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Watch out, Paul McCartney: Yip Deceiver answer the important questions about life

Since the release of their first album “Medallius” in 2013, Yip Deceiver’s catchy indie-electropop has not lost a bit of it’s danceability and freshness.

Consisting of of Montreal on-off members Davey Pierce and Nicolas “Dobby” Dobbratz as well as new addition drummer John Swint, the band continues to churn out ridiculously exciting tunes.

With their new 6-track EP “YPD”, Yip Deceiver discover their more funky side.

Party Line and my personal favourite, the extremely danceable Red Line open the record with some juicy beats. Local Bizzness, definitely being the most playful song on the track list will get you in the mood to dig out some Sugar & Gold (if you are familiar with Dobby’s earlier band) tracks again.

Another highlight is a brilliant rendition of Jennifer Paige’s 1998 hit Crush. Without forsaking the song’s original pop flavour, Yip Deceiver manage to leave their mark.

With their trademark chirpy happy synths, We Still Collide is reminiscing on Medallius’ 2nd Son Of A 2dn Son and it’s probably the song that will bring back that floaty feeling you’re bound to get at one of their live shows.

Lastly, Don’t Stop closes up the EP with jangly guitars and quirky beats already leaves us hungry for more tunes.

The three now took their new material on the road to support Detroit legends Electric Six on their travels around the US and Europe.

After having had the awesome experience of having seen them perform at venues in Birmingham, Liverpool and London the days before, I talked to the band and their manager Jordan with a friend over fish steaks and drinks preparing for their last show of the tour in windy Brighton.

Ezra: So, you’ve got a new EP! Is there a reason why you’re putting out an EP and not a whole album?

Davey: We weren’t quite ready to put out the whole record yet so we just released an EP and then we’re going to do the record. Hopefully very soon, we’ll have the whole album done.

Dobby: The original plan was to do three EPs, spread out. And instead of doing a typical album cycle where you release one album and then wait another year. We were going to do an EP every four months or something like that. And at the end of the cycle, release the three of them as a deluxe package on vinyl. But we’ll see what happens.

Davey: We’ll go back to the original album cycle I think.

Ezra: One of my favourite tracks on the new EP is the cover of Jennifer Paige’s “crush”. How did you get to pick that? It’s really good!

Davey: We were actually on tour. We were trying to figure out a song we wanted to cover. And we were in a truck stop called “Buc-ee’s” and that song came on and we were like “Alright!”. That’s actually the best song I ever heard and I forgot that it existed so…

Dobby: We were all walking around this truck stop. I think we all went to use the bathroom and it was playing in the background. Somehow when we got in the van everyone was wondering “I forgot about that! What is that?”

John: We were trying to figure out who recorded it. I thought it was Mandy Moore. I think somebody said Britney Spears. So we googled it and were like “Oh!” and thought we should do this song.

Davey: We just got addicted to it.

Dobby: Jennifer Paige is from Georgia.

Davey: She’s right from down the road actually!

Ezra: Did you get to talk to her about that?

Davey: No, I don’t think we ever get to talk to Jennifer Paige…

Dobby: If you’re out there Jennifer Paige, just call me!

Davey: Or Jordan. Or my phone. Cause Dobby doesn’t have one.

Fabs: You don’t have a phone?

Dobby: No. To answer that question. I don’t mind being a luddite.

Ezra: Bass lines obviously play and important role for Yip Deceiver. So how do you decide which bass lines to program into your synth and which bass line to play on the bass when you play live?

Davey: That’s a good question! I have no real answer for it but…

John: Sometimes we just do them both.

Davey: Yeah. When I write songs, I generally start with the bass line and then fill everything else around it. Sometimes if it needs another bass line on top of it, I just kind of throw it on or whatever.

Dobby: From a technical perspective, the sequence of the bass lines come from a more rhythmic space in the music, in the arrangement. The live bass parts tend to be more melodic and smooth. But I guess that’s obvious, that’s what they sound like.

Ezra: How did John get to join the band?

John: How I got the pleasure of joining these guys? Davey has been checking me out for years (everybody laughs). It just worked out perfectly. I played in a band for ten years. We broke up. I joined another band. We broke up. During that time, I got to know Davey pretty well. It was in the stars. It just happened when it needed to happen and I’m super excited to be in this band.

