Yuck talk festivals with us at Y-Not

Y-Not Festival 2014

Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd August 2014
Mouldridge Lane, Pikehall, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 2PH, England MAP
£84.50 (+ booking fee) - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 8,000

eFestivals catch up with all the members of Yuck behind the Big Gin Stage at this year's Y-Not festival.

Do you have many festivals left to do this Summer?

Max: One in Cornwall, one in Portugal, Poland.
Jonny: I have a family wedding so I cannot make the Portugal one, but you're in good hands!

What is your favourite festival memory?

Jonny: Probably seeing Granddaddy at the End of The Road Festival because I was such a big Granddaddy fans for years and years while they were broken up. I got lucky to go to that festival in the first place so it was a lucky situation, and they played, and it was like so many years of like; there's bands that play so many times and it's not as special. When you assume you are never going to see a band, and you love their music and you do see them, it all culminated into this extremely awesome moment of me yelling every song, such a little fan boy.
Max: I've gotta go with Johnny on that one, I was standing there right with him!
Ed: I don't actually have one because my first outdoor festival was the one we played a few days ago (Low Festival in Benidorm)! I've never been a festival goer. I had a pretty good time, swam around in the VIP pool which had a DJ in the middle.
Mariko: Mine is probably Coachella, it was amazing. It's such a different environment to English festivals.
Jonny: Yeah scrap that part I just said [laughs]!

Which festival do you want to play in future that you have not yet played?

Jonny: I think Bonnaroo. I know it has had some really good line ups. All my friends go and camp there for the last four years. They always brag for weeks before and weeks afterward how good the line up is and how generally not uncomfortable it is to be camping there which is very good.

Who would be your top three festival headliners?

[Long pause]
eFestivals: you can say yourselves if you like...
[Laughs]
Max: Yeah that would be good!
Jonny: It's just difficult because I think we have played with a lot of people who I would like to see headline a festival.
Max: I would like to see, on the same stage, Grandaddy, Super Furry Animals and Flaming Lips, just because I've always thought those three bands would go very well together. It would be a very psychedelic evening!
Jonny: Probably Bach, Mastadon, you wanna see bands from completely different ends of the musical spectrum.

Who are your influences?

Max: It changes... everything and anything. It changes on a daily basis. I mean, whatever we're listening to. Who am I listening to now... I can't remember!
Ed: I've been really getting into Fleetwood Mac recently... I know that that's an obvious one, but I never really listened to them extensively, I know the big hits... That's been really cool, for me, discovering a lot of songs by obviously quite a legendary band. They're all really incredible, so that's a nice untouched goldmine for me.
Max: I'm really getting into this band Felt.
Mariko: Yeah they're good.
Max: Who else...
[Silence]
Ed: The sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel!
[All laugh]

Does your name have any special meaning?

Max: No. I don't think so. It's just a name that we thought was just stupid.
Jonny: Oh, you think it's just a name do you? It's a lifestyle!
eFestivals: My band's called Captain Shitbeard so I can't say anything...
[Laughs]
Max: That is amazing!
Jonny: There is a band coming out of America now who are really blowing up, we played with them in Chicago, they are called Diarrhea Planet. You guys should totally play with them! Having a name like that makes a lot of sense because it's totally memorable.
Max: They have a constant flow of guitar riffs.
Jonny: There's no negative impact of having a name like that. They have five guitarists playing solos simultaneously and the drummer just shreds the shit out of the kit.
Max: All the journalists say “They are so good, they can justify having a name like Diarrhea Planet!” Everyone thinks they are being original saying that, but everyone says that.

Who chooses all the music videos to share on your facebook? There are some great songs, like the Breeders and Witch...

Max: That would be me!
Jonny: Sometimes I think I should post something on there
Max: I don't know why I do it all!

Your music videos vary greatly, but really fit to the music in question. Who comes up with those ideas?

Max: The videos for the first album and one of the videos for the second were done by a guy called Michael Lawrence. Those were his ideas. He's like the guy who's got a unique way of making videos and he's got an awesome way of doing things. He's inspired by VCR and old effects. He did our live visuals for a couple of shows too, that's his kind of thing. It's usually other people's ideas and we choose them. With Jonny's tennis video that was sort of our idea.
Ed: We kinda talked about it and had a meeting to discuss it.
Efestivals: [To Jonny] Can you play tennis?
Jonny: I played for a while, so I'm pretty good! I captained a team once...

You're playing on the Big Gin Stage, what drink would you make a large?

Jonny: [turning to Max] Yours is whiskey...
Max: I don't drink a lot of whiskey...
Jonny: I think as you say; gin, large. It's a little sweet actually. Add some diet coke.
Max: Maybe like a huge cocktail, like a fishbowl, with decorations.
Jonny: We had them for my birthday, massive fishbowls.
Max: This one time I was at this bar, and we were just drinking these huge fishbowls, and they had put a huge bottle of rum or vodka in these fishbowls and covered the taste up with all this sweet shit. I drank all of this fishbowl, and I was looking straight ahead, and then suddenly I was looking at the ceiling, I have no idea what happened! I must have fallen backwards on my chair, and was throwing up for the rest of the night; out of the cab window...
eFestivals: You should have kept the bowl!
Jonny: [Laughs] Maybe that's why they are so big!
Max: The bowl was the least of my concerns.
Jonny: For your birthday I'll get you one of those huge metal trash cans and we'll make a gin bucket. We'll make super straws...