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ON THE COUCH WITH: Yves Klein Blue

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

AccessAllAreas.net.au: The band name Yves Klein Blue was inspired by a specific type of blue that was first mixed by French artist Yves Klein. What was the reasoning behind using this as your band’s name?
Sean: Ah, I thought you were going to quiz me on Yves Klein! I was going to say ‘Crap! I’m going to lose this quiz!’ But that’s okay. What was the reasoning? Which version do you want? The real version or the media version?

AccessAllAreas.net.au: Give me the real one.
Sean: Okay, I like the real one, too. We had a desk calendar, which was, like, a different artwork by a different artist everyday. And we just happened to be talking about band names, and that was the day: The day that Yves Klein’s Anthropométries was on the calendar. And International Klein Blue and we were like ‘Okay, Yves Klein Blue. Yeah, that’s cool.’ I think at first were like “Yeah, that’s okay. We’ll go with that for now” And then we never changed it and we kind of like it. It’s grown on me, at least. That’s the real version. We got it off a desk calendar and thought it sounded good. The media version is kind of like that the colour International Klein Blue never fades, and our reasoning was that we want to make music that never fades. We want to make stuff that hopefully has a timeless quality. And that’s true as well, but the reason why we ever knew about Yves Klein was because we saw it on a desk calendar.

AccessAllAreas.net.au: Is there ever any confusion about how the name is pronounced?
Sean: [Laughs] Yeah yeah, we get some great ones. Our first t-shirts was all these different spellings and ways to say Yves Klein Blue. So, like, ‘Yivez”, ‘Yeeves’, ‘Eve’, ‘Clean Blue’ Sometimes people even mess up saying the ‘Blue’. They get on this tangent where they’re like ‘Okay, its all arty and we gotta say it like this’ and they just come up with these really weird sounding things and Blue is like ‘Bleau’ and you’re like ‘What?! It’s Blue!’ And then people are like ‘Calvin Klein Blue’ or ‘Yves Saint Blue’. People think we’re into fashion. How wrong could they be? If you’ve ever seen me dressing, you’d know.

AccessAllAreas.net.au: The recording for your album Ragged & Ecstatic took place in Los Angeles. Is recording an album in LA as glamorous as it sounds?
Sean: Maybe. But ours certainly wasn’t. The area where the studio was was actually a pretty rough area. There was this main strip which was good and then, like, stray one block either side and it started to get really rough. Like, not like burning cars, but broken down cars with smashed out windows, no tyres and stuff in abandoned lots. So it was kind of like ‘Okay, quickly walk to the studio.’ But it was fun, it was pretty cool to go over to LA and be in isolation for six weeks. But it kind of wasn’t quite like glitzy… It wasn’t like we were in Guns N’ Roses. We all wish it was, though, don’t we? Cause who doesn’t love Gunners?

AccessAllAreas.net.au: So how do you think recording the album over there influenced the sound?
Sean: I think the recordings sounded a bit different to what we wanted them to sound like because of Kevin [Augunas] the producer and some ideas he had. And we had a few guest musicians come in, one of them was Ben Montench from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and he played piano on two tracks. So a few things like that, Charlie and I think, made it a bit more American than we normally would sound. But all-in-all, plus or minus five percent, I think it sounds like us. Maybe a little less rawkus as it is live.

AccessAllAreas.net.au: How does the song writing process for the band work?
Sean: In the past it’s often been Michael comes in with a song and we flesh it out and arrange it. But since the album we’ve had a few writing periods where we’ve written probably fifteen songs already, and some of them have come from jams and different things. The song writing process has changed a little bit for this record, so far at least. It’s nice and different, and it’s fun and new to work with. Things are a bit different at the moment and it’s interesting.

AccessAllAreas.net.au: Is there a particular song on the album that you are especially proud of?
Sean: Different ones for different things. Gin Sling I really like because we did this full blown country song. I really like country music, but country is dirty words in some people’s minds, so I try to keep it hidden. But I don’t think it gets hidden very well. So I really like that song. But I think, possibly, my two favourites are Celebrity Death and Soldier.

AccessAllAreas.net.au: It seems any emerging Aussie band now days must not only pay their dues on their own touring circuit, but also on the festival circuit as well. Do you enjoy playing music festivals and how do you think the festival boom in Australia is helping Aussie acts?
Sean: That’s a good question, actually, because I’ve been thinking about festivals and stuff a bit recently. A well thought out question! The festival boom directly effects Australian acts because obviously festivals don’t have enough money to only get overseas bands, although maybe that’s what some festivals would like to do. But there are some great festivals which crop up that have a large focus on Australian acts, which is awesome. Some people go to festivals just because it’s a festival and they’ll meet people there and have a good time and then the music is just part of that – it’s just the soundtrack to that. What’s really cool is that if those people see all these new bands they’ve never heard of before or never seen or whatever, that’s really great for Australian bands that they can just reach a large amount of people who possibly wouldn’t normally be into their band, but also because they see them at this festival when they’re having this great time and they attach fond memories with seeing that band.

