Brighton rock band YONAKA head to Rescue Rooms on Monday 31 January. We have a chat with them about their music to see what audiences can expect…
How did YONAKA come to be?
Theresa: So we’ve been a band for about six years now. We all met in Brighton and everyone was just doing their own thing before. Al was in a different band and then he left that to come and join us - he was only meant to come out for a show and then he was like, “Actually, no, I’m going to stay.” We’ve just been playing ever since.
Alex: We were friends even before starting the band, which really helped and made it a lot easier.
Theresa: And then we’ve just been together since that - and now it's our job, which is really nice. It feels good.
You have such a unique, powerful sound. What led you to find this?
Alex: It kind of changes all the time. When Theresa first started we were very much influenced by a lot of sixties pop.
Theresa: I’m still influenced by it, but we now listen to so much more music. It just changes how we sound. Seize the Power sounds so different to Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow, and that’s in what we are listening to but also in growing, we produce all our own things now. Production is huge to us so that's why this record sounds so much more fresh, because we have been playing so much more with sounds. In terms of inspirations, I guess we all have different ones. My idols are Amy Winehouse, Jeff Buckley, The Shangri-Las. And Kanye West is now an artist I listen to every single day because his art is just insane.
Alex: We all have a mutual love for hip hop. Also some heavier stuff. I grew up listening to loads of prog rock, and sort of weird stuff. But I also love pop music. We all kind of love everything.
George: I’ve been going through a really cool math phase, and I thought that was like the coolest thing ever but it's just a way to show off to your mates on guitar and stuff like that. It’s still fun to listen to every now and then but it's definitely more enjoyable to make and do music that is universally credited.
Theresa: Yeah we all love different music, and then we all have similar music that we absolutely love - but mostly the sound is just in us getting stronger at writing.
What is your writing and production process?
Theresa: It changes a lot. Sometimes it starts with just an emotion, like wanting to write a fast, angry song, or if I’m feeling a bit rubbish, wanting to write something about how I feel. Other times it starts with a melody or a riff or some random sounds.
Alex: It could just be a loop, something we have written on the computer. Other times, we create a whole song on acoustic or piano, fill it out, structure it. But I think it's important to not have one particular way to do it, otherwise it gets stale and boring. You need to keep it exciting for yourself.
Theresa: The other day when we started writing, I was trying to write some melodies on the keyboard, and sometimes we have to go through each of the ways to find what will work that day. It really does change. We try to stick to a certain way, but ultimately it changes to suit what fits.
It’s good that we’ve played venues with other bands and then get to come back and headline it.
What was the inspiration behind the name YONAKA?
Theresa: When I was thinking of the name, I wanted it to be something with a dark tinge to it, and YONAKA means midnight. When I was younger, I would always try to write really happy songs, and I thought that's what you have to do because I used to listen to lots of pop music where everything’s so happy. But then I started falling in love with a lot of my favourite artists and I realised how they were writing, and it was from the heart, with a lot of emotion, it was quite dark. And then I thought okay, the name needs to be like that.
How have you spent your time off of gigging?
Theresa: We wrote the whole of Seize The Power through that. We just hit it hard, we were working like six days a week, and then we got to the point in November/December where we were like, “I think we need to take a few days off now because this is a lot, this isn’t working anymore.” So we took a little bit of time off, and then we carried on writing, and we sorted the whole of Seize the Power, which was really great. And then, this year, we’ve been able to get back into gigs which has been nice, because you really miss that part. It’s the fun bit where you get to show off what you can do, and also share it with all your fans, and that's the bit that elevates you.
Alex: Such an important part of us as a band is playing live.
What are you most excited about for this upcoming tour?
Theresa: Just for us to be with our fans. We’ve done a support tour this year, and we have only had one show since the pandemic that has been our show. So I’m really excited to just be with our fans. And also, we are going to be playing the mixtape and the album. It’s going to be really nice. We can share that time with them, and because it's our show we can do a bit more of what we are doing on stage.
George: It’s good that we’ve played venues with other bands and then get to come back and headline it. What we did with Frank Carter, and selling out Manchester, that was a really special moment.
YONAKA perform at Rescue Rooms on Monday 31 January and you can buy tickets here.
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