Ezra: I hope you won’t break up the band this time! Do you guys have any pre-show rituals?

Davey: No, we’re the only band in the world that doesn’t!

Dobby: My pre-show ritual is to see how fast I can change into my clothes. Right now I can do it in three minutes.

Davey: I put my clothes on in the morning like an adult. I just wear it all day. And then I’m ready already.

Fabs: Did you guys get your t-shirts from the same place? (points at Davey and John)

Davey: It’s funny because yeah… he was doing this before and I was just like “I wanna do that now” so I bought like a six pack of just white t-shirts. I’ve only worn white t-shirts for the entire tour.

Ezra: I was going to say “He’s wearing the same t-shirt ALL the time!”

Davey: It’s actually generally a clean t-shirt.

Ezra: You’ve been on tour for quite a while now. What’s the most fun thing about touring for you?

Davey: I just really like playing shows. And drinking for free. That’s pretty much it. You get to meet a bunch of cool people. You get to see cool places you would never have been able to go to. Jordan has never even been to Europe before.

Jordan: It’s interesting so far. I like it. Of course we picked the coldest time of the year to come and I hate that weather but it’s nice over here. The people are great. Some of the customs are weird. Some of them make more sense. For example when you pay for something, that’s the price you pay. Not like in America: You go to pay something and it’s more because of the taxes. Everyone says how ridiculous it is.

Dobby: But there’s more things to pay for here.

Jordan: Nothing’s worse than having to pay to go to the bathroom when you’re broke.

Davey: Yeah, that’s a thing in Germany! Every rest stop makes you pay fifty cents to use the bathroom.

Dobby: By the way, we got some extra sanifair coupons. Can you use that if we give it to you? (John hands over 50 cents sanifair coupon) (note: In Germany you get a coupon for 50 cents off snacks and coffee in participating shops when you use a sanifair toilet)

Ezra: Sure! Thank you!  Talking about music again: Best and worst Christmas song?

Everyone: Ohhhhhhh!

Davey: I’m going to just say - and it’s the easy answer - every Christmas song is fucking terrible. All of them.

Jordan: Lindsey Buckingham - Holiday Road. You gotta like that one!

Davey: That’s not REALLY a Christmas song.

Dobby: Best Christmas song ever - Every one of them. Worst Christmas song - All of the other ones. Mariah Carey - All I want for Christmas Is You. That’s one of the best modern Christmas songs.

Fabs: What about Fairy Tale Of New York? From the Pogues.

Dobby: Yeah. And I like the Ronnettes. The Phil Spector Christmas album. Elvis’ Christmas record. Bing Crosby… The Beach Boys.

Ezra: Ugly and live forever or attractive and live for a year?

Davey: They both sound pretty terrible. Can you just look average and live a normal lifespan?

Dobby: I’d go for attractive and live for a year.

Davey: I’d probably do ugly and live forever. Because - look at Elliot Smith. He was not an attractive guy at all… he did not live forever. He wrote amazing stuff and everybody loved him and respected him, so you can be ugly and do cool things.

Fabs: If you live forever, you just see everybody that you love die. Everything that happens in your life is basically just going to be death.

Dobby: Yeah but… no (Everybody laughs). I always go with the gut reaction, I wasn’t even thinking about that.

Davey: Can you choose someone else to be ugly and live forever with you? So you don’t have to live forever by yourself.

Ezra: Hm… yeah, maybe!

Davey: I would make my girlfriend ugly and make her live forever!

Everyone: That’s sweet!

Fabs: You’re saying that looks don’t matter.

Dobby: That’s all in the eye of the beholder, right? But I still wanna get it for a year.

Jordan: WOOO!

Dobby: It sounds more fun!

Ezra: This one is from Davey’s mum… (everybody cackles). Are you happy with the reception you’ve received on tour?

Davey: It’s been fun. We got a lot of positive feedback from shows and stuff like that so.It’s always good. I mean, you never really get negative feedback from shows. It’s either people don’t talk to you or they talk to you.

Ezra: And they follow you around and are REALLY creepy.

Davey: Yeah, exactly! They stalk you for days.

Ezra: Urgh!

Dobby: There was that guy in the front row last night who was just doing this (gives a thumbs down).

Davey: Oh really? I missed that!

