‘We were at it for 15 years before we got this’
◆ At 30 James Smith thought musical success had passed him by, until Yard Act took off in 2022. Success he discovered, isn’t always easy, he tells Naomi Clarke
When you’re so wrapped up in working towards something… when you surpass that weird point you were aiming for, you realise that it just carries on,” reflects Yard Act frontman James Smith.
“Your life carries on, as does everyone else’s who seemed like they were part of it the whole way through.”
After spending over a decade trying to navigate the music industry, everything sprang into action for the lyricist and singer of the Leeds quartet when the group’s debut album, The Overload, climbed to number two in the charts in 2022 – not bad for a post-punk band writing songs about the pitfalls of capitalism.
Followed up with a Mercury Prize nomination, a collaboration with Sir Elton John, and a string of shows across the world – the group firmly made their mark. But Smith soon discovered the complexity of emotions that can come with a swift rise to success.
“A big part of me had resigned myself to the fact that at the age of 30, that it probably wasn’t going to happen and I was just doing music for fun,” the now 33-year-old tells me over a video call while he walks around Leeds.
“And then all the offers presented themselves completely out of the blue, almost. We knew we had to run with them and give it a go and then it went way further than we could have ever expected.
“And then it became the norm. And then I realised that we just adapt to our current circumstances extremely quickly and you do start to take things that other bands would kill for for granted.”
He feels when the reality of this hits, it is necessary to pause to “recalibrate and reassess” what you thought you loved, and what it is that you really do care about.
His internal dilemma was fuelled further after he and his wife welcomed a son amid this tumultuous period. This dual sense of responsibility and ambition, love and guilt, and everything in between eventually split out into lyrics and melodies which formed their second album Where’s My Utopia?
“The whole album becomes about him by the end of it because it’s me trying to figure out why every decision I make is now for him, and what my role really is as a father,” Smith says of how his newborn child impacted the record.
“And I think the album probably grapples quite a lot with the guilt of the ego that I have for doing this job, because a big part of me wants to be dedicated and selfless enough as a father to be there for them, and to just be a father, and part of me can’t let go of my own ambitions.”
The singer admits he felt trepidation at the thrust of the album, which is about
the downfalls of being in a successful band, as he knows it could alienate their fans, but he believes it speaks to a more universal issue.
“I think it translates to that wider thing of we all have wants and desires, and then what happens when those things happen?” he says. “I think that’s what the album really assesses.”
Smith and bassist Ryan Needham formed the band in Leeds around 2019 after leaving previous projects. Smith fronted the theatrical Post War Glamour Girls, while Needham was onehalf of psychedelic rockers Menace Beach.
The pair solidified their friendship – and working relationship – in a garden during a house party,
drinking beer and chatting about music. Later they recruited Sam Shipstone on guitar and Jay Russell on drums.
Together, the four-piece have created a recognisable sound which sees Smith’s spoken-word style vocals encased in pulsating basslines and guitar riffs. And, while the second album moves away from grappling with disenfranchisement and capitalism like in the first, the lyrism still maintains a tongue-in-cheek quality.
The more erratic nature of the music, with samples cutting in between songs, also speaks to “society’s inability to focus on one thing and work towards a sort of singular more important humanitarian goal,”
Smith says but admits this enlightenment came as an afterthought.
“I do feel like we’re distracted constantly as a species,” he adds. “I feel like the internet and social media is making us a very placid and angry but useless species that can’t focus on anything for more than five minutes. And that stresses me.
“And I think the sound of the album contributes to that general nature of where we’re at as a society.”
The quartet appears to be trying to avoid this pitfall by continually pushing themselves. They are currently working on a film and a novel and plan to build a studio where they can write and produce for other bands.
What advice do they have for up-and-coming artists trying to navigate the industry? “First of all, make sure you’re doing it because you love it and everything else does come after, cliches are often true,” Smith says.
“Second of all, if you feel like it’s not happening, it happened really late for us, comparatively speaking in terms of breaking into the music industry. We were going at it 15 years before we got this so you have to be doing it for the right reasons, and you don’t know when all the success stuff will come.”
Yard Act’s second album Where’s My Utopia? is out now. The band play the 02 Academy, Glasgow on Friday as part of their UK tour, yardactors.com