Canceled tours, postponed albums… In Great Britain as elsewhere, the pandemic has cut off the momentum of many musicians. But she allowed Yard Act to take hers. If this group formed in Leeds (Yorkshire), in 2019, by singer James Smith and bassist Ryan Needham, had to wait before going back on stage, they took the opportunity to distill the acid drops of their first singles (The Trapper’s Pelts, Dark Days, Fixer Upper), exciting curiosities. Before shaping a first album, The Overload (published on January 21), whose ironic verve and bristling dances confirm that the disunited kingdom holds there dashing chroniclers of its tensions.
« The overload of discontent/The constant burden of making sense » (“The overload of discontent, the constant burden of making sense”), evoked in the title song, James Smith expresses it as a mocking storyteller, whose soliloquies embody, between empathy and sarcasm, a gallery of characters at the thick northern English accent. While fidgeting on post-punk funks erected like barbed garlands by the minimal groove of Ryan Needham and the energy of his accomplices, Sam Shjipstone (guitar) and Jay Russell (drums).
Joined simultaneously by teleconference in their respective homes, a few kilometers apart in the rural suburbs of Leeds, the singer and the bassist find that the Covid-19 has provided them with the right tempo. “People were deprived of concerts, but listened to all the more music at home, assure James Smith. Our first titles benefited from this appetite, and were pushed by an English musical press always on the lookout for novelties. Perhaps because they resonated with their times”, analyzes the thirty-year-old who, during confinement, fed his inspiration and his rage to the rhythm of the television news. “The greatest impact of the pandemic has been, for us, the time it has given us. We had nothing to do but music,” specifies Ryan Needham, recalling the productivity of digital exchanges at the origin of a plethora of songs.
Not really young first, one and the other had multiplied the experiences of groups, bordering on recognition without ever reaching it, whether with Menace Beach for Needham or within Post War Glamor Girls for Smith. They meet once more in 2019 for a new start. “Ryan no longer wanted to be the leader of a band and I no longer wanted to both sing and play an instrument”, explains the vocalist.
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