Lizzie and the Yes Men are Lizzie Holdforth, Andy Goodman, Keir Greenaway, Brendan Bailey. Describing themselves as ‘Tarantino surf-pop,’ Lizzie and The Yes Men combine their love for the cinematic sounds of Tarantino with surf, pop and desert rock, drawing inspiration from bands such as Best Coast, The Ronettes ,The Beach Boys, Love and the Dum Dum Girls. Sam Turner caught up with Lizzie to find out more… 

Things are good, I think. We are currently writing new material for debut album, feeling rather cut off from reality, but  very focused and productive. So yeah, things are good.

Can you give us a bit of background on the band?

We met a few years a go now. We are a relatively new band. We are good friends. We live in east London. We love cinema and film as much as music. It has a huge influence on our sound.

Past or present, which bands do you tend to listen to the most and which influence your music?

Presently I’m loving LA band The Allah-las. I saw them perform a great show recently, Bobby Gillespie was dancing away in the crowd. They remind me of The La’s in many ways. Super cool, catchy, classic songs. In the past I’d say Love. The more I listen the more I get into LOVE. I like how they were such songmasters but also punk when they felt like it. And the song arrangements are mad. I also really like the Mexicana feel “Forever Changes” has.

Classic! What are your hopes and dreams for Lizzie and the Yes Men?

I’d like to write and record and album we can be proud of. That’s all I’m dreaming about.

Tell us about your new single ‘Unstoppable’

Its our dark brooding song about two people that meet and can’t resist each other. It’s a song about sex. We were fortunate enough to get to work with William Rees (Mystery Jets) as co producer, and he really added some nice touches to the song. This single is the the first song that we have been 100% happy with. We are very proud of this track

Fair enough. There’s a deleted scene from Pulp Fiction where Uma Thurman’s character declares that everyone is either an Elvis person or a Beatles person.  Which are you?

I’m definitely a Beatles person. Song after song after song, they just knocked them out!! And I learnt to sing harmonies by listening to the Beatles, so I owe em. As for Elvis, he was hot, right, that was his thing, and had a voice to melt the heart of 16 year old girls, but he didn’t write his own songs.

That is the correct answer! Thanks for your time

Cheers Gigslutz!

 

Lizzie & The Yes Men’s new single, ‘Unstoppable’ is out on 19th August on 100M Records. 

Sam Turner

http://youtu.be/ZSjslPLvLUQ