Music Larking About LOCAL Katie Harkin, singer with hotly tipped Leeds band Sky FOCAL Larkin, talks smells and snores with Tom Law o us Local Focalers never get Da rest from the incessant bun- here’s no let up with the ‘Lark. dles of singles, albums and demos On top of dashing between that the great, the average and the TCamden, Leeds and the 6 Music downright terrible insist on putting session studio, Katie, an art history out all the time? finalist at UCL, must also find time for No sooner do we get to the the small matter of a dissertation. end of one mountain of CDs, than Though as you’d expect, she’s rel- another appears. Still, it beats that ishing the prospect of next month’s fortnight when no CDs turned nationwide tour. It makes sense, since up and we had to invent a band, skylarks sing on the wing. Revealing record a demo on an old walkman and post it to ourselves. their on-the-road dynamic, Katie jokes: www.marknewtonphotography.co.uk “Nestor [the fierce, determined drum- So, let’s start with Sometree. mer] is the smelliest and Doug [the They’re German, but they’re calm, curly-haired bassist] snores the allowed in here because their single most.” Not that the stench of band- is being released by Leeds’ Dance mates who sleep in their clothes both- To The Radio. Unfortunately, ers her. She’s much more concerned ‘Hands & Arrows’ isn’t that good, with the business of being a musician. getting by as an unfussy slab of By extension, the modest Katie has emotive rock. Kinda like ¡Forward, little regard for rock’s image obsession: Russia! toned down and smartened “It’s that strange position as a musician up. when, as well as making music, there’s a point where you have to stand in front of a camera, which isn’t why you started.” He’s not the only one jostling to we play is cathartic. A positive loss Her graceful beauty is undeniably get close. From scintillating current of control, you could say.” Ignoring photogenic, but she can rest assured single ‘One of Two’ to the equally bril- rumours of lucrative record deals, she that media interest hasn’t attracted liant ‘Young Lungs’ and the grandiose adds, “Making music will be part of my this swelling crowd of hometown fans ‘Somersault Notes’, these songs exude life whether it becomes my vocation or Then there’s The Sugars, to the Fav — the songs have. Ably a cool, infectious exuberance. Add the not.” whose ‘Monsters’ (Bad Sneakers) supported by The Acutes and Mother fact that they’re delivered with youth- It seems highly likely that it will, is radically better than that dia- Vulpine, Sky Larkin take to the stage ful passion and effortless charm, and soon enough. bolical excuse for a song by The amid an audible swirl of anticipation. you begin to see why Sky Larkin mat- ‘One Of Two’ (b/w ‘Young Lungs’) Automatic with which it almost The big hair of one excitable fan, who ter. is out now on Dance To The Radio. shares a name. It’s gloriously ret- looks more like a Horrors groupie, Katie should have just enough time Sky Larkin are part of our forth- rospective, and manages to sound tickles onlooking faces as he clambers to clinch her degree before things coming feature on Leeds’ bands to like something The Addams Family past. really take off. As she says, “The way watch - coming soon! would play if they DJ-ed a high school formal (I know we don’t have them in this country, but The Sugars clearly wish they were from America, so I’m going to allow It's Grime Up North myself that one, okay?). The b-side ‘Serenade’ is a bit of a beauty as meets Yes Boss and wonders, are they well. Buy this. Tom Goodhand Rhode Island you’ve got to be grime’s answer to Johnny Cash? kind to. They’ve put out a smart- looking homemade CD called than a few minutes, then the band it’s the really quiet ones you’ve got to Horsefly, bless ‘em. And it’s actu- who best sum it up are Yes Boss. Their look out for. If someone’s up there ally pretty good — guitar pop the debut album, Look Busy, draws on onstage going all do-lally, they’re prob- way it should be, sounding like influences from just about everywhere: ably really well adjusted. If someone’s Belle & Sebastian and a less psych- techno, house, rock, hip hop, grime really quiet, you don’t know what’s edelic Super Furry Animals. How there’s all sorts. simmering away up there, do you?” very lovely. “We’ve got hungry minds,” explains The next step for Yes Boss? Well, Finally, an