AccessAllAreas.net.au: Do you have a favourite moment from a festival?
Sean: Watching Seasick Steve on the Falls run was pretty cool. We just came back from London and he had just released his album over there, so there all these posters for this guy – Seasick Steve – and the album Man from Another Time in all of the tube stations. And I was like ‘Who is this Seasick Steve guy?’ So, to then see him when we got back to Australia, on the same festival, and to meet him and his son and his road crew, it was just really cool. And he was definitely someone who I probably normally wouldn’t have seen. It was awesome.

AccessAllAreas.net.au: You spent two months in the UK at the end of last year playing show – how do British audiences differ from the Aussie ones?
Sean: It seems to be a country of people who really love going and seeing live bands. We were supporting for most of that tour in the UK a band called Reverend and The Makers and they’re awesome. So we were doing two-thousand capacity rooms all across the country. It’s kind of like two hours down the road your playing a gig and you’re getting two-thousand people at every place. If you can imagine playing to two-thousand people in Brisbane, then driving to Byron and playing to two-thousand people, then Coffs two-thousand people… But the bands who could do that in Australia… Who could do that in Australia? Powderfinger could do that. They’d play to more than two-thousand, but they could do that. It’s kind of unthinkable for a band that size doing those big shows. The people go out and see music and spend all their money on going to see music. It’s really crazy. But I really like Australian crowds because, I don’t know, maybe I can understand the accent better? It makes after show conversations less awkward, I don’t have to ask them to repeat themselves sixteen times and feel like I’m enraging a large scary man from Edinburgh. The UK crowds, it really weird and I can see why so many bands go ‘We’re going to move to the UK now’ because its this crazy weird culture where everyone goes to see live music, which is great, but I don’t intend on giving up on Australia just yet. I quite like it here!

AccessAllAreas.net.au: You are heading out onto the road in March and April for your About the Future tour, playing major cities as well as smaller towns, as well as opening for Franz Ferdinand and playing on the Barcardi Express tour. Are you pumped?
Sean: When you read it out, it sounded like a lot of stuff! I’m really pumped for it. I think we all really like touring basically. If we could do everything at once, if we could live three different lives and do all three parts of being in a band at once, we’d probably like to do that. We love touring, we love writing music and we love recording music. But I think you kind of go in spells, so its like ‘Man, I’m sick of touring now, lets go write something’ or ‘I’m sick of writing, lets go record this’ and then ‘I’m sick of recording, lets go tour!’ But thankfully I think we’re all still in a very positive mood for touring. It’s been spaced well that we had a week off, so we’re like ‘Great, I’m ready to go on tour again!’ It’s going to be awesome, we’re going from Cairns to as far down as Launceston and Hobart, to as far west as Margaret River and Perth, and all the main areas plus a whole bunch of regionals on the east coast. It’s going to be a really fun tour and Last Dinosaurs are the support and they’re a great band. And Cloud Control as well, they’re doing the whole tour and I haven’t seen them for ages because we did a tour with them probably two years ago now and I’ve barely seen them since then. And they’ve been putting out some really great music. I think it will be a really fun tour.

AccessAllAreas.net.au: What does the rest of 2010 hold in store for Yves Klein Blue?
Sean: We’re going to stock up on acorns and head into the stump of a big tree and hibernate through winter and then we’re going to change from squirrels into caterpillars, and then change into butterflies in the spring. But, to put that in more real terms, to put that into more perspective: We’re going to finish the tour, then we’re probably going to bunker down and write our arses off and hopefully be able to release something this year. We’re all just pretty excited for this tour because we’re already writing for the next album. We’re in that touring and writing to-and-fro stage. Hopefully we can play some new songs on this tour. That would be good, maybe play two or three new songs.

Interview by Marcus Roberts

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Everyone searches for their place, but along the way it's easy to forget that the real essence of living is to engage in it, to not only experience it but embrace the chaos and uncertainty and elation and pain and everything in between. As Jack Kerouac so poignantly and simply put it, it's the ragged and ecstatic joy of pure being. It's this desire to experience and live all life has to offer that so brilliantly pervades Brisbane's Yves Klein Blue debut album, fittingly called "Ragged & Ecstatic".

"That summed up the whole experience; everything that's on the album is about being alive and finding out about the world and your place in it," frontman Michael Tomlinson explains. "It was the dilemma taking up a lot of my thoughts during the past couple of years: What is this place and where do I fit in? What do I have to do? And the highs and the lows - that's what life is."

The past couple of years have seen Yves Klein Blue ("Eve Kline Blue") walk a path of highs. From the moment schoolmates Tomlinson and guitarist Charles Sale bonded over a love of music and realised their aspirations stretched far beyond their jam room, their path was set. Adding drummer Chris Banham and bassist Sean Cook, the quartet quickly and organically crafted their own sound that swam against the tide of the music scene around them. And with their 2008 debut EP "Draw Attention To Themselves" and single 'Polka' leading the way, the band's skewed and playful pop hooks, refreshing rhythms and Tomlinson's way with words, Yves Klein Blue sounded fresh but timeless, classicism mixed with youthful vigour. Incredibly, the four were barely out of their teens.