Dobby: I don’t know if that’s considered feedback…

Davey: Was that…

Dobby: The guy with the curly blond hair.

Fabs: He was having sex with his girlfriend.

Dobby: The problem he was having is that his girlfriend was enjoying the show! She was smiling and dancing and he was like “MEH!”. And then he just kept trying to make out with her to ascertain his dominance.

Davey: That must’ve been the guy who was just making noises and I just went “I don’t know what you’re saying and I don’t caaaare!”

Fabs: He was shouting “Hipsters!”.

Davey: Don’t even get me started on that. I’m the least hip person!

Ezra: I don’t even think that hipsters are real.

Davey: I don’t understand that either. We have arguments about this all the time. I hate the idea. It doesn’t make any fucking sense! It’s basically just an insult you throw at someone. No one would say “I’m a hipster”. You don’t like the way that person looks and they might look cooler than you - “You’re a hipster!”. I always thought that hipsters were these people that had a handlebar moustache and wore sweater vests and had pocket watches and spoke old English. And were into the Decemberists. Or looked like lumberjacks.

Dobby: From that guy’s perspective a hipster is a nerd that could steal your girlfriend.

John: And he was making sure that he asserted his dominance.

Ezra: If you had a brain washing machine who would you use it on?

Davey: Dobby. Because he’s got a dirty mind!

Ezra: Dobby?

Dobby: Can I just use it on the internet? Make everything the other way around. Polarise the media. Everything that’s good was bad now and everything that’s cool is lame.

Fabs: Maybe change your government.

Vanessa: Other countries would get a shittier government. But there’s not too many.

Fabs: Yours would stop going and bombing people! The UK just made the resolution to bomb Syria.

Davey: I saw that! Not the best move. They’re just jealous of Russia. It comes down to that everybody’s jealous of Putin being an asshole and he’s just like “What are you gonna do about it?”. And everybody’s goes “Damn! That’s so cool!” But Jeremy Corbyn is just like that dude in the front row going “Hipsters!!!”

Fabs: I like Jeremy Corbyn. He’s like a slightly liberal granddad.

Davey: Yeah, I don’t have problem with him.

Dobby: How do we know that Davey hasn’t already brainwashed me though?

Ezra: You’re going to break up after this tour, right?

Davey: That’s why I’ve been working so hard on keeping John in this band.

Ezra: If you could have anyone looked up in a room so you could torment them for a day - who would it be and how would you torment them?

Davey: That’s really…. I’ve never even thought about doing that. The people that I want to torment I generally just want to stay away form as far as possible. Is it without any repercussions?

Ezra: Yes. Even if they’re dead afterwards.

Davey: There’s a standard answer like “Every politician” but that would be just boring… Paul McCartney?

Ezra: WHY?

Davey: Why not??? There’s no repercussions. No one else is going to do it.

Ezra: What would you do to him?

Davey: I don’t know. I don’t think I would really do anything to him. I would just keep him locked.

Ezra: And just leave and let him die.

Davey (laughs): No, I wouldn’t want him to die! I just figured that Paul McCartney would be the least likely choice for anyone to choose. I don’t want to torment anyone, really but it might as well be Paul McCartney if it’s gonna be somebody.

John: That’s going to be the headline.

Jordan: “Man in band wants to torture Paul McCartney!”

John: Dobby, don’t you want to answer that one?

Dobby: Davey had two answers I figured out. The first answer was Dobby, of course. That’s okay, I like to be punished. I don’t like to punish people, I like to be punished, so I can’t answer the question.

Ezra: Our blog is uncensored anyway.

Fabs: Yesterday we saw a woman walking past us with a riding crop…

Dobby: Perfect, that’s the exactly the direction I’m going in.

Davey (to waiter): Do you have any HP sauce?

Ezra: Explain the awesomeness of HP sauce on fries!

Davey: It’s hard to explain the awesomeness of HP sauce but it goes beyond fries. It’s everything. Put it on cake. Put it on ice cream. HP sauce is just the perfect thing. Nothing will ever be as good. The American people don’t understand HP sauce. A1 steak sauce is like a watery version of this but it’s not as good.

Ezra: I don’t have any more questions… is there anything that you want to know?

Davey: I’m going to interview you. How long have you been doing your blog?

