This article was originally published on beingtheremag.com, an independent music and film magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. It is presented here as part of the Being There Magazine archive.
By Adam Anklewicz | Being There Magazine, November/December 2005
Australian indie-rock combo Youth Group have been making some waves in America, thanks to the success of their second album, Skeleton Jar, which is also their first North American release.
Youth Group was formed in 1998 by primary songwriter and guitarist Toby Martin and drummer Danny Allen. Though the band has seen a lot of line up changes in their bass players and guitarists, Martin and Allen are still going strong seven years and two albums later. Danny Allen was kind enough to chat with Being There over the telephone from Ann Arbor, Michigan about their music, the history of the band and their highs and lows. Currently joining Allen and Martin are Cameron Emerson-Elliot on guitar and former Vines member Patrick Matthews on bass.
Toby Martin is from Canberra and played many local shows there with his band The Velvetines. Allen had met the band before in Sydney and recalled, “Their bass player and drummer were a bit reluctant to start playing in Sydney a lot more. Sydney and Melbourne [is where you need to play in Australia], otherwise there’s just not enough people to sustain bands in the smaller areas. It’s about a three-hour drive from Sydney to Canberra so it was a little bit difficult, and they decided at one point that they just weren’t going to do it. There was one gig that they just didn’t turn up to and that was the last straw.” The band ceased to be and Toby Martin decided to form a new band, asking drummer Danny Allen (who had only just recently bought his first drumkit) to join. A few months later, the band were about to play their first show but still didn’t even have a band name. Allen remembers, “A guy who worked at our label chose our name for us. We couldn’t decide on a name ourselves, so they just wrote it down for the first gig. We didn’t bother changing it, and if we did later, the 20 people that bothered to come see us, wouldn’t come again.”
Youth Group’s first release, Urban & Eastern, was released in 2001 on the tiny Australian label Ivy League. It’s currently unavailable throughout the world, however according to Allen Epitaph is looking to release it in North America now that the band has developed a following. “Skeleton Jar was a big transition for us. It was almost like starting over again. I reckon that [Urban & Eastern] definitely sounds a bit younger.” Their sound has changed since that first album, especially the sound of the rhythm section. Allen says, “our new bass player Patrick, he’s been fantastic. I was trying to do [the rhythm] on my own before. He’s very much a bass player that plays in the rhythm section. Our previous bass players, though fantastic, have always been playing separate to [the drums].”
Wayne Connolly produced the first album and later came back to work on Skeleton Jar. “[Connolly has] a very relaxed approach and he knows what he wants. If everyone gets stressed out, he knows how to deal with them, and that is just as important as getting a good sound.” Though they felt uncomfortable from being wet behind the ears during the recording of Urban & Eastern, by the time they joined Connolly in the studio again they felt more comfortable and understood how to work in a studio. “By the second [record] we knew what we expected of ourselves, how many takes it takes, things like that. Those bugs were worked out. We got to know Wayne’s little tricks as well.” One of those tricks was recording one final take after everyone was comfortable and relaxed about the previous recordings. Ultimately, those takes tended to be what ended up on disc. Though Skeleton Jar came out only a few months ago in North America, it has been available in Australia for almost two years. The two years between Youth Group’s two albums seemed like a long time to them, “We definitely didn’t want to wait so long, but a few things went wrong. Our label almost closed and our bass player was dealing with all that, so things were hectic for him. Then he pretty much discovered The Vines. He used to say to us, ‘I know it seems bad at the moment because I’m not really playing with the band, and the label’s struggling but everything will work out in the end.’ It did; it pretty much saved our label in Australia.” After The Vines were signed to their management group, the successes just kept on coming and Skeleton Jar found its way into the hands of Epitaph Records in the U.S. where they would find a home that was willing and able to support and promote them, with a little help from friends of course.
Skeleton Jar is filled with melancholy and joy. Lyrics often contrast the music, and moods change with each and every song. Toby Martin is a lyricist among the best, he can weave the stories that should be told and leaves enough of him for the listener to feel a connection to the artist. Though I wasn’t speaking to the songwriter, I did have Danny Allen to ask about mixed feelings of hope and depression, “We’re usually optimistic, positive guys. I suppose we had a few darker moments during that recording period. I personally had pretty much the worst period of my life.” After breaking a foot the drummer realised how lucky he was that it was only a foot and saw how poorly the band members were taking care of themselves. “The song ‘Skeleton Jar’ I recorded when I had my broken foot. I played on the drums with my hands and then played the kick drum afterwards with a beater on a stick.” Through the thick and thin, they’ve been seeing more ups then downs lately, “Generally these days with we look at things more positively, but we’ve had a lot of gigs where people said it could be really down. Then we’ll have gigs where we’re singing these really dark lyrics but everyone feels really uplifted by them. That’s what we hope for, trying not to depress people too much.”
How can a lyric like “She’s happy enough,” or “be like the brother I never had / be like the real son to my dad” not get people down? Martin definitely has a manner for the dramatics. Skeleton Jar is filled with these little tidbits in verse that can inspire and depress at the same time. It’s not too surprising when Allen told me that their primary songwriter did a PhD in country music history. Their self-reflection Allen feels is a part of the age they were at during the recording of this album, “27 and 28 is generally a bit of a realization period for young males, we tend to stare at 30, re-evaluating, doesn’t always go so well.”
Youth Group toured the western United States and Canada including a gig at South by Southwest. During that tour they did shows with The Vines, and now the band is touring with Death Cab For Cutie. Youth Group are also readying to tour with Coldplay and are quite excited about that prospect. “It’s gonna be quite the amazing experience and we never expected it to happen. We never thought we could travel the world either, in a sense every step is exciting. We’re just really excited to now have the opportunity to make records that a lot of people will hear.”
Though Allen uses the word exciting a lot, it is genuine; this musician is seeing the dream of focusing his career on music rather than being the night job. The former professional electrician says, “It’s a massive thrill within itself. It takes a lot to get used to and it screws with your head a bit. The constant travelling, it’s quite an unhealthy lifestyle and you’ve got to get used to that. I love it, I love it to death.”
Visit Youth Group’s official website at http://www.youthgroupmusic.com/