Yard Act Find Hope In 'Dark Days'
"As I descend to hell with a shit-eating grin on my face..."
Leeds band *Yard Act* have shared their new single 'Dark Days'.
The group have noted an uncanny pattern - each time they put a new single on sale, it sells out within a few hours.
Fourth 45 'Dark Days' was given a 1000 strong pressing - their most ambitious yet - and every copy was snapped up in record time.
Online now, it's a post-punk spasm that feels uncannily accurate for these dystopian days.
Sitting somewhere between Gang Of Four's ultra-brittle guitar lines, spacious dub bass lines, and Mark E Smith half-spoken lyrics, it references Children Of Men while searching for some slim, slender element of hope.
"I had the blues and I can't shake them loose," chants James Smith - "it's a never-ending cycle of abuse..."
He explains: "With 'Dark Days' I wrote the first verse and chorus hook quite fast but then I didn’t know how to finish it."
"The demo Ryan sent was ace, real sparse. The drums were really driven but the bassline felt like it was suspended mid air in the verses, like a dub bassline or something. It created the illusion that you have time to stop and look around amidst the ensuing chaos. It's like in war films when all the noise stops and you just hear the protagonist's heavy breathing whilst they survey their surroundings in slow motion. Then the chorus hit with this ‘Captain Caveman’ vibe, it reminded me of that stop-motion cartoon from the 90's GOGS if anyone remembers that? I liked the juxtaposition of the bleak world with the cartoon bass line."
"Despite all the advances humanity has made, the threat of devolution feels increasingly possible in the modern world, and on my bad days when I’m spiralling I can’t help but get trapped in my own head envisioning this post-apocalyptic future we’re seemingly headed toward, so fuck knows why I decided to watch Children Of Men when I was feeling like that. If I’d fully remembered what happened in it, I don’t think I would've in the middle of a pandemic, but I did, and I actually came away feeling really uplifted by the ending. I saw hope in it, and it helped me finish the story."
Next stop? A debut album, they tell us...
Check out 'Dark Days' below.
Photo Credit: *James Brown*
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