Ezra: Since late 2013! My first article was an interview with Spector back then. I went to Brussels for it. It’s a good way to connect to bands in a way!

Davey: That’s a lot better than what a lot of people do. They just scream at you and then you just don’t want to talk to them.

Ezra: And it’s a good way to be a part of the whole music scene. Music is my life. It feels good to be creative like that. And I got to talk to Stephen Malkmus once!

Davey: I talked to him about 70s arena rock for a couple of hours one day. We played a festival with him in Sicily. He was super into it, it was great! He’s a really cool guy. I was really happy that he was so nice.

John: It would suck if he wasn’t!

Davey: It would ruin everything!

Ezra: He’s a bit intimidating. When he talks to you, there’s permanent eye contact! Or maybe that’s just me.

Davey: No, it’s full eye contact!

Ezra: He does that to you too?

Davey: Yes!

John: Where were you when you got to talk to him?

Ezra: Cologne. At the Gebäude 9. It’s pretty small. By the way, do you prefer bigger or smaller venues?

Davey: It depends. Last night (The O2 in London) was awesome! Sometimes you’re in a small venue with a terrible crowd. And sometimes you’re in a big venue with a terrible crowd. It doesn’t really matter.

Ezra: London can be a bit unpredictable when it comes to people attending. It’s a much wider audience.

Davey: Whiter?

Ezra: Wider!

Davey: (laughs) Both are valid. We’ve always had good shows in London. People seem to like us there.

Fabs: Because it’s more people there, it’s usually a good crowd. How much time do you actually have to attend shows?

Davey: All three of us work in bars. And when you’re in a bar every other night until three in the morning, the last thing you want to do is go out until three o’clock in the morning.

Fabs: Do you feel like you’re missing out a bit? Because you already get to tour as a band.

Davey: Sometimes. I definitely get my fill.

John: Even a big show that I would be into seeing, and someone had tickets telling me that we have to go - I feel like it’s going to be too many people and I’m not going to like it. And I hate that because I was always a huge fan of going to shows. But when you’re playing a show every night and you get how everything works. It almost loses a bit of the mystique, the magic. I look at the band on stage and I wonder how their drive was today. As if I’m not even caring about what’s happening.

Fabs: We kind of got a feeling for that, being to four shows. Don’t you get exhausted? It’s pretty exhausting to us!

Jordan: Yes, it’s pretty exhausting.

Davey: The weird thing is that I don’t find it exhausting! I don’t know why. It’s probably just the way that I’m wired. I find it exhausting to be at home and go to work. It’s not bad to play a show, wake up and drive for 7 hours and do the same thing again. It works for me somehow. It’s not as mentally exhausting. You don't wake up and think “I HAVE to go to this thing”.

Ezra: It’s probably much more different from your daily routine. When you tour, you see new places and people every day!

Davey: It’s a different experience every night, even if you play the same set. Like a totally different show.

Fabs: With Radiohead it’s really intense with how the fans queue. I saw them 6 times in 2008.

John: Did you go to the Amsterdam show? I was at that one.

Fabs: It was really mad. Beck, Radiohead and R.E.M. were all in the city around that time.

John: I played at the R.E.M. show! We went to see Radiohead at that venue the day before. And we went “Oh my god!”. Well, we were high as hell too. “We’re going to be here tomorrow!”. We were called Modern Skirts, nobody gave a shit about.

Fabs: I remember that!

Davey: “I remember you, you were awful!”

Fabs: Noooo, you were really good!

John: Small world!

Dobby: If you have seen a band that many times consecutively, do you have a sense of when they’re having a good show?

Ezra: Yes, you learn their body language and how they communicate on stage. You’d be “Aw, Thom Yorke is having a good day, I’m glad!”

Dobby: If you see a band once, you’re excited - so you want it to be the best show. And you don’t really compare it to anything else! But if you see them a couple of times you learn to tell if it was a good show or not.

And from what I’ve experienced over the last few days, Yip Deceiver are pretty much always up for a good time.

We’re down for whatever for the rest of this life, just don’t get out of our head.

-Ezra

Check out Yip Deceiver’s Official Site, give them some love on Facebook and listen to them on Soundcloud!

#Yip Deceiver #Davey Pierce #Nicolas Dobbratz #John Swint #Athens #interview #by Ezra