YUCK / LANEWAY Q&A

Jonny Rogoff has an intimidating head of hair and plays drums in London-based Yuck, who will be performing their fuzzy pop gems at Auckland’s St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, 30th January 2012. Here is what he had to say to Thom Brown in the lead-up to Laneway.

Where are you right now?
I’m actually at Stansted Airport in London; we just got back from a trip around Europe.

Before Laneway Festival in January I see you’re playing the Weezer cruise. How did that come about?
I just remember receiving an email saying “Would you like to play with Weezer?” And I was like, “well, yeah…are you serious? We’d love to do that.” Then more information came through, like that it was a cruise and more awesome bands were involved, like Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, apparently even some of Ween will be there.

And then you’re straight into playing Laneway.
Yeah, we’ve never played Australia or New Zealand before. I think this will be the furthest place we’ve played after Japan, and none of us have been [your way] so we’re really looking forward to it.

Perhaps NZ native and Possum Records label mate Ruban Nielson (Unknown Mortal Orchestra) can give you the tour?
Definitely. We became good friends with Ruban and those guys during a 2-3 week tour of the States with UMO back in July so we’ll definitely catch up. We actually have a few days off so it’ll be nice to feel the ‘lay of the land’, so to speak.

Yuck’s sound has been likened to a lot of American bands like Pavement, Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. Are they fair comparisons?
You kinda go through pockets of interest in certain types of music, like Daniel and Max for a while were influenced by those bands, including others like Superchunk and Teenage Fanclub. You’re always gonna get compared with something, so it might as well be something you like.

Do you think using LA based Michael Reich to direct Yuck’s videos contributes to these American comparisons?
Certainly. The videos were actually the one aspect of the band we were really unsure about. But then we got our first treatment for Rubber from Michael, who is LA based as you mentioned, and we knew we could trust him to make an awesome video. And we just sort of stuck with him from there. He also directed Holing Out and Shook Down.

Shook Down is visually quite interesting, with semi graphic shots of a dog and girl grooming. What was the thought process behind that?
Ha ha. That was mostly Michael’s idea, which was an interpretation of Shook Down’s lyrics. We like that it’s a pretty crazy video.

How do Yuck songs like Shook Down take shape?
Daniel and Max generally write and shape the songs. They’ve been really good friends since childhood, they were in a band previously together called Canjun Dance Party and they started writing songs for Yuck one summer about two and a half years ago. Then the time came when they needed a bassist and a drummer - Mariko had just finished playing bass with Levelload and I met Daniel when I was living in Israel and they ended up inviting me over to London.

What would you do if you weren’t playing music?
Well when I joined the band I was at University doing something I didn’t want to do. I was studying radio and TV production. It was an interest of mine but I was really unsure. I’d probably still be doing that.

You’re stranded on a desert island and you’re allowed to take three records with you, what would you take?
Oh man, you mean like three albums? That’s hard. If I was stranded right now I’d take something recent like the new Unknown Mortal Orchestra album or Keep it like a Secret by Built To Spill, just because in my opinion it’s a perfect record. Damn, that’s only two.

Perhaps the third could be a person, dead or alive.
Can they be fictional? Perhaps I’d take Tom Hank’s character when he was stranded on a desert island with his basketball, “Wilson” in Castaway. I’ll go with that, I’m sure we could really help each other out.

You have an intimidating afro. Who do you think would have the hair to play you in an autobiographical film?
Santa Claus. Absolutely. I like to think of myself as a generous person.

What has been the most memorable moment of 2011 for you?
I was gonna say the birth of my son but then I realized I don’t have one. Ah man, there are too many.

What about 2012, what are you looking forward to the most?
Looking forward to cutting a new record, playing the Weezer cruise and Laneway.

Do you have a message for people watching you at Laneway?
Have a good time. Sorry, not much of a message - more of a statement.