Photo credit: Phoebe Fox
Yard Act have today shared ‘We Make Hits’, another taste of their upcoming second album Where My Utopia? – due out on 1 March 2024 via Island. The single debuted on Steve Lamacq’s brand new Teatime Session show on BBC Radio 6 Music with support already from Radio 1’s Clara Amfo. Yard Act have today been revealed as the new cover stars of Dork Magazine also.
Where’s My Utopia? is the follow up to the Leeds band’s breakout debut record The Overload which arrived in January 2022. The Overload was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize after a slew of positive reviews, national radio playlistings and a placing at #2 in the Official Charts. The new album is a co-production between Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr.
Yard Act have announced a huge run of shows in the UK and EU for spring 2024 – including the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on 27 March – and their biggest hometown show to date at the 5,750 capacity Millennium Square Leeds on 3 August.
‘We Make Hits’ follows the album’s lead single ‘Dream Job’, which arrived in October to huge acclaim. The videos for both tracks are directed by James Slater; the band and director’s 7th and 8th collaborations.
Yard Act’s James Smith says: “We Make Hits’ started like most Yard Act songs do these days, in Ryan’s spare bedroom. He’d recorded a couple of basslines and I went round to throw some words on top just to see what might happen. I was reflecting on how things had changed so much for us over the last few years when I realised that sat round a laptop trying to make each other laugh, necking black coffee and craneing our heads out of the window to smoke cigs every hour or so, all that had really changed within the writing process was that, thanks to my baby, we were at Ryan’s house rather than mine and that Ryan had a place of his own now, which was nice. Despite the outside blowing up, behind closed doors, we were the same, and I’m grateful for that. You can see the cynicism and the silliness on the surface of ‘We Make Hits’ without much effort, but at its core, for me, it’s really an ode to friendship and the unfiltered joy you feel when you’re making music with the people you hold dear in your life. Meanwhile back in the Yardiverse, we’re getting the origin story of the hitmen Dynamite Dave and Dudley Sunglasses. A valid parable about the trappings of late capitalism, and the compromises we have to make to survive sometimes.”
Speaking about the video, Slater said: “For ‘We Make Hits’ I took a song which charts the origin story of the band and used it to tell the backstory of two hapless hitmen who upon receiving an eviction notice in their student bedsit embark on a job search which ultimately leads them to gainful employment as assassins for the Holy Global Enterprise. As ever with the Yard Act vids I’ve made, this vid is part of an ever expanding cinematic universe – a continuation of The Visitor’s journey we began with ‘The Trench Coat Museum.”
Yard Act opened the main stage at Reading & Leeds Festival last summer as well as making appearances at Latitude (headlining the BBC Sounds stage, no less), Fuji Rocks, and Boardmasters. The band also returned to North America in November 2023 with a run of headline shows across the US, culminating in a slot at Mexico City’s Corona Capital Festival. Yard Act delivered an unprecedented five night residency at their hometown’s Brudenell Social Club in 2023 which was awarded four stars each in reviews from Rolling Stone UK, The Telegraph, and The Times. The band were joined by a stellar lineup of comedians; Phill Jupitus, Nish Kumar, Lolly Adefope, and Harry Hill. Yard Act also made their festival headline bow at Dot To Dot in Bristol & Nottingham, performed at Primavera (Barcelona, Madrid & Porto) and played their maiden shows in Australia and New Zealand, truly making their mark on the global stage
