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Download the new single from Alan Yates Band:
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Talk to Alan Yates for a while and you'll discover
someone who has gone through a lot to end up where he belongs. Being
involved in music since childhood, he found himself off the scene for a
while. Thanks to his smarts, passions, and drive, and as Yates will tell
you, in part to support from people like long-time friend Ed Roland of
Collective Soul, Yates has pretty much flung open the doors and there's
nothing anyone can do about it. What emerged is an act that is
unmistakably based on the life and breath of alternative pop rock.
Having put out a solo album entitled "Mint Condition" in 2003, under
simply his name, he formed Alan Yates Band and greets the public with
his 4-piece live band. Taking lead vocals, chiming in on guitar, and
being the primary songwriter, Yates and his band offer up the new album
"Red" (July 2005/Tripolar Records). The album name being a tribute to
his father, nick-named Red, Yates grew up at his father's heels on the
honky tonk scene in the south, an experience that made an impression on
him in more ways than one. Putting him on a path of destiny, it's hard
to say whether Yates chased music, or music chased Yates. ----- Alternative Addiction: You have pretty much done music your whole life. You've been in a number of musical endeavors. Is being the front man a new skin for you? Yates: It's not a new skin for me. I've always participated in that. When I was younger, one of the first bands that I was in, the lead singer was the drummer. He was great. But because of that I had to kind of take the role as the visual up front, and then I would also sing part of the time. So, I've always kind of dabbled in it. I've never been as much the leader as I am now, not in just being a front man, but in every way. AA: You've been compared to Ed Roland of Collective Soul and praised as, "jockeying for a dual title as band leader and studio maven". How does that make you feel? Y: You should probably ask how does that make him feel? [chuckles] I don't mind that at all. AA: Do you take it as a compliment? Y: To be compared to anyone who's accomplished, I think, is a compliment, and he's certainly accomplished. I don't necessarily agree with the comparison, but I guess because we come from the same hometown, and we've grown up together, somebody would compare us to one another. I don't necessarily agree with it, but it's certainly a compliment. AA: Are you having to put a lot of your producing and engineering aside as your own music picks up, or are you anticipating that happening? Y: Actually, I'm hoping that it meets in the middle more and more. It's always one-sided one way or the other depending on what's going on. I can be involved in a project that allows me no time to focus on my own music, and other times we might be out playing shows or writing or making a record and it allows me no time to focus on anything else. So, what I'm hoping will happen, is that we'll have a certain amount of success with this album but people will also start to recognize me as a producer. I can't tell you how many times people have come to me and said, "Hey, Alan, we're going to get you to engineer this, and by the way, so-and-so - insert famous producer's name here - is going to produce it." That can be frustrating, so I'm hoping that we have some success with this record because it'll be great to sell some records, have some fun and all that, but I'm also hoping to step up the role as producer and become sought after for projects that I would want to work on. Not that I don't like working with small local bands, I hope to do that from now on. AA: So producing is not just something that you do; it seems to me it sounds like it's a large passion of yours just about as much as having your own band is. Y: Yes. Absolutely. AA: With the legs of a producer to stand on, how did that play into the making your own music? Y: Well, I think that everyone that writes is a producer. Everyone that makes a song and goes into the studio and records it, you know, they're producing their own stuff. For me, I've been in the role of the engineer, or even the engineer/producer so frequently, I wanted to let someone else sit in the driver's seat as the engineer, but also to co-produce, allowing me to slip more into the role of the artist. Sometimes it's hard to see outside your perspective when you're so close to your project, so it's good to have another set of ears and another brain working there. Especially if it's someone that you like their style and the way they do things, and Alex Lowe, who helped me on this last record, I really connected with him. To answer your question, the way that it helps me standing on my own legs as a producer, is that I was able to see that it's really beneficial to have someone else you trust and who's not as close to the project help you. AA: Which, you probably wouldn't be working with them if you didn't. Y: Well, in some cases people are stuck with a producer because of a large record label, or whatnot, that they don't necessarily click with and it's not a comfortable environment. AA: Your band is called Alan Yates Band, your album is called "Red". Give me a summary of what you feel the album is all about, whether it be musically, emotionally, or what you feel this album is. Y: I think the biggest thing is that it captures where I am emotionally and physically at this point in my life. One of the songs is called "Arlington", and it's a song about living here in Atlanta, where we recorded most of the record. It's where I was up until six this