Currently on the road with theredsunband, Sydney outfit Youth Group chat to FasterLouder about the new album, touring America and unifying ice-cream.

Soooo, theredsunband? Tell us a little about why you chose this band as roadside-buddies.
A combination of being dear old friends and them putting out an incredible new album. We didn’t have a choice but to try and be a part of getting it out there and into people’s souls.

Touring: an evil that must be done, for many. How do you guys enjoy it? Tell us your fave tour story.
I wouldn’t say it’s an evil, but just part of the whole deal of putting out music. I’d be lying if I said recording wasn’t the most enjoyable and rewarding aspect of being in a band for me, but there are also so many great parts to touring and playing live. Obviously it can become draining and unhealthy at times, but we all have so many great stories from the times we’ve had and places we’ve been. It’s hard to deny it can incredible, not to mention the thrill of playing new songs to people and gauging their reactions.

For all of these reasons the North American tour we did with Death Cab would be a big YG favourite. From Sloan sing-a-longs backstage, to being invited onstage to sing back-ups on Transatlanticism at the Hammerstien Ballroom in NYC before about 5,000 people, it was an incredible time for us and something we all cherish. And there’s also the friendships we made with the guys as well, reaching even as far as having Chris Walla mix half of our new album.

Interestingly, probably the best parts for me are the bonds and friendships that can develop during tours and this current tour is no exception. I think it’s safe to say there are a few man-crushes forming already…

Let’s flog a dead horse for a second here. The whole ‘hit in America song’, Forever Young and the OC effect. How do you deal with a song taking off like that? And how do you try to follow that up?
My advice is don’t try and follow it up – which is what we did and it must’ve worked, because commercially, we didn’t. It depends on what you want from it though. For us [that song] was something that we didn’t really feel was a true representation of our band and so the decision to continue making records we believe in, regardless of the commercial opportunities, was quite an easy one. Doesn’t pay the bills, but we sleep easy at night.

Give us a little on the ‘music for music’s sake’ vs. ‘fame’ thing. You’re obviously a hardworking band whose had success in a commercial sense as well. How do you feel about fame?
Well I guess it’s a good thing that loads more people know who we are now, but I definitely don’t feel we’re famous. Funnily enough, the clip was a large part of the success of Forever Young and we’re not even in it. There may be something in that….

Tell us about the recording process for this album. Did the Ws – Whitten and Walla -bring the classic sense of space and ‘epic-ness’ that they have imbued in Death Cab and Augie March?
Definitely. The sound of the work they did with those bands in particular went a long way toward why we approached both Tim and Chris. We felt the new songs suited a much more atmospheric approach and that’s definitely what we ended up with. I think it really works quite well. Having said that, the next album may be entirely different again. It’s really a matter of the songs themselves dictating which direction the production ideals will head.

In regards to this sense of space, how was recording in a mess hall?
Fantastic. We really achieved the feel we set out to capture. Not in so much of a reverb-laden soundscape or anything, but in more the feel and approach of the recordings due to the setting and relaxed schedule we had for ourselves. Nestled in national parkland, right on the harbour, recording day and night at our leisure for three months had much more to do with the very measured and expansive sound of the album than the actual hall did. It was almost more effective than we could’ve imagined. We feel very fortunate to have been able to even attempt the recording this way.

You’ve played at political events. The media makes a lot about musicians trying to save the world. How do you deal with people like this who forget that you’re all just people in a band, and have a legitimate political voice? Do you feel like you do make a difference?
I guess it’s like when students protest, in a way. There are always going to be sections of the population that automatically groan when a musician is really outspoken or a band refuses to play a particular gig or something like that, but it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be carried out. Musicians, artists in general, just by the very nature of their thinking will always be the people challenging conservative ideals or injustices. In some cases, I believe, [we] even have an obligation to say things or stand up for things other people can’t, for whatever reason.

Apparently you can tell a lot about a person by which flavour they eat out of the Neapolitan ice-cream box. Vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry?
Vanilla and chocolate. Together. Side by side.

There are still several dates left on Youth Group and theredsunband’s co-headline tour. You can catch them at the following venues.

Thursday 30 October – Flynn’s Beach Hotel, Port Macquarie
Friday 31 October – The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday 1 November – The J, Noosa
Sunday 2 November – Soundlounge, Currumbin
Wednesday 5 November – Heritage Hotel, Wollongong
Thursday 6 November – ANU Bar, Canberra
Friday 7 November – Capitol Bar, Wagga
Saturday 8 November – Jive, Adelaide
Sunday 9 November – The Pub, Bendigo