album by Yorkshire words man Noah (NYB). “Really, really the obvious: “Longevity, respect, and folkies The Durbervilles. I was hungry minds. People have this mis- yeah, money, money, money — not to terrified of Alternative Route to conception that we’re these ‘chavs’ have to go back to the shit jobs,” says all Destinations (Splid Records), or ‘hoodies’. Well I’ve got a degree Noah. But that’s not all: “We’d like to which boasts contributions from in Politics and Sociology and Gav is a do a prison gig,” says Gav, completely members of Chumbawamba and qualified Mac engineer and he used to seriously. “We’re looking into playing a the Fairport Convention. That’s teach. We’re into all kinds of stuff.” young offenders prison in Scotland. We enough to put any sane member of These misconceptions extend to think it might be a good inspiration for society off a record. Thankfully it’s the rowdy live shows that see NYB and us to do a live set and then talk to the not half as bad as you think — just Gavron both acting in what could only kids. Not tell them that they should some good old sad ballads and joy- be termed a ‘confrontational’ manner. be doing this, but say, ‘Well, we’ve ous knees-ups. You probably need f, as we like to keep telling you, “It’s because we love that whole punk done this and that in our pasts, but a great big beard and a bale of hay Leeds really is a city of musical thing, getting up there and getting into this is what we’re doing now.’” Well, it to really appreciate it though. I’m diversity, where you can see eve- it,” says Gavron. worked for Johnny Cash didn’t it? working on it. I TG rything from hip hop to electronica to “As long as you’re going to let it out, Yes Boss’ debut album Look Busy is metal without having to walk for more it’s not a problem,” adds Noah. “I think reviewed on page 53 Wed 21 Feb-Thu 08 Mar 2007 Looking for listings? Visit www.leedsguide.co.uk The Leeds Guide 51 Music Music Previews LCD Reviews Albums Also Released Meet The Band Grammatics Yes Boss - Look Busy Album of the Fortnight Grinderman - s/t (Mute) ★★★ Soundsystem (Dance To The Radio) ★★★ Disco infiltrators come to Alex Denney meets Leeds’ newest epic rockers Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Leeds Angry Mob (B-Unique) ★★★★ table) chorus, to the Buzzcocks-y sugar rush of ‘Everything Is Average Nowadays’, it’s a record positively Yes Boss have always been the anom- overflowing with hooks, crowd- aly in Dance To The Radio’s primarily pleasing singalongs and insanely indie roster. By picking up elements of infectious melodies. Presumably the by-product of Nick grime, hip hop and electronica, they Blondie provide the rhythmic Cave’s 2006 tour with four of his bad were always going to stick out like a fter the success of their debut punk-goes-pop blueprint on ‘Heat seeds, this riotous, post-watershed sore thumb amongst the likes of The Ablew the band up to the size of Dies Down’ while elsewhere, like set of gut-bucket blues sounds like Pigeon Detectives and Sky Larkin. a gigantic, inflatable Kaiser-saur, the Blur before them, the Kaisers under- the musical equivalent of a bit-on-the- But being the misunderstood out- pressure of the follow up could have stand that a pop song allows you How on earth does James ‘LCD side for the long-time collaborators. siders is what Yes Boss do best, and made them burst. to say as much with a well placed Soundsystem’ Murphy manage to A rushed knee-trembler perhaps, but it’s driven them to create Look Busy, But no. Instead, Yours Truly... ‘la-la-laa’ (or a ‘woo-oooah!’) as it find the time to make a record quite exciting with it. JE an album that, whatever else you may sounds like the Kaiser Chiefs have does with a keenly observed turn and tour it? Not only does he run think of it, is viciously honest and blaz- taken a trawler through all the great of phrase. Though doing both helps. the massively well-respected DFA Alex Gopher - s/t (Idol ingly passionate. pop of the past 30 years, filtered And the drums ‘n’ handclaps two and Records (the US home of the won- ★★★ Unfortunately, Yes Boss’ passion for out everything but the most joy- a half minutes into ‘Learnt My Lesson Recordings) derful Hot Chip and host to all sorts what they’re doing could also be their ous, inventive and brilliantly catchy Well’ are pure ‘Biology’-period Girls French house legend of other great electronica acts), he downfall.