British indie band Yard Act brings its 'Leeds sijeol' to Korea

By Jamie Finn

British indie rock four-piece Yard Act has become one of the most exciting acts around. The band combines fun-infused dance-punk with searingly funny social commentary talk-sang by frontperson James Smith. Ahead of their world tour, which includes dates in Korea, Smith talked to The Korea Times about giving up drinking, signing to major labels and his favorite Korean bands.

Yard Act is having a "Leeds sijeol." For those who aren't aware, a Leeds sijeol (a Korean term named after the glory days of footballer Alan Smith while at Leeds United) roughly translates as "golden era." It's a good term to describe the recent success of Yard Act. The band, also from Leeds, has released two albums to critical praise and relative commercial success.

"Yeah, I've heard about Leeds sijeol," Smith said. "I had a mate who lived in Korea for a few years, and he told us about it. It's wild because I was a big Alan Smith fan when I was young. I'm gonna milk that onstage when I come to Korea."

Smith was one of the original members of Yard Act when it formed in 2019. He and fellow founding member Ryan Needham had some moderate success in earlier bands. After a couple of lineup changes, an EP release and a cycle of electric live performances, hype started building quickly.

As 2022 was just kicking off, they released their debut album, "The Overload," a discordant post-punk noise treatise on the gray chaos of Tory-dominated Britain. The album charted at No. 2 in the U.K. and received universal acclaim. Their follow-up, 2024's "Where's My Utopia?" kept the same sense of unnerving chaos and Shite Britain lyrical observations but explored a bigger, disco-inspired sound. The response to the second album was even more glowing, with critics describing it as "riveting" and "infectious" and Yard Act as "operating with unparalleled authenticity."

The perception of the band, though, is just noise, according to Smith. The real reason the band is experiencing a Leeds sijeol is because of what is happening behind the scenes. Smith, who became known as part of the band Post War Glamour Girls, says that Yard Act has a chemistry that makes it something special.

"Yard Act is different," he said. "For one, it's been more successful. It's given us the opportunity to travel the world, which is a big thing for us. In the past, I've been fortunate enough to work creatively with some of my best friends and some properly talented musicians. But the synergy between the members of Yard Act is something else. It wasn't until after touring The Overload that we realized that we have that unique synergy. We realized we'd survived this monumentally chaotic period of painful touring, sleep patterns f--ked, completely broke even though we were selling out venues. We got through the other side and realized that we had grown stronger together. Then when we were writing the second album, we felt it even more. We had this vulnerability around each other, as if we were completely willing to express an idea and have it shut down. That's something special, like carrying a golden goose around with you. And that's not to discredit any of the bands I worked with before Yard Act. It's not really comparable because those bands didn't go through what we went through. They never had the chance to achieve what we did outwardly, to achieve what we did inwardly."

Part of developing this chemistry is going through struggles, but it is also going through good times, something which the band has done more than their fair share of. Almost nonstop touring inevitably leads to nonstop partying, which can quickly take its toll, and as a result, Smith gave up drinking alcohol early 2023. It's something he has mixed feelings about. "I do miss being drunk," he said. "I miss the debauchery. But I don't miss the dread or the hangovers. Doing what we do, drinking is so easy. It's all laid out there on the table. I was boozing constantly and using it as a crutch to cope. It had become a cycle. I was fortunate, in a way, to have the foresight to see that I needed to make changes. I won't name names, but I was looking around at contemporaries of ours who clearly had a problem. They had been on the circuit a couple of years longer than us, so I had to ask myself, 'Do I want to go down this path?'"

Yard Act shows are performed with a lot of energy, and the same feeling of chaos present in their music translates to their live shows. So, the idea of being inebriated in order to perform well was something Smith had to wrestle with. "I believed that up until the third gig after I stopped drinking," he said. "The first two were hell. I didn't know what to do. The first was in Rotterdam; I got really stoned because I thought I should be under the influence of something. That was a bad idea. The second was completely sober. I found that really stressful. But I came offstage, and the reaction from people was the same as all the gigs I had played drunk. That was a light-switch moment for me. It was like, 'Oh, what I feel on stage is not what the audience sees.’ The third time, I felt comfortable doing it, and now I don't think I could ever perform drunk again."

