It's no great surprise that Michael Tomlinson is sounding downright perky. After all, his band, Yves Klein Blue, are responsible for some of the perkiest music to come out of Brisbane in recent times (the jaunty single 'Getting Wise' answers the question "What would happen if Arctic Monkeys and Dexy's Midnight Runners had a music baby together?"), much of which is on their debut album Ragged & Ecstatic. And that's not all that's on the album: while their debut EP 'Yves Klein Blue Draw Attention to Themselves' presented a band deserving of that attention, the album expands their indie-rock brief admirably from the almost African hi-life guitar of 'Make Up Your Mind' through to the drunken country of 'Gin Sling'.
"That was one of the things that I guess was a policy in our band, to have loose boundaries and be willing to go out on a limb," he explains. "Because we, of course, love all different types of music: we love dub and reggae, we love The Band, we love punk music, so we just try to play all the music that we really love. And we also really wanted to make a record with highs and lows, some ebb and flow, in the mould of all our favourite records. You know, records you can put on and listen to start to finish and not hear 12 of the same songs."
It's a perspective that's out of step with the prevailing spirit of these digital-music times, when people are supposedly listening to tracks rather than albums.
"But that's when you get a real connection," he insists. "I don't really, truly fall in love with a record unless it's something that you can put on, and that's magical: [The Strokes'] Is This It? was one of those records, and [Lou Reed's] Transformer, and [Television's] Marquee Moon. And that's what we wanted to do. I'm not saying that we achieved that – I'm not the one to say if we did or not – but that was definitely the plan. And there are few singles on there, but in the end the singles are just going to get downloaded anyway so you might as well make the album an experience."
The album was recorded in the US and the band took full advantage of the opportunities it afforded them. "The studio we were in, we had anything that we could possibly desire at our fingertips. Of course in Los Angeles you can get horn sections and [legendary sessioneer and longtime member of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers] Benmont Tench just playing piano – I mean, you'd be crazy not to take advantage of that."
That's not to suggest that the process was easy. "We'd toured all over Australia [before recording], and were playing the songs that we had flagged to record. However, when we got to the studio..." he chuckles. "We worked with [producer] Kevin Augunas, who's done Cold War Kids, and when we got there we were really confident – you know, 'let's cut it live, yeah, punk rock' – and he was like 'OK, what song do you want to do first?' and we went ''Soldier'' and he went 'But that song isn't working.' And we went 'Yes it is.' And he went, 'No, it's not.'"
Ah.
"Yeah. So he says 'get the kick drum and a snare, nothing else. Now play the bassline.' And so we played the kick and the snare, and the bassline wasn't matching it. And that was the moment when we realised how much work we had to do. It was the first time that we were challenged by an objective third party who asked 'is this good?' But we really pushed ourselves, and the result is something that we never, ever thought was possible."
Most of all, Tomlinson's looking forward to getting out and playing the songs live. "We all feel so confident in it, when we play those songs. It's a new feeling – a new level of..." he pauses, chocked with enthusiasm. "How can I explain it? I can't!"
Yves Klein Blue launch Ragged & Ecstatic on Sat 4 Jul at the Oxford Art Factory. Read our review of the album here!
You've read what we think. Now tell us what you think.
taken from: http://www.timeoutsydney.com.au/music/yves-klein-blue.aspx
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