YAK Interview 30/03/19

We met with Oli Burslem, Elliot Rawson, and Vincent Davies of YAK just hours before their swashbuckling show at the Norwich Arts Centre. It’s safe to say that they certainly provided a welcoming atmosphere – offering me a beer upon arrival set the tone. The conversation traversed naturally until we got onto the finger lickin’ topic of chicken… It was at this point I turned my recorder on and repeated what Oli had been rambling on about:

Grimmest thing ever done with a chicken... 

Oli: Well, one of the grimmest things I’ve done with a chicken; I remember one day I was hungover in a Travelodge and I attacked one with a teaspoon…

Elliot: I’d been doing it the night before and you took my spoon over in the morning and continued…

Oli: Nothing that lived should ever be eaten with a spoon

Moving on.. I’d just like to start in saying, I love the new record. How has the writing and recording process differed from Alas Salvation? 

Oli: We didn’t really have a band for starters. We were kind of struggling around. Andy left; he was always going to leave. He got married and went off to Australia. It wasn’t until we met Vinnie in passing at Glastonbury. He was kind of the catalyst to get things going. We got in a room together, rattled through it, went to town on all the overdubs this time, and then gave it the label… And they went “Great - we’ll release it in a year”. What are we gunna do for a year? Spend the little money you do have, so when it does come out… You’ll be broke. What a great idea. 

In the song White Carnivore you’ve managed to do something I’ve subconsciously wished to do since the age of 6: A rocked up cover of He’s Got the Whole Wide World in His Hands… How on earth did that come about? 

Oli: We used to sing in it school. Yeah cause my nephew the other day said about it too. I don’t know why we did it. It’s just quite funny really.

It would surely be blasphemous not to play this tonight on the holy Norwich Arts Centre stage?

Elliot: We’ll be playing it tonight. I didn’t think about the context of this venue though.

Oli: Can you imagine if I have this all-in-one, and then I ripped it off and it was a school boy uniform and everyone had to sit cross legged?

Vinnie, Oli, and Elliot with their Slider and the Goose beer

The track This House Has No Living Room seems to conjure up a certain grandiose melancholic feeling which I can relate to Spiritualized’s latest album  And Nothing Hurt. How did working with Jason Peirce (Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized) come about? 

Oli: I’ve known John Coxon (Spiritualized) for a long time, who’s worked a lot with Jason obviously, I sold him a table on a market stall. I used to work at Spitalfields market stall in London selling furniture. We came became friends there and John introduced me to Jason through that really.

Elliot: At one point he (Jason) said he might come down and help us out. We thought he probably won’t y’know but it’s a nice thing to say. And then he actually came down.

What was his influence on the record? 

Vinnie & Oli: Glockenspiel.

Oli: I remember the best experience I had with him was just driving to the studio with him really. It was like an hour and half journey. Just talking music. I think This House Has No Living Room is probably my favourite thing I ever done. I think it’s quite settling. It ties up the record quite well. A song for a good place, a song for talking about bigger ideas.

Who would your ultimate super group be? 

Oli: Well the problem is when you get to know people and all that shit. Dead or alive?

Let’s go alive. 

*Due to inaudible coverage on our recording device I’ll do my best to summarise… 

Effectively YAK opted for a bunch of legends just about to "pop it"… with an eagerly awaiting Dave Grolh being the undertaker of rock. We’ve got a fascinating line up of Ed Roy, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and finally Ronnie O’ Sullivan on the drums… just imagine he strolls into the equation fully suited, having just taken his cue to his right knee... cracking it half and proceeding to lay down a beat in a tight, professional manner. 

You’ve mentioned when talking about psychedelic rock that artists like Ali Farke Toure and William Onyeabor who are very psychedelic in their own right get branded under the ‘World music’ label. Do you feel that is problematic? 

Oli: Well it comes from a western perspective. I’m sure if you’re in Mali then you’re not gunna go “check out this world music”. So yeah I do feel it feels a little bit uncomfortable I think... When you get into making music, its like making a cake with different ingredients. You have to get the realness of everything. And that Malian music to me is exactly the same as delta blues and it comes from exactly the same place. I’m terrible with genres though. Perhaps that’s why we’re so hard to define I think. The thing about William Onyeabor is; where did he get all that gear from?

Well funnily enough, on the topic of gear would you like to unleash to Slider and the Goose what equipment you use? 

Elliot: Our gear’s all pretty standard

Oli: Well we’ve got no cash really. I mean the idea of the getting new symbols and stuff… It does work with a lot of the stripped back stuff though- which is better for the second album because I think the songs are stronger really. It means we can perform them with a wooden spoon and a hand clap. Just guitar, bass, drums.

Pedals?

Oli: Yeah we have some homemade ones. All of our amps cranked… fucking loud.

Festival season… I see you’re playing Green Man. Excited? 

Elliot: Yeah we’ve played there once before. I saw a band playing the soundtrack of Holy Mountain. I was sat in a bean bag at like 3oclock in the morning. This band with theremins and drums, and all these other weird instruments.

Oli: Good grass at Green Man. Saw Television. And the Fall.

Jack White approved I hear? Big fan? 

Elliot & Oliver: HUGE!

Oli: He couldn’t stop talking about us dyaknow what I mean…

What are your opinions to Jack White’s purist views on phones at gigs? 

Elliot: Well if you’re playing something big like he’s doing and you just see a thousand phones pointing at you it would probably be boring wouldn’t it. Meeting him at third man records was pretty cool, because, talking about gear, they don’t seem too precious. They were just like "here’s the locker" (which had everything in); They weren’t like “you can’t touch that”.

Oli: What I was struck by them is they’ve been around for 10 years. All their ideas seem to be helping musicians. If you’ve become that successful, would you put it back into the things you love? Making music, releasing music, and looking after musicians. They looked after us.

I see you’re fans of Bitches Brew – Miles Davis, what other jazz records do you guys listen to? 

Elliot: I always go for Alice Coltrane… Journey in Satchidananda

Slider or the Goose? 

Elliot: Fois Gras or Slider burgers?

Oli: Sometimes when I get freshened up and someone says “What you been doing?” And I’ll go ah “Ah I’m just sprucing the goose”. I’m a goose.

Oli: Have you ever eaten goose?

I haven’t, have you? 

Oliver: Not cooked.

Slider & the Goose