You And What Army Band Interview

Telford-based electro-rock band You and What Army describe themselves as "having unforgivingly catchy trance synths that soar over tectonic-plate-shatteringly heavy guitar riffs, dancefloor-destroyingly awesome basslines and lowrider-cruisingly phat beats, with the narrated apocalypse rapped, sung and screamed wildly into the fray." That's one massive claim, so BritEvents' Lucy Middleton catches up with the four piece band to find out more about their epic sound.

You and What Army band interview

By Lucy Middleton, BritEvents.com

Combining rock, rap, rave and metal to create an intergalactic sound like no other, four piece band You and What Army are taking over the UK by storm.

Reaching an enviable level of success and performances at prestigious festivals including Download, Sonisphere and T in the park, You and What Army and BritEvents' Lucy Middleton talk of insane gigs, Katy Perry, giant lasers and the apocalypse, amongst other things.

Recently returning home from performing at Sonisphere, I met vocalist and programmer David Brown and drummer Zak Hammond for a coffee and a catch up.

How was Sonisphere and what was the highlight of the festival for you guys?

Zak: Sonisphere was great, we were on early on the Saturday yet we packed the tent out despite performing the same time as Gallows and Architects. We had everything against us but the fans still showed up and we couldn't have thanked them enough! That definitely was the highlight for us but we especially enjoyed watching Limp Bizkit and Slipknot put on amazing shows. We also caught up with Kids In Glass Houses who we toured with last year, we watched their set and we were impressed with the new songs from their newest album. We generally had an awesome weekend of meeting new people, having fun and we even had dinner with Bill Bailey!

You've always been a great band to watch live due to your energy and insane antics - what's the craziest show you've ever played?

Dave: I think the craziest one for me had to be the Underage Festival we did during the Red Bull Bedroom Jam tour. The band before us played to about ten people on this pagoda in the middle of the festival where no one seemed to be hanging about, and when we took to the stage, literally about five hundred kids swarmed around and started attacking each other. Our guitarist, Kieran, jumped in the middle of this and I didn't see him again until the end of the show.

Zak: Out of the festivals that was definitely the most memorable for us. In terms of gigs, I'd say the one we did in Mexborough. We hadn't even heard of the place and thought it was in mainland Europe at first. And when you come off the motorway, there's just fields upon fields.

Dave: Have you ever seen the film The Village? It was like that, completely cut off.

Zak: So we played there and the kids were absolutely crazy. There was scaffolding rig that started shaking while we were playing and everything was about to fall off it so we had to stop the gig for a bit.

Dave: There's been so many, but those are just a few of the highlights.

What was your vision when you first formed YAWA?

Dave: I basically wanted to run around on stage wearing a lab coat and needed some sort of reason to do it. So far I've managed to do that infront of three thousand people but I'm trying to break that record. Definitely nothing to do with music.

Zak: Same really, Dave told me he wanted to do that and I said, "Do you need a drummer? 'Cos I'll start learning!" and that was it.

How would you describe YAWA in five words?

Dave: Fifty Cent raving to Cannibal Corpse, if you count 'to' as a non-word. Actually that's probably too heavy. Zak?

Zak: Umm... Really really really good... and messy.

Being unsigned means you have lacked the potential restrictions placed on bands by record labels, do you feel this has allowed you more creative freedom?

Dave: I think so, from what we've seen of other bands, they've always been forced to change small aspects of their sound and refine it to what their record label thinks will sell. But we just always go with what we feel like and I think it's just the new culture, I think the internet has massively inspired that and now so many bands are able to do whatever they want. Without a label's backing, it's more fun.

Zak: It's so much more rewarding to do it all yourself too, because if it's all handed to you on a plate by these large labels, in some cases you can feel it's just manufactured just because of who these people know. Whereas we can say everything we've got has been off our own backs; we're actually getting somewhere because of our talent and reputation, not because Bob knows Bill, you know?

Dave: And you learn a lot from doing it yourself, like maybe some of the labels have a point in saying that if you want to sell records to a massive audience you have to do it in a certain way, but I think you've got to learn some of these things yourself rather than being told them.

Zak: We're sure there are some good record labels out there, I remember when we first formed we thought we had to get management, a record deal and all these things to be successful. Yet as the days went on and we've gotten to where we are now, we're looking at it in a different way and saying we've got this far without it, how much further can we get?

You've recorded and produced all your EPs to date, and it's likely that if you were signed you wouldn't be able to do that, would you?

Dave: I produce all the music in my home studio and once again that's been a massive learning experience for me. If you listen to our first EP Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, the recording quality is pretty dire, if I'm honest. But as we learn more and bring out more, we're getting prouder of what we've got.

What made you want to cover Katy Perry's song E.T. and do you reckon she'd like your version?

Zak: I reckon she'll love our version.

Dave: Yes, I agree. I am a massive pop music fan and particularly love the work of Max Martin who is the guy behind the vast majority of hits from the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Pink and Katy Perry. Max Martin worked on the E.T. track, I heard a noisier version of it and it was the heaviest thing I'd ever heard in my life! After hearing that, we just had to do something with it, it has a gorgeous melody in the chorus and when it came out as a single, it was our chance to capitalise on it. If you get yourself a little bit of a presence on Youtube, you can get so many new fans, it's one of the best resources to get people to hear your music.

It has been speculated that Dave would lose his magical beat-making powers if he lost his long, silky locks and lab coat, is this true?

Dave: Yes.

Zak: Dave's nothing without the hair and a lab coat.

Dave: Without them, I'm just a white rapper and nobody likes white rappers. But with the lab coat, I'm Dave from You and What Army! I joke, there are some awesome white rappers.

Lucy: You've just announced your own kryptonite there.

Dave: Yes, now let's not encourage people, particularly drunk drummers with scissors.

Zak: I'd never do such a thing!

Space and the apocalypse are recurrent themes in your music, do you believe the world will end in 2012?

Dave: I don't know, I mean I saw that film and some people survived!

If YAWA's music was turned into a Las Vegas show spectacular, what crazy things would you demand be included in it?

Zak: Elvis' corpse.

Dave: I knew he'd say that. I would want Dizzee Rascal peddling around on a unicycle while playing a ukulele. I'd definitely want one big laser, you know how lasers tend to be a tiny beam of focused light? I was thinking that the whole stage could be just one huge beam of focused light that would threaten to blind people if they looked, so that it'd be more of a challenge than a simple live show.

Zak: Strobe light glasses that are like 3D glasses but strobe lighting that could be seen through the giant laser. Show girls, plenty of show girls too, but only around the drums though.

Dave: It would be like a scene from the Transformers movie without Shia Lebeouf, we'd be happy with all that.

When meeting bands with a large, established fanbase such as YAWA, there's always an element of trepidation; almost an expectation that they are going to have the clichéd ego associated with rock stars. That expectation isn't often a reality, but at the same time, it isn't a cliché for nothing.

However, after meeting Dave and Zak, one of Dave's quotes sums up their attitude perfectly - "Finding happiness in life is like finding the cold part of the pillow; sooner or later your hot-headedness will ruin it and you'll have to start looking all over again."

The YAWA lads are really down-to-earth and passionate about helping others achieve their goals, to the point where Dave has a tutorial site dedicated to teaching others how to make electro music, Boy in a Band. It's really refreshing to see and I have no doubt in my mind that YAWA are going to go far.

You can listen to You and What Army's Katy Perry E.T. cover below, so long as you promise to play it loud, and you can also keep up to date with the band's latest news by liking the official You and What Army Facebook page or by following them on twitter @youand_whatarmy.

You and What Army band interview FEATURE