If you’re an astute, Anglophilic music fan, you’ve likely known about London-based James Yuill for a while. The reedy, bespectacled singer-songwriter began making homeland inroads in 2007 thanks to the gorgeous, moody thrum of his single “ No Surprise,” an intoxicating mix of acoustic guitar-flecked melancholia and propulsive, gently unfurled electronic beats. On first impression “No Surprise,” caressed by Yuill’s thoughtful vocals and singer Ellie Gray’s fetching harmonies, recalls Elliot Smith as backed by Hot Chip. This is no awkward mashup of genres butting heads, but an organic, smart synthesis.
The plush, elegant track, spun by the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens and Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music, was only a prelude to the 27-year old’s remarkable, self-released album Turning Down Water For Air, an euphonious collection of songs like the breezy, mid-tempo rush of “This Sweet Love,” the cello-buoyed lament “How Could I Lose,” and the husky lope of “The Ghost.”
That album, which quietly appeared on iTunes around late 2007, has now secured Yuill tidy and much-deserved deals with Moshi Moshi in the UK and Nettwerk in North America. A remastered and revamped version of the album will drop in the States on May 26th; the re-release has been out in the UK since October. For this version, Yuill added two excellent new tracks: the gnarled, club ready “ No Pins Allowed” and the sexy, New Order-reminiscent “Over the Hills.”
Yuill’s brand of acoustically-minded electronica has been hyped one of the best templates of the burgeoning folktronica scene, a mantle that the boffin troubadour doesn’t seem to mind. He admits that the warmly romantic undertow of tracks like “ This Sweet Love” or the bittersweet duet with Gray, “Somehow,” casts a rosier glow on the half-misguided, half-truthful perception of electronica as a chillier beast; after all, Kraftwerk has never been praised as great make-out music.
“I think electronic music can be cold sometimes,” Yuill told Uncensored Interview via email, “but people like Four Tet and Tunng and even Jackson [Fourgeaud] for that matter can be warm, because of the organic element to their music. I guess when I think about it people like Daft Punk and Justice also seem to me warm. Maybe it’s the analogue squelchy-ness of their sounds. Or the mixing. It sounds like vinyl which as we all know sounds warm, no matter what music it contains.”
Yuill’s enthusiasm for all kinds of music – he cites everyone from Nick Drake to Underworld to Radiohead as influences – might have a bit to do with his former life sourcing music for commercials for three years. But the real turning point in Yuill’s life was when he quit that job in July 2007, giving himself the time to focus on gigging and finding his current manager, whom he credits with much of his current good fortune. However, the intractable Yuill always had a steadfast belief in his distinctive sound, which dared to appeal to two very different types of fans.
“Back in the day when the Strokes came onto the scene I heard they had sat down and predicted that their style of music – seventies rock – and fashion would come back,” says Yuill. “I was interested in finding a new genre and realized that the only really developing music was electronic. I was already massively into Nick Drake so I naturally tried to fuse these two genres. I then heard The Postal Service and then I knew I was on the right track.”
In performance, Yuill is still finding his sea legs (he believes his worst gig ever was in front of Moshi Moshi’s A&R rep), but seems at ease balancing folkie sincerity and Simian Mobile Disco virility. At an EMI Publishing luncheon performance in New York a couple of weeks ago, he played album tracks like “The Ghost” and “No Surprise” – grinning affably and nervously at the industry throng – but seemed most happy when improvising a thudding swirl of hard edged house beats. He’s a fan of Deadmau5 and told UI that he’s definitely plotting a dance side project at some point, “possibly after album two is done and dusted.”
A sophomore album is a priority. Turning Down Water for Air is nearly two years old and Yuill would love to start work on it by the beginning of 2010 (“I have ideas but would really love the time to work them up into proper songs”). He’s also been collaborating with fellow folktronica artist Rod Thomas (aka Bright Light Bright Light) on a project he describes as “80’s and early 90’s style ballads.”
And while Yuill wouldn’t mind Justice or Dntel remixing of one of his own songs, he’s been doing that very thing for Au Revoir Simone, Tilly & The Wall and The Answering Machine. A tour of the States in May or June is tentatively planned.
Mostly, Yuill is enjoying his rapid ascent as an artist to be reckoned with on the electronica scene. “I haven’t really had a chance to stop and think,” admits Yuill. “I’ve been playing gigs all over the world and meeting some great people at shows. I can’t believe that it’s all happened because of a few songs I wrote and recorded in my bedroom!”
– Kara Manning
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