Yard Act have released their new single and “ode to friendship”, ‘We Make Hits’ – check it out below.
The Leeds band’s new track is the latest taste of their forthcoming second album ‘Where’s My Utopia? (out March 1), following singles ‘Dream Job’ and ‘Petroleum‘.
Listen to the track and watch the accompanying music video below.
Speaking about the new track in a press statement, frontman James Smith said the song “started like most Yard Act songs do these days, in Ryan’s spare bedroom”, adding: “He’d recorded a couple of basslines and I went round to throw some words on top just to see what might happen.”
He continued: “I was reflecting on how things had changed so much for us over the last few years when I realised that sat round a laptop trying to make each other laugh, necking black coffee and craneing our heads out of the window to smoke cigs every hour or so, all that had really changed within the writing process was that, thanks to my baby, we were at Ryan’s house rather than mine and that Ryan had a place of his own now, which was nice.”
The artist added that “despite the outside blowing up, behind closed doors, we were the same, and I’m grateful for that”. He went on: “You can see the cynicism and the silliness on the surface of ‘We Make Hits’ without much effort, but at its core, for me, it’s really an ode to friendship and the unfiltered joy you feel when you’re making music with the people you hold dear in your life.”
Director James Slater said that the ‘We Make Hits’ music video is “part of an ever expanding cinematic universe – a continuation of The Visitor’s journey we began with ‘The Trench Coat Museum”.
He shared: “For ‘We Make Hits’ I took a song which charts the origin story of the band and used it to tell the backstory of two hapless hitmen who upon receiving an eviction notice in their student bedsit embark on a job search which ultimately leads them to gainful employment as assassins for the Holy Global Enterprise. As ever with the Yard Act vids I’ve made, this vid is part of an ever expanding cinematic universe – a continuation of The Visitor’s journey we began with ‘The Trench Coat Museum’.”
Yard Act’s follow-up to their acclaimed acclaimed Mercury-nominated 2022 debut ‘The Overload’ has been co-produced by the band alongside Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr. You can pre-order it here.
Speaking to NME about the release, Smith offered a taste of what to expect sonically: “This is a party album and we had so much fun making it. Musically, it just felt really freeing,” adding that there is “a lot of humour in this record”.
Yard Act will being embarking on a huge 2024 UK and European tour this year, including massive homecoming show at Leeds’ Millennium Square Leeds on August 3. You can find all the dates here and purchase tickets here.
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