Years & Years x Interview
Sophia Bischoff - A few hours before their Docks of Lausanne's show, Students.ch met Years & Years to talk about their album and their relationship with techology.
Years & Years : We listen to a lot of different music. We have a lot of varied musical influences. It also comes from the way we create music. We usually start with live instruments. We play around with what we have in the studio and it all becomes a mixture of different ideas.
Students.ch : So your creation process isn't predefined in terms of genre ?
Years & Years : Noooo. If you do create that way, it never ends up the way you wanted it to end up
Students.ch : Does improvisation have a big place in your creation process ?
Years & Years : Yes, it can have. It’s just a lot of playing around with stuff. Will do in the studio on the piano or on the laptop. It’s three of us so we all have to like it. It takes a while sometimes to create a song, but it’s all fun.
Students.ch : Do you think your style is an evolution of nowadays electro scene ? In terms of genres crossing and being mixed together.
Years & Years : I think the way people listen to music shows that they don’t bother any more about genres. With playlists, streaming. So every evolution is a natural way to go. There is no boundaries anymore.
Students.ch : What are you thoughts on the electro scene in the UK ?
Years & Years : UK is usually at the forefront of the trends, emerging music. It’s always an exciting place to be and an exciting area to listen to. But, I feel that there is so many different styles and anyone can upload their songs on the internet. It feels like genres are less and less important than it was before.
Students.ch : You recently release a remix of « Desire » with Tove Lo. Can we expect more collaboration ?
Years & Years : When we were on tour in the US and other places, we used to get our support act to come and sing a duet with Olly and our background singers. It always came out good and we enjoyed it. We know Tove Le from touring around. She’s great. Olly wanted to sing with her so we asked.
Students.ch : You recently did a collaboration with Samsung and gave the very first interactive virtual reality gig. For you as a band, how was this experience ?
Years & Years : It’s was cool. We like doing new technology things. It’s like being in space. There was a bit of people in the room with us. It sounded really cool when we heard of this project so we went for it.
Students.ch : New technologies are more and more used in the music industry. To promote it, to perform it, to release it. Do you think technology will really help the music industry in the long term ?
Years & Years : I think so. People get worried that it’s an either-or thing. That something will replace something else. Which it could do. But I think you should never fight it, you should go with it. It’s more fun that way. I was reading in the paper the other day that the record shops in the street are an old time hype. With the Samsung thing it was cool because instead of watching the show on youtube they can go and look around the stage. But technology can’t replace the actual feeling of being at a gig. But it’s a cool thing to do.
Students.ch : A lot of artists are saying no to streaming, stating that it’ll kill the musicians and performers because of the royalty problem. What are your thought on the subject ?
Years & Years : When it comes to income as an artist, streaming is pointless. It’s true. But it’s only the beginning. At the same time, I think you can’t really stand in the way of the progress, can you ? I find it really hard to imagine us going back to not having streaming. It also have a lot of benefits. We should try to make it as fair as we can with what we got now. I feel like a few years ago we only had Napster, Limewire and all these kinds of things. Back then, streaming didn’t exist. So now, it’s a bit better with streaming.
Also, the tone of the conversation changed a lot in the last three years. Now, people are talking about whether it’s sustainable or not for music, for new acts to come through. Whereas five-ten years ago, no one was even bothering to even discuss it. It just takes a bit of time to get used to technology that comes along. But, we’re cool with it. It doesn't pay our bills but it’s a cool way to get out there.
Students.ch : What was your worst and best experience on stage ?
Years & Years : One of the worst was Splendour in the Grass Festival. All of our instruments were stuck in Canada. We went on stage with an iPad. It was pretty bad. In general, the worst is when your equipment fails you or fails to be there. The best was Glastonbury. We recently played in Brussels in front of 8000 people. It was really nice: the crowd, the show.
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