After five years of lineup changes and other challenges, San Francisco, CA-based indie-pop-rock group The Y Axes took the beginning of 2016 to tease their most fully realized vision to date. Having already shared soaring, cosmic alt-rock bangers in Patch Me Up and Great Escape, the band now announces the Umbra LP set for release on November 26th, 2016. The Y Axes were formed in 2010 by Alexi Rose Belchere (vocals) and Devin Nelson (guitar/vocals/synths) as a side project to the other bands they were in at the time. After years of dropping DIY releases and adding and dropping members, the band finally arrived at its current iteration with Jack Sundquist (bass) and Nick Schneider (drums) rounding out the latest iteration of the quartet. You can stream Penumbra, featuring the first four singles off of Umbra below.
We managed to catch up with the band about the upcoming release, fans, most memorable moment on tour and more!
How proud are you of the upcoming release of Umbra?
I’m so proud of the new album. It’s the culmination of not just a year of recording and planning, but also years of songwriting. I can remember Devin showing me the synth demos of Meteorite while as we were pulling up to a recording session for “Sunglasses & Solar Flares”. I remember watching Devin work out the bassline for Drifting as far back as 2012. But at the same time, some of these songs, Patch Me Up and Umbra, for example, are more the result of jamming out structure with Jack and Nick. Devin and I would often write together and then bring the sketch of a song to the rest of the band, but with “Umbra” a lot of the best things were figured out in the practice space as a group.
Is this any different to your previous releases?
Aside from the new collaborative force we have with Nick and Jack, I think the biggest difference is that, unlike “Sunglasses” and “Discopocalypse”, this album was recorded entirely in the studio. The homebrewed quality of our previous releases doesn’t quite express the scope of sound that we’d always wanted, no matter how amazing the musical performances were on those records (I’m looking at you, Alan Chen and Kevin Ferguson!). In less obvious senses, I guess you could say the tone of the album follows the trajectory of the previous albums, in which “Discopocalypse” was more of a pre-apocolyptic album, “Sunglasses” was post-apocalyptic, and “Umbra” is the rebirth.
What inspired you guys to write this album?
For me, making this album is just business as usual. Songs on this album either didn’t exist or weren’t fully realized in time for the last album. Inspiration for the storytelling of this album is really just the indication of my personal state. Manifested in lyrical form, I guess the album is about figuring how to exist in a world that’s no longer constantly morphing and reinventing itself. How does one live when survival is no longer at stake?
What is your favourite track on the album?
I really can’t choose a favourite track on this album- they’re all so different from each other and fit in different ways! If I had to pick right now, I’d probably choose Silence in the Library. I love that one because it’s both ominous and weird-sexy at the same time.
How much do your fans mean to you guys?
The fans make the show for me. Playing to a couple people who are really engaged with the set can sometimes be more fun than playing to a room full of people staring into their drinks. But hey, those dudes are potential fans, too, but I think the energy of an audience makes a show- not only for us as players but also for other people who came for a cathartic time.
Will there be a tour with the album release?
We’re always happy to tour! There’s been a logistics issue preventing touring that we’re hoping to solve in the coming year. If you book us we will come.
What has been your most memorable moment as a band to date?
For me, playing the Gold Rush Festival in Placerville CA last year was the most memorable band moment. I remember being out in the middle of nowhere, hours from home with no phone reception, and just floating on this river in front of a stage. I get a bit of travel anxiety, and being so unaccountable for my own destiny might have freaked me out. But looking around at my bandmates and feeling like I was really safe with these dudes and could live on a desert island with them just made me so happy. I was so happy to have found my band.
If you could work with any band, who would it be and why?
I’m going to keep saying Oingo Boingo until it happens. Danny Elfman has been a subconscious influence on my life as far back as I can remember. Whether it was his motifs creeping through Edward Scissorhands, his percussion in Planet of the Apes, or his macabre lyrics in a Boingo record, I’m forever following in his footsteps.