fat Possum originally come about? And how has that arrangement been going for you guys thus far?

Daniel Blumberg: It’s really really good, they’re a really great label to be working with right now. They’ve got lots of energy with the stuff they’re doing. They’re putting out great records and they understand what we want to do.

AoT: Have you got to interact with many of the other artists on the label?

DB: We toured with Smith Westerns in January, so we got to interact with them then.

Without harping on the College-Rock radio influences too much, could you cue us in on some of your favorite records from that era?  [Dinosaur Jr.’s] You’re Living All Over Me, [Built to Spill’s] Perfect From Now On, [Sonic Youth’s] Daydream Nation or earlier Superchunk perhaps?

I actually haven’t listened to too much Built to Spill or Superchunk, personally. I think Johnny and Max are really, really into those bands though. Because we listen to a lot of different records, you might listen to our record and say “it sounds like this and that” and one person in the band might be really into that band for a few weeks or it might be one of their favorite bands. But I get really into stuff and listen to it, go through phases of constantly listening to it. At the moment I’m listening to a lot of the Replacements. Bands that I go back to a lot are Red House Painters and Landshop. There are certain bands that I listen to again and again. And there are some bands that you love so much when you first hear their album and maybe you constantly listen to their albums. And then you won’t listen to them in ages.

Definitely. Have you seen a difference in the way your music has been received in the UK versus the US? And I know this isn’t your first time making/releasing music, so have you seen a difference in that regard with Yuck as compared to earlier endeavors like Cajun Dance Party?

It’s quite difficult to say. I mean we have been on tour. So for example when our record came out, we were in the UK the day it came out. And we were playing at a venue which was on the same road as loads of record shops. So it was like, “oh, our record has actually physically arrived”, which was kind of weird, because it was exciting to have a record out, but more just exciting to actually see it, the package and the artwork that you’ve worked on for ages. And then you’re holding something that’s come about. And I guess the difference then, most notably, is when you’re at shows or seeing if an audience is responding, you might suddenly realize that the difference between touring now and the times when we were touring last year, we were just starting then and now we’ve got a record out. I guess people have been enjoying it in a different way. We just did a tour in Europe and it was our own shows, so that was quite nice. But I think America has the best community of music lovers, it seems. Obviously it’s a big place, say compared to the UK. In the UK, it’s quite a small community. For example in London, there’s ATP and those shows are amazing. I went to one last night to see Deerhunter, and it was really great. And I went the other night too. And there are others in Manchester too. But it seems in America, while we’ve only toured once, that every place we went there seems to be a great spirit

 

On that note, and maybe I should’ve asked this first, how did SXSW go for you guys?

We played like ten shows in three days, so it was very busy. We’re quite used to being busy on different levels, though I’m exhausted at the moment from doing things that are very static. Sort of thinking about, right now, last weekend in London, I was doing too many things probably, but that’s stuff like booking and such, which is exhausting in its own way. But SXSW is exhausting in a physical, moving way, you know you’re doing four shows in a day, but then your moving your equipment around, rushing and running around. It was really great though, it was kind of weird there, with so many bands that you would want to see, that I was really excited to see. But I didn’t get around to see any music at all. But the shows, most of them, were really great. There was a real variety of shows we were doing.

And are you pretty excited about the rest of your American dates that are coming up in a few weeks?

Well, I was excited about playing when we got to SXSW. And I’ll be excited when we’re in LA and starting the first show with Tame Impala. I think the whole band is very excited about touring with them.

Yeah I was just going to ask about that. From my perspective that seems awesome, but it sounds like you guys are pretty big fans too then?

Yeah we were listening to their album in the van on the European tour and it’s really great.

And how did that tour come about? How did it get setup that you’d play with Tame Impala?

I don’t really know, honestly. When we have shows, it’s very important that we play with bands that we really like. I know we got asked to do it, though I’m not sure of the exact sort of e-mail technicalities, who wrote who and so. But we spoke with Fat Possum and they asked if we wanted to do the tour and we were like “yeah, definitely”

The gear list you used for the album is pretty minimal. Was that because of resource limitations or did you just find a comfortable setup with what you had?

Yeah, we did it on a digital 8 track. It’s like a TASCAM, it’s just an all-in-one, it masters everything for you.

Did you just do that because you were more comfortable doing it yourselves? Or was it because resources were limited and you were just trying to get a record out?

I think it was a mixture, to be honest. Because we were pretty set on making a record once we realized we had the songs to make a full record. I think until you’ve released something, there’s always the possibility you can change it or dwell upon it, which is definitely not what we wanted to do, like dwell on things at this stage. Because we’re a new band qe want to make music and I think when Fat Possum came, it was exciting because we knew we were actually going to get it in shops and tour it. Which is different from what we necessarily expected.

So did you guys finish the record yourselves then give it to Fat Possum and they released it after?

Yeah, we didn’t really have anyone involved, I think we signed before, well we had already made it then we signed to Fat Possum afterwards. I think also with producers or in-studio, we were uncomfortable. We tried a studio once, and it was just obviously not right. And a producer is something like, “do I want this person, another person involved?” which is quite a big decision. And equipment wise, we had been recording using this method before, so it was quite a refined method. It’s not like I would recommend, “oh, this is an amazing 8-track”. It’s just what we had, so we used it. And we had a way of doing it, where Max particularly had a way of recording in his parents house, which is what we’d been doing for ages. So it wasn’t something we had to put a lot of thought into. We knew what the sound would be like, you know, if we mic’d up the guitar. There were decisions like that. We did do the drums in a studio, a small studio near where we lived. We didn’t do that ourselves.

In the future would you like to stick with home-recording and doing it yourselves, or do you think you will move more towards a studio/producer setup?

It depends completely on what we do, what we write and what opportunities come. We like producers, certain producers. And maybe if we write songs that we want to record in that fashion, we’d do it. It’s not like “we’re gonna do every record ourselves! Let’s stick to what we’ve got”.

Are there certain producers in mind that you’d have at the top, or is would you just look into what arises when the opportunity comes?

I am big fan of Jimmy O’Rourke. That’s sort of shootin’ for the stars. And Mark Nevers always makes great sounding records.

Concerning guitar pedals, you’ve got quite the impressive arsenal there. Was that a slow work in process to develop all those sounds, did you already have pretty established tones/pedal chains coming into the band?

No, it was definitely a learning thing. Especially for me, because I sort of really started playing guitar when I started writing with Max, so it was relatively new instrument for me. By the time we got to the album and played live, it was about 6 months or something. It’s quite simple guitar, the main two guitars. It’s quite straight-forward. I guess it’s more about the amps and the guitars and the overdrive pedals.

And did you multi-track the guitars on the record or was it all just live, one-take, you and Max playing together?

We didn’t do it live, we did it one at a time, each track at a time.

What’s the distinction between Yuck and Yu(c)k? Was that just a spelling deal or is that a side project?

Oh yeah, that was the tape I released last year that was just four song that came out as a tape, like an EP.

Was that the one you were talking about working on earlier?

Yeah, it’s the same one. I’ve just finished an album which is probably come out probably like this summer, so at the moment, this week, I’m playing in London and Paris and New York and Nashville, before the Tame Impala tour.

And was that just all you, that you wrote and recorded yourself?

Yeah, that stuff as just my songs. But I changed the name because it was confusing people. So I’ve changed the name for the albums and shows. It was just [laughs] stupid to do it like that.

Doctors In My Bed by Yuck