morning working in the studio, it's where there's music coming in and out, musicians coming in and out, it's very much a music environment. I've been here about the last 4 years, seen a lot of faces come and go, sometimes I felt kind of discombobulated or disconnected, and not always sure what I was doing here. It definitely reflects some of that. The title of the album is "Red", and we've talked about that. It's a tribute to my father who was a big influence on me. It has tones of what you go through at that point in your life when you lose someone that's such a big part, such a big impact on you in your life. AA: Is there a track that radio has picked up on, or one that you have picked out? Y: "Talk" is the first cut on the record. It's also the one that we've kind of chosen to be the forefront single. I know our radio promoter is sending out a package with several songs on it, but that seems to be the one that people agree is the most radio-ready or radio-friendly. AA: I like that song a lot. Y: Thanks. AA: As long as I can remember, for myself, music has been the only thing that I've ever really wanted. I've wanted just music my whole life. That's it. What has it been like for you? Y: I can remember when I was younger feeling a little frustrated because I wasn't the greatest guitarist in the world and I knew that I could name ten other guys that were better, but for some reason or another I just felt like I was going to be a songwriter, and that was where I could see myself excelling. I always liked to write. One of the few things I enjoyed doing in school was whenever we had some sort of writing assignment, especially if it were fictional. I was never great at that, but I enjoyed it. AA: Did you ever face any kind of stigma for wanting to be in music, or any kind of opposition for trying to make a living in an artistic field? Y: Yes. Let me think about that for a second. My coffee is starting work, by the way, so everything is starting to fire. Anytime that a person does something where they're creating and putting it out there and it's not a structured 9 to 5 - I hate to use that cliché - but when it's not necessarily something that you can go to school for, or get a degree for...you're just creating from out of thin air...you're creating something and you face that. Anytime someone has criticism, whether it was well-intended criticism or not, you're like a big open nerve. Anything anyone says has an impact on you. So, there's that. I don't know if that's stigmatism, but it's certainly something you deal with. The other thing is at some point you ask yourself, "Should I be doing this?" I just saw the movie "Hustle & Flow" the other day. One of the lines from the movie is "Everyone's gotta have a dream". If you've got something that you're passionate about, it doesn't really matter at what point in your life you want to go after it. There's no do-overs. You just need to go after it. I think that your parents and people that care about you want to see you do something that's going to make you have a comfortable life and a happy lifestyle. People worry about you. They worry that maybe it's not the wisest thing. AA: What kind of tour will you have to support "Red"? Y: What we're trying to do is focus on about a 4 to 6 hour radius to Atlanta, although, promotional material has gone out to stations all over the country and we have radio play on some stations around the country. Any time there's a city that picks up a song and starts spinning it we'll try to give it some attention and support it. If we can go there and do a radio interview, or some sort of in-store record promotion we'll follow up with that sort of thing. AA: You put out a solo album called "Mint Condition" before forming Alan Yates Band and recording "Red". How is "Red" a different animal than your solo album? Y: I think the solo album was...and I'll probably say this about "Red" one day...I learned a lot from it. "Mint Condition" was certainly my first attempt to kind of step out on my own and really engineer, produce, write. Not to say that I didn't have some cool people have some creative input on it, but it was my first attempt at being at the helm like that. I've been hanging around the studio since I was fifteen years old, in one way or another, but that was the first time that I had ever taken on a project that was mine and said, "I'm going to put this out there." You know, I look back on that and say, "There are things that I really wish I had done differently." It's so clear to me now looking back that if I could just change a few things on that, I could make that record a lot better. There's that - the lessons I think you get from one record to the other. And, you know, I'm in a different place now emotionally. Certainly, "Red" reflects that. Out of the guys that participated on this with me, the only one remaining from the first album is Michael Lamb, the drummer. The bass player is different. The other guitarist is different. Some of the sensibilities that came out on the record were heavily influenced by my bass player, Brian Bisky. He's kind of an enigma, really, because he's toured around with jam bands, but he's got some real pop sensibilities about the way that he approaches songwriting and melody and structure. So, he really gets the pop thing. The guitarist that's playing on it, Will Boos, his guitar playing adds some real glue. I think that sums it up. ----- For his official biography, to listen to tracks, find out where you
can purchase "Red", and everything else on Alan Yates and Alan Yates
Band, please visit the official website at
http://www.alanyatesband.com. |
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