Out of Perth, Young Robin have seriously delivered the goods on their latest single Stay. Gradually-building, blissful pop at it’s finest, Stay is one of those songs that stays in your head long after that final beat. With huge cymbals, intricate guitar lines and a slow warm vocal, it’s a track that delivers warmth and energy in spades.
We had a chat to blissful indie pop purveyors Young Robin about their roots, the booming Perth scene and their joyous new single Stay.
Opening with a jangly guitar riff, the song introduces a sense of sentiment that only builds as layered vocals just shine through verse after verse. With bopping sunny beats jumping up and down throughout, Stay has an emotional touch, but at its core remains a seriously well-crafted pop song.
We had a chat with the boys to talk through the single and what’s coming up next for their fast-moving quintet, namely how their songwriting has progressed since the beginning, which we have heard was not their most polished area of expertise.
“The band started as a three piece university project for our drummer,” says bassist Hamish Graham. “After playing a show just for the fun of it, there was the realisation that music was something they should do and it quickly became more serious. I say “they” because Ben and I were not part of the original trio but were added as bass and second guitar to form the quintet that we now are.
From that change, we really solidified as musicians and as a band. Ben is actually singing lead vocals on Stay. We weren’t the most experienced of songwriters in the beginning but as time has gone on we’ve really grown. We’ve always gelled as musicians and as people, and our music has matured a lot more into our own sound. We’re really excited about what the future holds. Our newer stuff is a bit different, while still managing to stick to the roots of what we’re about.”
And what they’re about seems to lie in making music that builds spirits and gets people moving onward and upward. With a song like Stay being so lyrically poignant and overwhelmingly positive, we can confirm that Young Robin are on the right path.
“The band members tend to let the music guide itself,” says Graham. “It is a large part of our writing process and the final sound is what Young Robin are about. We never force a song to go anywhere or have a particular sound in mind when we start. Stay starts with a riff that Ben had almost two years ago.
Without thinking too much about it, most of our music tends to be upbeat and positive and it’s probably to do with our personalities. We’re loving life and I think that comes through in our music. We want to share the joy we get from writing and performing with our fans as much as possible, and I think we’re doing just that. Our shows are energetic and there are always lots of people dancing around, sometimes even jumping up on stage with us!”
Every band draws their sound from a place in the corners of their mind, whether that be a childhood obsession, or an artist they just can’t get out of their heads.
For Young Robin the inspiration is really eclectic. Bouncing from Brit pop to metal, they really are borrowing from a mixed bunch. “Our personal tastes are very diverse, from super heavy metal, to some really mainstream pop.
One would have to be The 1975. I feel like their success with some more obscure pop is a great reminder that you should always be yourself and, as a musician, write what you love and what makes you happy.
For me personally, I grew up playing a lot of metal with quite technical bass lines, and so I always try to write bass lines that are fun and interesting to play or hear. I think this style of writing applies to nearly everyone in the band. There’s a fine line between technical and tasteful, but I hope we achieve that.”
In the vein of obscure pop, you can’t help but probe for more details on the crazy amount of good music coming out of Western Australia at the moment. It seemed to start with Tame Impala and the list has slowly grown to include some of the best loved Australian artists of the generation. As a band growing up in Perth, it must have been both inspiring and daunting?
“Perth’s music scene is just so stupidly full of talent it’s ridiculous. There are something like 200-300 really good bands that perform regularly. If you go to a show and don’t learn something from at least one band, then you weren’t paying attention.
With the amount of creative talent here, everyone is constantly being pushed to be better musicians. More than that, it’s so supportive and friendly. Starting out, we instantly made a lot of friends who were happy to help us out. Pretty quickly it was a lot easier to get gigs. Everyone is more than happy to chat and share some wisdom. There’s not a lot of ego either. It never really matters how big a band is, there’s always been a lot of support for us from everyone.”
With the single released and in full swing, it is hard to imagine Young Robin slowing down, they’ve got a record in the pipeline and a huge single launch planned for mid September.
There is so much to look forward to, we can imagine that keeping all the balls in the air is somewhat of a challenge. “Stay is our main focus for this year and we’re aiming to make that September 16th launch party as big an event as possible. We’re part of a seven band lineup for this and the other acts are so talented we can’t believe we’re all going to share the same stage.
We are prepping for an EP release in early 2018. In the meantime, there’s bound to be a gig, people can keep an eye on our Facebook or Instagram. As for touring, I think that time is fast approaching. It’s always been a dream of ours since the day we started the band, and I’d definitely consider it the next step towards bigger and better things for Young Robin.”
If that’s not enough for you to be leaping straight over to check out more from Young Robin, we don’t know what is.
Catch the band launching Stay at Badlands Bar, Perth on Saturday September 6 w/ RAKSHA, Iceage Sugar, J.F.K, Choking Stanley, Scarlet Drive and Figurehead.
