Taste of Chicago – Yourself And The Air
Since moving to Chicago in February I’ve been wanting to cover more and more Chicagoland music. This week I got my wish when I found out about melodic indie-rockers, Yourself And The Air via a Daytrotter.com session. This young band from the suburbs has already made quite the name for themselves through the release of a few albums and a dedication to rock’s great equalizer – touring. In fact, the band made such an impact in the local scene that reknowned Chicago booking agency, Flower Booking (Joan of Arc, Ratatat, Ted Leo & the Rx) signed them. Singer/guitarist, Erick Crosby was nice enough to answer a few questions for us.
Thanks so much for being the first band subjected to a ChicagoSnacks profile/interview dealie! Tell me who everyone in the band is.
Erick Crosby – Guitar, Synth, Vox
Drew Rasmussen – Drums
Jeff Papendorf – Keys, Percussions, Vox
James David – Bass, Vox
The Chicago music scene has been a huge influence on my musical tastes, but I didn’t even grow up here. Growing up so close, how has it impacted you guys musically and creatively?
The Chicago music scene to us has been very good and for the most part very kind. I think that living so close to a big city really can give an advantage in many ways. At first there was this scare about playing in the city, since we all are from the ‘burbs, and the shows are very different between the two. But we instantly realized that it was something that had to be done. So for us, playing in Chicago has really been a motivating factor. There are soooo many bands, so many genres, so many crowds, so many venues, so many everything. Its very easy to be looked over in a city with so much, that we are always determined to be one who may stick out. And even then, if you should be able to break, you know that someone else is coming right behind you. That kind of creates a sense of urgency to keep on your heels. But being from Chicago again, you realize how great this city is. For our whole life, we’ve talked about moving away from Chicago. When we went on tour, we realized how welcoming Chicago really is. We’re very fortunate to live in such a diverse city that accepts the art scene as widely as it does. There are some cities where there really isn’t too much of a scene for music and art, but when you come to Chicago you can always find something, or someone, or some piece of art that will blow your mind and inspire you more.
Listening to your newest EP, Friends of All Breeds it’s easy to pick up influences like Pinback, Wolf Parade and the Cure. What bands would you say have the most significance in your development?
The very first influence for myself, was a band so close to home, The Smashing Pumpkins. When I heard of them in Elementary it blew my mind to know that kids in our neighborhood had created this huge entity, so that was always a huge influence for me. Sunset Rubdown, Modest Mouse, Broken Social Scene, Menomena; and soo many others out there have had more recent influences within the band. Not just their music, but their story as well, sometimes a band’s story can be the most influential thing of all.
How does the Friends differ from your previous two releases?
Friend of All Breeds is different because…well, I feel that every song we write is different than the one before. Every disc we have is different, and our next one is gonna be the same way. But recording this CD was really the first time we had a lot of control. We were able to work on it and try to make it a well-rounded EP. We wanted it to be something that flowed very well, but wasn’t too long. A lot of times indie CDs can drag on, and I’ve noticed patience for new music, (mostly my own) can be a very [short]. So we wanted something that could grab you fast and make you wanna know a little bit more bout us.
So, you’re a relatively new band yet you’ve signed with indie booking powerhouse, Flower Booking as well as landed Yoko Ono’s publicist (Tell All Your Friends). I’m sure other bands who’re reading this are going to be green with envy. What’s your secret?
No secrets here. We’re very lucky to be on board with Flower. I’ve always had my eye on them, and always thought we’d fit very well on their roster. But I knew early that you can’t just arrive on the scene and get an agency. You gotta put in the work, we’ve booked a good number of tours and out-of-state shows ourselves. There’s no secret to what you have to do, it’s written everywhere; build a base, and they will find you. That’s something we have to keep reminding ourselves, that this can’t happen overnight. That we won’t be quitting our day jobs anytime soon, and you have to work the longest and hardest at something you won’t be getting paid to do.
You’ve got a bunch of great shows coming up across the South and Midwest. What’s next for YATA?
We have too many plans to even keep a lid on. We’ll be touring again in September, making our way to Music Fest NorthWest, and the North West in general for the first time, really excited for that. After that were gonna take a backpacking trip in Colorado, that will be a nice break. Then we gotta get in the studio and get our new tracks on disc. We’re very excited for this one. we’re writing better songs than I think we all ever thought we could. We hope you guys like em!
Listen to Yourself And The Air – “So You’ve Come to Mingle” (MP3)