Following Yard Act's early success, the group signed with Universal offshoot Island Records. Any conflicted feelings about signing with a major label that the band had have since evaporated, though. "At my heart, I’m an anticapitalist. I want to see us move beyond capitalism. We had a certain amount of conflict of principles that came from our background as DIY, indie artists. But that has now completely gone. We had a lot of indie labels offering us deals, and we were working out what was best for us. Our manager, Ollie, also comes from an indie background, and he was the one who said, 'Look, I've seen it work both ways — signing for indies and signing with majors. But the way the people at Island are talking about you makes me think they're good, genuine people,'" Smith explained.

"Indie labels can f-ck bands up, too. These days, it's not as simplistic as indie labels equal good and major labels equal bad. So, we did consider it for ages and, in the end, signed with Island, and it was honestly the best decision. It's completely changed my perspective on the music industry. The people there are solid, passionate, compassionate people who deeply care about music."

Smith is quick to point out the myriad advantages to having signed with Island. "I mean, one upside is money. It means we can afford to do interesting stuff," he said. "Our music videos have become a big extension of the band's work. We couldn't have done them on a 500-quid budget. So, I think if you're taking the money from the label and putting it back into your art, that is valid. The label has given us the money to do some right daft sh-t."

But big budgets aren't the only advantage to working with the majors, as the door was suddenly open to working with high-profile musical figures. The biggest of these has to be Elton John, with whom the band collaborated on a reworked version of their track, "100% Endurance." Yard Act has also worked with Remi Kabaka Jr. from Gorillaz — a personal hero of Smith's, who credits Gorillaz as the reason he got into making music.

"Remi was amazing," Smith said. "We met him through Island. He came in for a meeting about another artist but told them he wanted to work with Yard Act. We see him quite a bit now. He is one of them people who is a true artist — from the minute he wakes up to the minute he goes to bed, he lives the life of being an artist. Coming from the background that we come from, that kind of confidence is not instilled in us naturally. Remi taught us not to be ashamed or afraid, so working with him really was life-changing."

Speaking of Gorillaz, Damon Albarn also declared himself a fan. "He's name-dropped us in a few interviews, which I really appreciate," Smith said. "Still waiting on that offer for a collab, though."

As well as their energetic rhythms, Yard Act has become known for its lyrics — a humorous, stream-of-consciousness style that explores personal insecurities twinned perfectly with incisive social commentary.

Smith, the band's chief lyricist, does this by creating characters who can both represent a broader concept while being their own living, breathing things. A great example of this is "Fixer Upper," in which a small-minded, lower-middle-class xenophobe named Graham has just bought his second home. The desperation to humblebrag about newfound but relatively minor wealth while chastising the previous Polish inhabitants is a perfect observation and is the spiritual heir of Harry Enfield's Loadsamoney character.

Smith has some reservations about pushing his takes onto the world and worries about being known as "the social commentary band."

"There are things I want to say, but I don't want to be pegged as the person who just writes about 'how the world is.' I was having a conversation with a mate a little while back, and we were talking about how f--ked the U.K. government is. He said, 'Well, at least you'll have lots of material for the new album.' But I've already decided that I don't want to be that," Smith said.

"Also, there's just so many more interesting voices than mine to speak out about stuff like that. People who have a more interesting perspective than I do on things. Every woman in the world, for starters. Every person of color. It's not that I don't have something to say, but I would rather back their voices."

While Smith is keen to create a barrier between his work and the social commentary it has become known for, he welcomes the reputation the band has for funny lyrics. "I think humor is really important; even in the most dire situations that mankind is going through, people use humor, especially gallows humor, to process. So to remove it from art makes no sense to me. You know, I think it's a valid component of life and, therefore, a valid component of creativity."

The band's world tour includes dates in the U.K., Australia, Japan, China and, of course, Korea.

"I'm dead excited about coming to Korea, yeah," Smith said. "I've been listening to some Korean music, too. I'm really into Leenalchi and Balming Tiger at the minute. John Cooper Clarke played Leenalchi on his radio show and I've been hooked ever since."

You can catch Yard Act at Sangsangmadang in Hongdae on Nov. 25. Visit linktr.ee/yardact to learn more about the band, and highjinkx.com for more information about the tour.

Jamie Finn is chief editor of Platform Magazine.