首张专辑《The Overload》引起业界与乐迷的广泛关注，第二张专辑《Where's My Utopia?》继续开拓更为广阔的音乐版图，从独特而丰富的类型尝试到充满诙谐意味的本土文本，Yard Act 可以称为新一代英伦创作者里值得乐迷关注的一支乐队。而在今年冬季，这支乐队也将来到中国进行一轮巡演，赶在巡演之前 UPEE 有幸与 Yard Act 主唱 James Smith 进行了一期专访，分享他们在新作背后的创作、思考，以及对这一轮巡演的期待。
UPEE：从第一张专辑到《Where's My Utopia?》，你们的音乐中出现了很多跳舞感、放克感、嘻哈感的内容，你们和两位制作人 Remi Kabaka Jr. 以及 Ross Orton 的合作有怎样的感受？两位制作人分别关联着 Gorillaz、Arctic Monkeys，似乎也在《Where's My Utopia?》中与你们一同平衡相对而言“大体量”的制作，你们又会如何描述现阶段的 Yard Act？
It felt great to push the boat out musically and play with a bigger budget. I think its important as an artist to work with whatever creative restrictions you're given as an artist. Up until this point in our creative lives, they had been relatively low budget so it was a bit of a "bull by the horns" moment for us that we all of a sudden had these opportunities at our finger tips to work with bigger producers and also bring in string sections and a choir etc. But in the same breath a lot of it was still us just sat in our spare bedrooms making beats with samplers and dirty old records we found in charity shops so I think we managed to marry the hi fi with the lo fi pretty well. It's a snapshot of our roots looking out on to the horizon and realizing anything is possible.
I think the next thing you do is often a reaction to the previous thing you've done, so almost comically, I'm imagining the next thing will strip us right back down to our bare bones again. I could be wrong though, whatever comes out will come out as it is meant to. I think being so overblown with "wheres my utopia" got it out of our system a bit though. With that we had the confidence to do more. I hope next time we have the confidence to do less.
Both albums were released through Island. We've found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It is very artist led. Major label budgets are great and we are happy to make the most of them for as long as they'll have us on the books.
Yard Act：Albarn体现了我对流行音乐的一切热爱。他的创造力持续不断，而且各种多样的载体与形式让人感到他的创意无限。Beck在我眼里也是如此。“Where's My Utopia?”受到了大量来自世界各地的影响，但我觉得这就是西方白人艺术家探索其他文化，并以爱与真诚将这些文化下的音乐融入自己作品的方式——这群人对我们的音乐创作有着显著重要的影响。这群人里我还要加上The Avalanches和Beastie Boys。
Albarn embodies everything I love about pop music. He is relentlessly creative and through multiple vehicles his ideas feel limitless. I would say the same for Beck. There was a lot of influence from all over the planet on WMU but I think it is how white western artists navigate other cultures and incorporate their music into their own with love and sincerity which means they loom largest in our approach. I would also add The Avalanches and the Beastie Boys to that world.
Yard Act：英国社会仍然回荡着殖民主义的历史。作为这里的白人艺术家，我们的身份处境是矛盾的，因为不可否认，我们享受到了在一个富裕国家出生和成长的特权。然而，我们也生活在一个真正的多元文化社会，也大大受益于那些被带到我们这片土地上繁衍并发生转变的文化。我们在这些文化中目睹了贫困和种族主义，并与之共存。利用好我们的地位来赞扬和支持我们所热爱的英国，同时谴责其可憎的历史残遗，这一点对我们来说很重要。
British society continues to reverberate with our history of colonialism. It's a conflicting position to be in as white artist's here as we have undeniably benefitted from the privileges of being born and raised in a rich nation. However, we live in a genuinely multicultural society and we have also gained massively from the cultures that have been brought and grown and mutated on our shores. We see the poverty and the racism and live amongst it. It feels important to utilize our position to champion and stand for what we love about the UK whilst condemning the lingering smell of its abhorrent past.
Yard Act：我认为这个时代的音乐确有一些不错的乐队，但很少有特别让我产生共鸣的。我们和他们一样，都在做自己的事，而时间会证明我们所有人都是如此。
Yard Act：我非常喜欢香港的工工工乐队（Gong Gong Gong），喜欢南韩的 balming tiger 和 leenalchi。在泰国，还有一个叫 Soft Pine 的独立乐队，我觉得他们非常酷；在制作《Where's My Utopia?》的过程中，日本电子乐队Yellow Magic Orchestra和坂本龙一也是启发我们的来源之一。
From Hong Kong I really like Gong Gong Gong, and from south Korea I like balming tiger and leenalchi. In Thailand there is an indie band called Soft Pine i think are really cool, and during the making of WMU Japan's Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto were often referenced.
Yard Act：我们非常期待拜访中国。我最近读了徐则臣写的《北京西郊故事集》。书中有很多关于在驴肉火烧馆子里消磨时光的描写，我很期待能从那里开始探索中国！
We are super excited to visit China. I recently read the book 'Beijing sprawl' by Xu Zechen. A lot is written about hanging out in a Donkey Burger Cafe so I'm looking forward to that for starters!
整理 / 编辑：石田吉藏、鱼子酱 | 图片来源网络
协力：马修
