Y'All is Fantasy Island: Inspired By Cabin Fever

 

Falkirk trio Y'All is Fantasy Island first attracted attention this summer when promo copies of their self-released debut LP In Faceless Towns Forever began dropping into magazine mailbags across the land. There followed gushing but justified reviews (in Scotland at least) paying homage to the rawness of the brooding alt-folk songs - which had a lot to do with the album being a product of a 19-hour recording session in an abandoned house.

As they prepare to repeat the squat tactic for their second album and continue to surprise audiences with their seemingly possessed live rock-outs, The Skinny asked YIFI members Adam (singer-songwriter, guitar), Jon (guitar) and Tommy (drums, clarinet) for the lowdown on all things Fantasy. Here, their thoughts are presented to you in handy, philosophically-titled globules...

On the beginning of YIFI

Jon: "I was the kid with the glasses at school and Adam had a bastardized Geordie accent, safety in numbers. We found Tommy in my shed one winter, drinking the creosote, and took him in like a wee sparrow with a damaged head."

On the music

Adam: "We are essentially a rock band stuck in the body of a 16-year-old who has never quite gotten over the first experience of hearing a Palace or Nick Drake album."
Tommy: "It's either loud or it's quiet. We played a gig last week that was so loud my face hurt for two days afterwards.
Jon: There is a brooding malevolence in most of the quieter songs that works more effectively when it threatens to boil over, rather than exploding."

On false self-perceptions

Adam: "At the time we thought we were making an alternative pop record! My mum listened to the album and said, 'It really is miserable stuff'. I thought, 'Oh shit, there goes our appearance on the T-Mobile music show with Lauren Laverne and that Welsh twat.'"
Jon: "Adam seemed to think his lyrics would get the 14-year-old girls screaming, but when I first heard it I worried for his health."

On Falkirk

Adam: "Hmmm, I'll wade through this one carefully. Arab Strap once got a kicking for slagging off Falkirk. I have an intense love/hate relationship with the place. The people are totally unpretentious but sometimes the majority of them are unwilling to open their minds up to new things. But the town is very important to our music."
Tommy: "I really like Falkirk! There, I've said it!"

On recording the album

Adam: "There was no running water, we pissed in a bucket and ate Pot Noodles for 19 hours. The reason it was only one session was because Jon had to work in Glasgow the next day, Tommy started back at university and I had to work as well."
Tommy: "The experience was... tiring. But I don't think the album would've worked if we'd spent three months messing around with things. It's a record that's representative of its location and that's what we were aiming for."
Jon: "The day before, Adam emailed me saying if I didn't come through and play some drums and clarinet for him he would chop my hands off."

On getting noticed

Adam: "Magazine review editors don't have a clue how to act professionally. They ignore your calls and won't listen to your album because you don't have a haircut, your profile isn't high enough or you're not spending tons of money on a quarter-page ad in their publication."
Tommy: "We have had some pretty decent coverage in Scotland though, The Skinny included."

On influences

Adam: "American pre-war blues, folk and religious music... twisted 50s and 60s psychobilly... the films of Werner Herzog, black metal, noisecore... the foggy empty streets of Falkirk at night... the unbelievable feeling of dread before a random act of violence occurs. To me, they're all inspirational."
Tommy: "If I had to pick it'd be Neil Young, Led Zeppelin and Autechre. I'm a big Miles Davis fan, and Shostakovich features heavily too."
Jon: "I think it's easy to overlook the steadying influence of the Ned. They keep us in our place – which is the bedroom or the garage, making music. Bill Hicks and Neds."

On the bandname

Adam: "It's from a book called 'God Is a Bullet' by Boston Terran. Two characters are sitting in a roadside diner at night somewhere in the Mojave Desert talking about religion and violence. After a long discussion they come to the agreement that the meaning of life boils down to one thing: a piece of graffiti written on the wall across from them which reads, 'Y'all is Fantasy Island'."

On the future

Adam: "We'll issue our second LP 'High Hopes, Lost Love & Ruined Lives' which we are recording in another vacant property in December. Then we plan to issue the single With Handclaps before hopefully going into the studio for our third album 'Reading the Bones'. Meanwhile, I'll be issuing an experimental album each month of next year under the name Size of Kansas... Who knows, Avalanche Records might even give us that yellow laminated name card they've been promising!"