Interview mit Young Rebel Set

Hallo Young Rebel Set, wie geht’s? How about a quick introduction of you and your band?

We are Chris, Luke, Matt, Mark and myself and we make up Young Rebel Set, a band from a small town in North East England.

Does your Hometown Stockton-On-Tees have any impact on your music? You often get compared to some sort of „Working Class Heroes“. What do you think about that?

Stockton has a very working-class mentality and I guess some of that rubs off on our music but that’s not something we directly write about. We don’t particularly preach about class or politics or anything, that’s not really our field of expertise as we just like to write and play music. We’re not that concerned about being pigeon-holed as ‘working class whatevers’, it’s just another term people use to categorise the band.

What do you think about the fact that you’re so popular in Germany? 

We’re very flattered and obviously grateful. We’ve worked hard to be in a position where we can come over to Germany and know we’ll be playing in front of ‘x’ amount of people and it’s great for us to get that response and have the effect on people that they believe in us and, in these tough times, spend their hard-earned cash to come see us live.

What are, in your opinion, the differences between the German and British music cultures?

There’s so many different sides to these things that it’s rather difficult to draw comparisons. The culture of music is different wherever you go and no ONE culture, or scene, is better than the other. We’re just grateful that the German music culture has embraced us with such warmth and sincerity.

Let’s talk about your new album „Crocodile“, which is a great piece of work! 

Vielen dank. It’s nice to hear you like it. The process was tough-going at times and we can’t begin to explain the hard work and sacrifice that went in to making it but we’re all extremely happy with what we’ve produced.

Do you have any favourite songs on the album?

It changes all the time and really depends on what I’m doing or what mood I’m in but I’m extremely proud of every song on the album. They all developed so differently from their initial inception that they still sound so fresh every time I listen.

Could you name any artists or musicians who influence your sound?

Each member of the band has a different opinion of influence than an other. So, I guess there’s a bit The Beatles in there. Some Simon & Garfunkel. A hint of Bob Dylan. A smidgeon of The Hollies. Maybe a borrowed Arctic Monkeys sound or two. A Motown beat here and there. As you say, it’s more about taking influence from, as opposed to replicating, an element of song-writing.

What are, in your opinion, the main differences between your first album „Curse Our Love“ and „Crocodile“?

Curse Our Love was born from necessity. We’d recorded so many good songs over a 3 year period that we sort of just lumped the best ones together and blindly released them collectively as a record. Crocodile, on the other hand, is a real collection of work. It is a musical-document of around about a 12 month period of our lives that depicts everything that went on in our worlds. I feel the main difference between the two records predominantly is the sound. We’ve always written in a particular style and, in the past, never thought much about how to do ourselves justice with the sound we create but nowadays we’re more conscious of how we replicate live what we create in the studio. It’s more thoughtful these days.

The video to the first single from the album was shot in Germany, right? What’s the story behind that video? 

We shot ‘The Lash Of The Whip’ video in Cologne. We fell in love with the brief the director sent over; the idea of replicating scenes from ‘Trainspotting’ and it worked perfectly. It’s a great film and is very fitting to the lyrical content so we were over the moon with the way it turned out. We had the Oscars knocking on the door for a couple of our performances there.

What’s your favourite release so far this year? 

We’re big fans of the new Arctic Monkeys record. It’s a very accomplished album from a band at the height of their ability. The new Frightened Rabbit record is top-notch as well.

You’ve recently been touring with Sportfreunde Stiller. Could you tell us more about it?

That was so much fun. They’re great guys and we got on like a house on fire. We’d not really heard their stuff before so it was quite refreshing to get to tour with a band who you don’t have any expectation of but we had a great time, the shows were fantastic and the reaction of the audience to our music was brilliant.

You’ve been touring a lot the last few years. Do you have any favourite memories? Any funny anecdotes?

There are really too many to mention. Every day on tour there is something new. The best memories are always of the gigs though. We’ve played at some amazing places over the past few years that I don’t think I could even begin to make a proper list and rank them in any order but long may it continue.

Let’s talk about something completely different. I bet that you’re into football, am i right? If yes, what’s your fav’ team then?

Bang on the money. The majority of us support Middlesbrough FC who are currently languishing pathetically mid-table one league below the Premiership. However, we’ve just recruited a new manager so things are looking up… we hope.

Well guys, i’ve a very last question and it’s a quite personal one… What’d you call a perfect friday night?

It’s incredibly boring nowadays: Finish at the rehearsal room. A few beers at our local. Head home to our loved ones. Consume some terribly unhealthy food. Catch up with our manager. Then off to bed. Nothing overly fancy these days I’m afraid.

Thank you so much for taking your time! I really appreciate it. See you very soon.

Hope to see you soon. Take care.

Andrew.

Hier gibt’s die Single „The Last of the Whip“ in voller Länge: