It’s been a few months since BestNewBands.com caught up with Young Buffalo. Since Daniel’s Q&A with now former member Alex Von Hardberger, they’ve hit some bumps and had some changes of plan, but also released a new track and have kept moving forward. Here’s an update on their musical trajectory.
Kelly Knapp: The last time you guys were mentioned on BestNewBands.com, I believe Alex did an interview in July – what has the last 4 months been like for you guys? You’ve played CMJ, done some touring, a new release…
Jim Barrett: I don’t remember this, but I’m sure it went well. Actually in the past four months we haven’t been that active. Alex had to move on for personal reasons in October and is not playing with us anymore. We didn’t play CMJ, and the only touring we’ve done has been recently as of the end of November and these first two weeks in December. Other than that, I recorded Baby Demons in September/October and we put that as pay-what-you-want on our Bandcamp.
KK: What was the inspiration behind “Baby Demons”?
JB: I’m not really sure. I’d had the song demoed and I just did a fresh version on better equipment and it came out pretty well. I was debating on whether to use it for Young Buffalo (or with my other project ILLLS), but since the chorus ended up exploding with harmonies I figured it was a better fit with YB. I’m not very sure what the song means to me yet, but the lyrics are definitely about how we all have personal/emotional baggage and shit and how our friends closest to us normally know have a better idea as to what we really need to get through it. I guess?
KK: Your tour with The Vaccines and Tennis and canceled – bummer – have any dates been rescheduled for that yet?
JB: Yeah that one kinda took the wind out of our sails. We’re hoping to maybe get a few dates with The Vaccines when they come back over stateside this spring. But, who knows if we will get them.
KK: One of the questions Daniel asked you this past summer was After the tour, what’s the plan for the rest of 2011, and Alex said: More touring and hopefully getting back in the studio.” Can you update us on that?
JB: Well the touring thing didn’t really pan out, as previously stated, but Ben and I are hoping to get back in the studio early 2012 and finish up an LP that we started about a year and a half ago.
KK: As far as the new album, what can we expect from that? Any new direction or surprising material?
JB: Honestly, we’ve only discussed it a little bit. I think mainly what we’re going to try and do is build off the EP and recordings we did over a year ago at Sweet Tea studio here in Oxford. Also, now that our touring band is four members, I think we’ll try and get our newer material to sound closer to what we can recreate live. I’d say most of the newer material is kind of moving closer to the direction that Baby Demons is heading towards, and also Ben’s new songs are sounding bigger.
KK: You may have been asked this before, or maybe you stated it, but is your name a reference at all to Neil Young and Buffalo Springfield?
JB: We’ve actually never been asked that I don’t think! But, no it’s not. We’re big Neil Young and CSNY fans but no, that’s not why our name is Young Buffalo.
KK: What’s your favorite effect to use?
JB: On my voice, I like to use cathedral reverb and delay on a few songs. As far as guitar, I’ve figured out a way to get my delay pedal to sound like a crazy chorus pedal. Really vibin’ on that lately.
KK: What are some of your favorite bands right now that you think deserve more attention?
JB: Definitely a lot of local bands here in Oxford, MS. Dead Gaze, Gray Things, Flight, and Child Star to name a few. Our friends in these bands are doing a lot of cool things and people need to hear it for sure.
KK: What are your new year plans? Any new years resolutions?
JB: We’re doing a big locals night in Oxford and my band ILLLS is going to play along three others. Ben actually plays drums for us so we’ll be ringing in the New Year in style. I’d say probably to finally release an LP and tour the world, and make dollar bill$$$.
