24th August 2023

Finding joy in the moment with Yard Act’s James Smith

Name: Campaign Against Living Miserably
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Comedy Music Mental Health

We spoke with James Smith - witty lyricist and frontman of the Leeds post-punk band Yard Act. James chatted about using humour to bring up tough stuff, losing a close mate and why the trench coat’s coming off and some raw emotions are on the table for their latest album.

Yard Act gained momentum during the pandemic, catching themselves and the UK off guard with their sharp rise to success, hitting number two in the album charts and selling out shows across the country.

The band’s songs centre around the spoken word of trench coat-clad James Smith, cultural critiques and hooky guitar riffs. Their brilliant debut album The Overload was heralded for its social observations, picking apart the everyday and conjuring up vivid characters like the local football hero in “Tall Poppies” or proud two-homeowner Graham in “Fixer Upper”. The band not only captures the funny bits of life, they also capture the difficult parts.

Beneath the humour which gilds many of Yard Act’s songs are some pretty serious messages. The song “Tall Poppies” begins as an ode to a popular footballer in a small village, but it’s later revealed that he’s passed away. The song was partly inspired by James losing a close friend in his teens.

“The character in ‘Tall Poppies’ was an amalgamation of myself and several other people I knew. While there are many elements of that song that don’t don’t apply to them specifically, I think the song was about shining a light on the fact that a normal existence with faults is still a life to be lived.

“In the song, the character dies quite suddenly from a heart attack. The suddenness of that in the song is to do with the fact we don’t know how long we have. With my friend going so suddenly, we didn’t know how long they had and it comes back to finding joy in moments when you have them.”

The topic of mental health is close to James’ heart. The singer took a break around the time when Wet Leg, Sam Fender and Arlo Parks were speaking about the pressures of touring. It’s something James is trying to get comfortable chatting about:

“I still put the disclaimer out that this is an amazing job that I’ve wanted to do my whole life, but I think the industry is pretty chaotic because there’s no money in record sales anymore and it's heavily weighted toward playing live and touring.

“It does take a toll on you and I think we were scared to say that for a long time because we didn’t want to seem ungrateful. You schedule gigs like six months in advance. You don’t know how you’re going to feel on the day. It’s shit to feel like shit onstage.”

James and the band have learned to look out for one another while they’re on tour. They know that when you’re living out of each other’s pockets it’s easy for tensions to run high, or for people to have bad days.

“We’re close as friends and we talk a lot, but it’s taken a long time to get to this point. When you’re in a band you get yourself into highly emotional states because you’re passionate about what you’re doing and you’re not going to agree all of the time. You have to learn how to be there for people when they’re in a bad place. Now we can tell if someone’s not good and we can lean on each other.”

James believes humour’s what makes life better. He lives for those silly moments with mates, knowing what a difference they make.

For James, looking after his mental health means remembering to laugh. Humour is a big part of what the band do and so it was fitting that they merged comedy and music together for their last few gigs. Yard Act were supported by some legendary stand-up comedians like Phil Jupitus and Harry Hill:

“Our songs have a theatre and a humour to them and we started to make some friends with comedians, so we thought we’d ask them to support us. It worked really well and set the tone differently to having bands on beforehand, putting people in a different headspace. Phil Jupitus keeps saying it was his last stand-up gig before retiring. We felt honoured he did it for us, but also responsible for the end of his career, ha!”

James believes humour’s what makes life better. He lives for those silly moments with mates, knowing what a difference they make:

“When you’re laughing you’re not fixating on problems, you’re just focusing on that shared moment. I think it’s important not to deny yourself of those things. All my closest relationships are with people who I’ve connected with over humour. It’s so important.”

So what can we expect from the new album? Well, it’s a new era for the band, which James has stepped into by auctioning off his famous trench coat for CALM. James describes his trench coat as a cloak, a way to create a cartoon version of himself onstage.

“It was a defence - a way to get into character and be a more obnoxious, sarcastic version of myself onstage. The new music’s got a lot more emotion to it. I think we hit that at the backend of the last album, where I dropped my guard a bit. People resonated so strongly with those tracks and it gave us the confidence to express ourselves and be a bit more vulnerable. I’m really excited about the new album.”

It’s not just something James is bringing into his music, it’s also something he thinks is important when it comes to showing up for someone who’s struggling:

“I don’t think people take actions towards suicide before they’ve spiralled without help for a long time. The first step is communication and letting people know they’re not alone.”

Keep your ears open for Yard Act’s second album, where they’ll be dialling up the honesty and breaking into a new era.