Acting up to be Vic and Bob

ROCKERS INSPIRED BY COMEDY HEROES

INDIE stars Yard Act are determined to write pop songs – but they’re keen to get into comedy too.

The Leeds rockers’ single We Make Hits takes aim at bands who refuse to write pop songs, while resembling their comedy heroes, Reeves And Mortimer.

Singer James Smith told me: “If you made We Make Hits 10% sillier, it’d be a Reeves And Mortimer song. The music under their sketches is so funny, my dream job would be to be Vic and Bob’s composer.”

Taking aim at cool contemporaries, bassist Ryan Needham said: “A phrase we often use is ‘hook dodgers’ for bands who deliberately don’t write choruses because they can’t.”

James added: “Three-minute pop songs are harder to write than arty ones. The art crowd think they’re so above everyone else, but they’re taking the easy way out.”

Yard Act’s new album Where’s My Utopia? is poppier than their debut and they feel better positioned to take on chart rivals.

Part of their new regime is going running together before gigs. James revealed: “In quite a hippy way, I find time before a show to say thanks to the gig gods, because I believe performance is sacred.

“We’re in an incredibly privileged position and squandering that wouldn’t be fair on what performing is.”

But James admits even his own mother sometimes misunderstands his lyrics. He said: “My mum thinks she can see people in the lyrics who I haven’t even thought about.

“She’s convinced Tall Poppies is about one particular guy, when I’ve told her, ‘No, that song is about me.’”

Yard Act are on tour until March 27 and play at Truck, Victorious and Tramlines festivals this summer.