Interview: Yukon Blonde (March 2010)

Photo Credit: Coreena Lewis


This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted via email with a bunch of Vancouver/Victoria/BC bands who played this year's SXSW (South By South West Festival in Austin). They were selected to play at SXSW by applying via their Sonicbids account. I wonder if they were backing JRF at that GLS show I went to...



Please identify yourself(ves) for those reading, what you do in the band and who else plays in the band

I'm Jeffrey Innes and I sing and play guitar and so does Brandon Scott. Graham Jones plays drums and sings, and we have a good friend with us right now named Andy Bishop from a band called Red Cedar playing bass and singing.


Tell us a little about the history of the band

We used to be called AlphaBaby. We played a lot of shows, cut very few records and held onto our silly name forever. We had been touring with Jon Rae Fletcher as his backup band as well as playing our own set and he constantly reminded of how bogus our name was. It because apparent when several agencies refused to check us out because of our name. We also had terrible luck on our last tour, (crashed our van, lost our homes, keyboardist quit etc.,) so we dropped everything, changed our name and moved.


How would you describe your sound

Very modern and new.


Are there any emerging local bands that you really like?

Hell yes. There's a band we've recently become friends with called the Orpheans and they are soo amazing. Red Cedar are our best friends and play with us once in awhile, Treelines Ladyhawk, Sun Wizard, Minto, Said The Whale, Hannah Georgas, Aidan Knight, Bend Sinister, We Are The City, Kingdom Cloud, Dan Mangan, Buffalo Swans, Black Mountain and company, and Sports are some of our friends bands we really like too.
Also, they sort of live in Van, but Rah Rah is one of the greatest bands ever.


Any good SXSW stories?

Well, so far on our first day, we all got pretty sunburnt and crazy dehydrated. Yesterday we started drinking and playing/ watching shows at 11 am and didn't stop until 1 am. We met The Besnard Lakes which is my favorite band right now and found out today that they're staying in the same hotel as us. I feel like a stalker sorta.


Where and what was the best thing you ate while there?

Homeslice pizza. I feel like i'm doing a pizza tour right now instead of touring the record. I've tried pizza in every town (including NY, Chicago and Boston), and the only pie that remotely compares to home pizza is that of Austin. Good work


What's a song from the 80's that you really like?

Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World". That's #1 right now.. but there's a million good songs from the 80's.


What's the coolest thing you've ever bought?

I think the "coolest" thing I ever bought was those Nike Airs in 96. I felt really lame in them, but they we're the coolest shoes at the time. I took them off once in the field at school to go run after girls and they got swiped. I've never gone out of my way to buy cool shit since. I had the exact same thing happen with my Macbook with all my music on it, except I loved it, and it wasn't a field but rather a coffee shop in Kelowna where I knew everyone. Asshole just got by us all...


What are your near-future plans band-wise?

Tour as much as possible. We have some new songs that we'll hopefully record by December, but until then it's the dusty trail.


Thanks for doing the interview, you have the last word, say what you want to say

I'd just like to say that with a list of bands as big as the one I listed, there could easily one or two close friends bands that I love but am forgetting. I'd like to apologize in advance for the unfair exclusion.

Thanks for the interview!



http://www.yukonblonde.com
http://www.myspace.com/yukonblondeband