"We all like certain styles of music, but it's impossible to be everything to everyone," says Sale. "As difficult as it may be to have a universal-reaching appeal, we want as many people to appreciate, or at least respond, to our music. We try to make music that more people want to enjoy. And you might not want to take a risk with it, but it creates a good result."

"We're a band that's influenced by not only new music but a lot of great older bands and classic recordings," Cook says. "And there's a certain vibe and feeling that wells up when you listen to those records. We talked about making our first record years ago - and I think Michael's been thinking about his first record since he was an embryo."

But first they had their own story on the road to write, as they built a reputation for energetic and resonating live performances that showcased their self-belief and talent. Relentless touring at home and abroad set them in good steed for their debut album and, in hindsight, also went a long way to inspiring it.

So with eight months of preparation under their belts, Yves Klein Blue ventured into the industrial wasteland of North Hollywood, piled into in a two-room flat and spent three months at Fairfax Studios pulling to pieces what they'd spent so long assembling. This unexpected and uncertain turn would prove to be masterful - even if it meant sleepless nights for Tomlinson, desperately scribbling new words in the bathroom at 4am, the only space in the flat that could be lit without disturbing the others.

"When we got to the studio we were confident," Tomlinson says. "Then we tore apart every song we had and started again. That was a month ranging from total elation to total self-loathing."

Recording with Kevin Augunas (Cold War Kids), Yves Klein Blue learnt fast to objectively view their work. With a less-is-more approach to varied arrangements and an energised live-sounding set-up ensured Tomlinson's impassioned and witty lyricism came to the fore.

"We went over there wanting to do a live album, but Kevin made us realise the potential of what we could do with the songs," Banham says. "We had a massive room where there was no reverb and the walls were padded, so you could put an amp in the middle of the space, mic it up, and it'd just capture a natural sound, a live vibe."

"Kevin was the man that said: 'Is this good enough?' That was his challenge," Tomlinson says. "And the challenge issued was the extra five per cent, which was the difference between what we thought was great and something beyond what we thought we could ever do. The five per cent between good and excellent is so important. So the challenge he issued was a big factor on the record."

Great is a word that understates "Ragged & Ecstatic", an album that subtly and cleverly captures the exuberance and experience of life, but in a way that's as universal as it is personal. The end of the long journey was at Brisbane's Airlock Studios and then Sydney's Big Jesus Burger Studios with Scott Horscroft (The Presets, The Panics, Sleepy Jackson), where final touches to the mix were made.

This passion and uncompromising vision also makes "Ragged & Ecstatic" a lot of fun. With an off-the-cuff, energetic and live feel to the set, it veers from the buoyant, bright and swaggering single 'Getting Wise' and irresistible 'Make Up Your Mind', to the cheeky and joyous ska of 'Summer Sheets' and Dylan-esque generational anthem 'About The Future'. Wonderfully original melodies ingrain, sentiments resonate and the feeling and splashes of colour carried by Tomlinson's turns of phrase are illuminating.

"I didn't want to have any throwaway lines; nothing that could discredit the intention of the lyric and nothing that would be unqualified," the singer says.

Not unlike the book from which the words came, "Ragged & Ecstatic" is a wild, irresistible ride that, in the end, manages to hold a mirror up to your own place in this old world.

yveskleinblue.com

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

My Festival Experience
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Adelaide Big Day Out. We were staying in the same hotel as other artists and I came downstaris to go to the after party and a big crowd was surrounding Aracde Fire and Bjork at the grand piano in the restaurant of the hotel. They were doing old show tunes and everyone was singing along. The lead singer of Arcade Fire was playing piano and everyone was singing along. I recall Buddy Holly's 'Everyday It's Getting Closer', a couple of ABBA songs and some John Lennon, it was very cool. Favourite festivals moments though are just when it's a good show with good reactions, where you don't have to think too much on stage and lose yourself.

Ideal Lineup?
I'd have bands that would never be seen on the same stage because they've long since broken up or died, I'd have Blur opening the festival followed by the Smiths who would reform for my music festival, and At The Drive In would finish the day just when I was drunk enough to dance like they can.

Fave artist you've seen at a Music Festival?
Rage Against The Machine. Also, Brand New who are a vastly under rated band from New York that played at Big Day Out. I saw them pretty much without fail at every Big Day Out and they were astounding, and to use the the cliche, quite inspiring. I've ripped off many of their moves since then!

Tips for attending Music Festivals
Don't break your neck. Don't worry too much about getting to the front for every band you want to see. It's probably better to pick 4 or so that you can really absorb as opposed to having cursory glances at every one. It's like any 'day out' it's best to pace yourself, don't go mental and try to see everything, relax and take it all in.