YAK It’s been two years since Yak dropped ‘Alas Salvation’ and
By the end, when we’d chosen all the eleven songs that
there’s no doubt that every indie-rock connoisseur has been
were going to be on the record, there kinda was a concept
restlessly awaiting its follow up. Their latest album, created
to them, which wasn’t the idea at the start at all. They were
amidst a time of personal crisis and reckless hedonism,
all written around the same time...so this idea, obviously
is their rawest work yet. We caught up with frontman Oli
the album is called The Pursuit of Momentary Happiness,
Burslem over a cup of tea to chat about the recording.
and when you’re living with that mindset it’s not about longevity or thinking about the future, it’s about pursuing
So it’s been two years since your last record, and it
immediate happiness, which are usually the things that can
seems like the new one has everything thrown at it... I
destroy you, whether it’s going out and getting wankered or
read that you sold all of your worldly possessions and
just sitting back and going, ‘Oh god, what’s all this about?’
moved into your car. Was this out of necessity or you pushing yourself in order to put everything into the
When I think about how bare it is, it’s quite embarrassing
record?
really, but if you’re going to do something in 2018 that’s as regressive as being in a rock band then you might as well
I mean it was necessity really. At the start of the record we
try and say something worthwhile. Otherwise it really is the
didn’t have a label or a full band...there was a good chance
pits then…
it was going to be the end of it. So we had to fight to make the record exist. But that said, any form of desperation is
Did you approach writing a little differently on this
good for creativity, whether it’s financial or ego driven,
album? It’s contains some very tender, sentimental
maybe that’s the thing that keeps you pushing. But there’s
tracks, like ‘Words Fail Me’, it seems as if we’re hearing
24 hours in a day, I don’t just sit in my car, going I can’t
a new side to YAK.
wait to tell everyone about this, this record is going to fly off the shelves…
I suppose it was my headspace but also not having anywhere to live, during the writing of the first record I had
Did you feel any second album pressure?
a bedroom with a little studio setup. With this album, there was limited time and all I had was my guitar which meant
I definitely cared and put everything into the record but
things became more chord heavy. Initially, I was wondering
then you get to a certain point where you’re like, I couldn’t
if ‘Words Fail Me’ was even a song for the band, at the time
do much more, and it’s honest and real, a document of that
I was coming into sessions with quieter song after quieter
time and then you move on really. Someone asked me if I
song and Elliot was like, ‘Are we ever going to do a rock
care what people write and I’m just like, well I obviously
song again?’
prefer reviews to be favourable but at the end of the day it’s just an autopsy, the thing they’re writing about, it’s dead by
The recording for that one was quite emotional actually,
then, the music is done for me.
I think pretty much everyone was there, like Marta and Jason Pierce, and when I did the vocal, it was the first time
Would you say that this album has a strong narrative?
everyone had really heard it all pieced together and I was quite embarrassed about it. I remember everyone being slightly emo about it, which was nice as we’ve never had that before.
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Words by Eleanor Philpot, illustration by Andreea Dobrin Dinu
