Focus: Citizens of YEAH!

Who are you and where are you from?
Citizens of YEAH! from Ryton, Tyne and Wear

What is it you do?
I write and record songs. 

How long have you been doing it?
I played guitar and sang in a band over 20 years ago before I moved up to Newcastle for university so I’ve written songs for a long time. In lockdown, I decided to teach myself the drums and initially, I started recording songs again to try to improve my drumming. Pretty soon though I had reignited my passion for making music and I set myself a target of producing an album. It’s taken just over a year to write and record that album to a standard that I’m happy with.

What inspires you?
I was inspired to play guitar in the era of Britpop but then started listening to lots of 80s alternative music, particularly the Pixies and the Smiths. I suppose I write songs because I enjoy the creative challenge and find it immensely satisfying when it finally comes together. Sometimes it works out how I planned and sometimes it’s unexpected. 

Tell us about your music.
The first set of songs which I recorded which make up the album, are all guitar-driven indie music. I try to drive the song forward with the drums and use the bass to make a counter melody. It is all home recorded so I tried to channel a college rock sound, with a relatively simple production. Recording at home also means that you can experiment a little and try things, for example, in the song Therapod, I’m not really sure that trumpets should work with the riff but they brought the song to life when I tried it.

I tend to write the music first then the lyrics and melody, and the theme is usually inspired by the music itself, and whatever emotions it induces. I’m pretty content in my life so I don’t really need to use music to process emotion. I think that the album has quite a random mix of subjects; dinosaurs, stars, credit crunch, bees, a man who falls in love with a subatomic particle.

What have you got coming up in the future?
I released my first single, Therapod, in April. The second single (Nebula) and album (Thermonuclear Warmth) are both coming out on streaming services on 6th May. 

Where can people find out more about you?
You can find Citizens of YEAH! on Facebook / Bandcamp / Spotify