Discussing the band’s newly released EP Losing Streak, vocalist Benji Yapp explains the titles as being “relevant – it relates to the hard times in life that everyone goes through, where it just seems to be one bad thing after another.” But don’t go thinking that You Know The Drill are all doom and gloom, the band – completed by Damo Darby on bass, Brad Potter on drums and guitarists Jim McCormack & Luke Astley – have a simple mantra: “if it isn’t fun then what’s the point?”. The EP bats for the rafters, with their energy laden guitar and drum attack and vocal hooks left, right and centre, on their big-room-ready choruses. Following the EP’s release at the end of October, we asked the guys to take the A-Z interview; let’s find out more about them…
A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music: A song that always motivates me to make music is “Up In Smoke” by Neck Deep. The raw emotion of that track gets me every time and I think it’s a perfect example of modern pop punk at it’s best.
Best Album Ever Written: Ah wow tricky, umm in my opinion it would be Take To The Skies – Enter Shikari but I imagine the whole band would disagree with me, but if I had to guess on their behalf I’d say Neighbours – Blink 182.
Craziest Moment You’ve Experienced In The Band: I think the craziest moment we’ve experienced so far would be having Alex Adam swing by the studio when we were recording our EP Losing Streak. He actually had a lot of really good ideas which helped the record reach it’s full potential. Don’t think we ever expected it to happen!
Deepest Lyrics One Of Your Songs Features: For me “I hate what I’ve become” sticks out to be as the deepest. It’s from our track ‘Repose’.
Easiest Song You Wrote: I think for this EP, “Less Than You” was the easiest as pretty much all the sections fell into place and nothing hugely changed in the final version.
Favourite Show You’ve Ever Played: For me personally, I’d have to say that my favourite show was ing Area 11 at the O2 Institute 3. Was a very nearly sold out room and it was so enjoyable to be a part of.
Guest You’d Most Like To Feature On A Your Record: I’d personally like a cheeky feature from Brendan Lukens from Modern Baseball. But I imagine the rest of the band would say Tom DeLonge.
Happiest Moment In You’ve Experienced In The Band: So far I’d say our happiest moment was wrapping on the recording of our EP Losing Streak. Vibes were extremely high and we worked with really dedicated people. Really couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
Interesting Fact About One Of Your : Benji and Damo were in a band when they first started playing music called Bedroom Floor Smackers, surprisingly they played lots of Blink-182 and Sum 41 because that’s really unpredictable!
Jokes You Have In The Band: 99% of the band humour is referencing films and TV shows, but I’d say a classic joke was me quoting a scene from family guy where a tattoo artist insists on tattooing kermit the frog rather than what the person asks for. It’s really not funny but the fact that it’s not funny is why we find it funny. We’re strange people…
Kicking Off Your Set Is Best With Which Song: Probably “No Ambition”, everyone seems to lose their shit over that track which is a great way to kick off.
Longest Distance You’ve Travelled To Play A Show: Glasgow (so far) – 6 hours in a sweaty van is definitely not fun for the most part.
Most Inspiring Musician You’ve Ever Experienced: I met the drummer from EMF once and he was one of the most genuine musicians I’ve ever met. He listened to our single “No Ambition” and said he was surprised that we weren’t already off touring the world! Such a great guy and gave me lots of motivation and advice.
New Band You’d Recommend: In Her Own Words, they’re an American pop punk band and they slay.
Opening For This Band Would Be Ideal: I think if we ever opened for Blink-182 or The Story So Far that would be life goals complete and we could all die happily
Place You’d Most Like To Tour: I’d love to do a massive USA tour, maybe Warped!
Quote That You’d Like To On To Readers: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take – Wayne Gretzky” – Michael Scott
Reason For The Title Of Your Recent/Forthcoming Release: Losing Streak is a lyric from the lead single “Less Than You” and it’s generally about that time in your life where everything seems to be going wrong one after the other
See Us Live At: We’re ing the mighty ROAM on November 20th in Birmingham at Mama Roux’s, come down if you’re local and get rowdy!!
The Old Days Of Music Were Better Than Those Current, do you agree: I’d have to disagree, music has always been great but it’s developing all the time and getting better with every release
Unusual Merchandise: The weirdest and coolest merch I’ve ever seen a band do was when Weezer sold a line of snuggles with a copy of Raditude. Such a sick idea.
Variations You’d Like To Do On Any Of Your Songs: I’d love to get a remix of “Repose” done, in a Shikari kind of style.
What Bands Have You Seen Live and Regretted: That’s a real tough one! I’d personally say Emmure but only for the fact that the band weren’t being very nice to the sound engineers and were acting quite childish over minute things
X-rays or any other treatments needed for band related injuries: We’ve not really had a mass amount of injuries in all honesty! I think the worst thing that’s happened has been Damo cutting his hand onstage and covering his bass in blood during the set. It was really gross…
You could have written any song in history, which would you pick: “Bohemian Rhapsody”, being able to say I wrote that banger would make my life.
Zoo animal that best describes the personality of your band: I’d say a group of monkeys, cause we’re all funny looking but actually quite intelligent…
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