‘You've got to play the bangers’: Yard Act on AI, Live at Leeds and writing album three

The Leeds-based four-piece burst onto the UK music scene during the Covid-19 pandemic with their debut album The Overload, which went on to be nominated for a Mercury Prize. Since then, they’ve shown no signs of slowing down.

Now enjoying a rare moment of calm between last year's whirlwind second album tour and the approaching 2025 festival season, guitarist Sam Shipstone and drummer Jay Russell took time out at their rehearsal space to speak with the Yorkshire Evening Post.

"We've had more of a chance to sort of be in our own beds for once," said Jay. "We've been quite at it working on new material and stuff, but it's nice to be in Leeds for a bit."

Their second record, Where’s My Utopia?, released in March 2024, earned widespread acclaim and took the band across the UK, Europe, and North America.

"People always say the second album is difficult," Sam reflected. "But the first one was difficult because you’re doing something new and want it to go alright.

"The second one was difficult because you don’t want to mess it up after gaining a big profile from the first – and now people are saying the third record is really important."

The album’s tour featured standout shows, including Glastonbury and a huge homecoming gig in Millennium Square last August.

"That was really something, that one," said Sam. "Because sometimes with festival shows, even though they’re important, you just sort of get into a flow. But that one was very flow-obstructing. It was like, 'Oh my god, this is big. I hope this goes alright.'

"And normally, with festivals, you never see the financial side of it – but with that one, I saw all the figures and just thought, 'Oh my god, I hope no one gets ill!'"

Jay added: "We all had close friends and family there. And I think that adds a completely different level of pressure than playing in front of a crowd of people you don't know."

"It feels like such a privilege to be able to block off a central part of the city to play stupid music," Sam laughed.

In February, Yard Act joined over 1,000 musicians on the silent protest album Is This What We Want? - a response to the UK government's proposed changes to copyright law and artificial intelligence.

Speaking about the growing role of AI in music, the band didn’t mince words.

"This is a proper threatening concept. Some of the technological changes that have affected music – one of them was home taping. And you look back on it in retrospect and think, 'That was a real over-the-top reaction to something minor that didn’t actually kill music'.

"But streaming killed music revenue. And AI is going to kill music revenue again."

"And it does affect you when you’re starting in a band. If the income floor for what you're able to do with a certain audience goes down, then you have to make music differently.

"We were always told the robots would be doing all the crap jobs, and now the robots are doing all the cultural stuff, and we’re left with the crap jobs."

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After a well-earned break, Yard Act returns to the stage on May 21 in Blackpool — a nod to the seven-and-a-half-minute spoken word track Blackpool Illuminations from their latest album.

"We've been sort of threatening to play it for ages, well, since the album came out, but never quite figured it out," Jay admitted. "But we've sort of shot ourselves in the foot here, and now we've got no choice but to [play it in Blackpool]."

Just days later, they’re back on home turf for Live at Leeds: In The Park at Temple Newsam on May 24.

The festival has long been a rite of passage for rising bands in the city, but surprisingly, Yard Act have never played either In the City or In The Park.

"We skipped the first bit of what you should do as a band because of the lockdowns," Sam explained. "It was quite unlike any other band I've been in where the first two years were sort of in private, and then you come out in the world, and you've already skipped that first bit."

Despite hints of a third album on the horizon, fans shouldn’t expect much in the way of new material at Temple Newsam.

"I think we're going to hold off a bit longer," Sam said. "We're going to try and play some of the new ones in a practice room, and if something comes together really fast, we might give it a go.

"But festival slots are quite tight. We'll have to keep it quite snappy."

"You got to play the bangers at a festival," Jay added.

Looking ahead, the band plans to spend the summer writing.

"[In the past] we've done stuff back to back," Sam said. "But [this time] we planned to have a few months of writing.

"We've got loads of demos now, so hopefully there's an album of half-decent stuff in there. We'll be putting that together over the summer or later this year to be released next year."