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Interview: Your Last Day release single "Shipwreck"

If you’re a fan of Senses Fail and especially the song, "Buried A Lie," you’ll know where Devon-based pop-punk band Your Last Day (YLD) inherited their name from.They're surely a band worth giving your ears a listen!


The 5 piece band are from Devon (also the home of Muse), a small county in the UK and is comprised of Ryan (Vocals and Beard), Chris and Matt (Guitars and Moustaches), Neil (Bass, Fashion Sense and the Best Beard In The Band) and Kevin (Drums and Snake Like Hips). 

Last month the "sassy, post-hardcore punk" band (according to guitarist Chris) released their single “Shipwreck” along with a music video. So as YLD are miles away from Toronto, a face-to-face interview couldn’t be conducted; nonetheless, I was able to email YLD guitarist, Chris, and got this interview rollin' (thank God for the internet!). 

How did Your Last Day form? And how did you guys meet?

Matt, Ryan and I used to be in a Pop-Punk band with mates from school. Ryan was on drums, I was on bass and Matt on guitar. After our singer left we decided to make a better/heavier band moving away from our familiar brand of noisy pop. Ryan bought a microphone, I invested in two extra strings and Matt watched an inspirational video about song writing on the internet. Our original drummer was replaced after Kevin filled in for him at a show (which was a pretty awkward week for everyone) and Neil replaced our on/off bass player after he decided it was time to focus on an actual career!

Why did you pick YLD? How did you come up with the band name?

A collective influence of the band is Senses Fail and our name is taken from the song "Buried A Lie". It was on a fresh spring morning Ryan and I were both weirdly listening to that song at the same time and we called each other and had the idea of calling ourselves Your Last Day. 

You released an EP a few years ago, could you tell me a little more about it?

Our first EP release 'I Am The Captain' is more of a heavy Pop-Punk sound. It was recorded by our friend Luke, who works in music tech and really highlighted how much of a disorganised band we were! He would always be in a mood as he only agreed to record us when we had everything finished and ready but we would regularly turn up to sessions without guide tracks, with broken equipment, trying to change things halfway through recoding songs, not playing in time and could never decide on a tempo until minuets before recording, then want to change it after. I’m surprised we're still friends with Luke as we practically gave him a nervous breakdown every time we turned up. Our second self-titled release has more of a mature Gruff-Punk sound which we recorded and produced ourselves. We took our time with it and made as many changes as we wanted without having Luke in the background complaining every five minutes!  

What is the inspiration behind "Shipwreck"?

It’s all about being in a situation where you find yourself stuck in a rut and if you don’t move on it’s going to drag you down. For us there isn’t a Post-Hardcore/Punk scene where we live. We have an ongoing battle just trying to book shows or get on support slots so its finding the drive to overcome that and take our sound further afield. Japan is the furthest we’ve reached thanks to the internet. 

Any fun/memorable moments while filming "Shipwreck"? 

The most memorable part was having a dog defecate our set!  As it was on a farm there was a dog roaming around and as soon as we had cleared out the barn, set up the camras, drum kit, amps etc etc it wondered in, looked Ryan right in the eye and did a sh*t right in the middle of the barn without breaking eye contact, set the tone for the day really.

Will you be releasing an album soon? If so, what can we expect on it?

We’re currently working on new material which has much more of the 'Shipwreck' feel to it, moving away from our Punk roots but still having certain elements there. We are hoping to release a mini album later in the year so you can expect some outrageously catchy songs that will get stuck your head for days. You'll probably curse the day you ever laid ears on us. 

Who are your inspirations?

As a band we’ve got a good mix of influences ranging from Punk, Hardcore and Alternative bands like Senses FailFuneral For A Friend, [Toronto-based] Danko JonesTheBronxFour Year StrongReuben and Every Time I Die. Lyrically our songs are a mixture of things that have happened to us, our friends and situations you can find yourself in at some stage of your life.   

What are the future plans for the band? And what can we look forward to?

The plan is to move on to bigger and better things so getting a solid record out there is at the top, then we're on the lookout for a label and management. We like to mix a bit of comedy in with our shows so if you ever come see YLD you can expect us to be making fun of ourselves, asking people what they had for dinner and heckling. Oh and we might play the odd song here and there. 

A fun question, what’s on your rider?

We don't expect anything when we play, so just having a dressing room is more luxury than we're used to but Subway sandwiches are the usual request (mainly to the staff at Subway) Carlsberg. We've never ask for it but for some reason we always get given Carlsberg, it's the worst beer I've ever tasted but if there came a time where we didn't get given some when we play, I'd secretly be disappointed.  

What a fun bunch a subway sandwich eating guys! You can be a part of the fun too by following them on Facebook and Twitter

Watch and listen to "Shipwreck" below! 


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