Sometimes there is so much extraneous noise in our lives that we can miss what’s going on – senses are overwhelmed and the impact of our experiences can become dulled and weightless. Atlanta band The Yum Yum Tree is mindful of these environmental distractions and seeks to tune out whatever isn’t necessary for the moment at hand. On their upcoming album, Turn Down the Noise, their first in 19 years, the band paints a portrait of wild emotional turbulence, joy and heartache and the inexplicable curiosities that inhabit the world around us. Their work bristles with the active energies of bands like The Breeders and Pixies and coupled with the melodic eccentricities of PJ Harvey and Superchunk. We navigate these weird and restless waters alongside the band as experiences are transmitted and discarded and assimilated.
Built around the collaborative frequencies of singer-bassist Andy Gish, drummer Matt Harr, and guitarist John McNicolas, their music feels tied to specific moments in time, to sounds fervently associated with individual years of their lives. It’s intensely personal while also being universal in exploring emotional instability. Some we just have to turn down the world around us to better understand our place in it, and in the 19 years since their last record, they’ve had plenty of time to work through these bustling distractions.
“We create so much doubt in ourselves … by the time I got to the point where I thought, Yes, this is worth recording, a lot of work had gone into the songs,” Gish reflects. “I’m a very different person,” she goes on to say. “I probably wouldn’t have written those songs in 2010; I wouldn’t have had the same perspective.
Recorded primarily at Dan Dixon’s RCRD studios in Peoplestown-Atlanta, Turn Down the Noise is a testament to shared experience and inspiration, to collective influence and musical affections.
On their latest single, “Shine”, Gish and her musical conspirators conjure the spirit of early 90’s indie rock, a bit caustic but drenched in acres of sticky melodies and prickly rhythms. It feels as though we’re looking back in time, gazing at the past and becoming aware of how that time shaped our future. The guitars are chunky but whirl in impressionistic patterns while Harr’s insistent beat drives everything to its rightful conclusion. By bridging the past and the present, musically and emotionally, we’re offered a way to understand how best to move forward.
“‘Shine’ was written in a parking lot after watching a show at an indie club in Atlanta called the Earl,” explains Gish. “It had just rained and the street lights were so beautiful. I was a little bit of a mess and was having a lot of feelings, as the song suggest.“
The track comes with an accompanying video directed by Katherine Lucas and was filmed in Savannah, Georgia.
Check out the clip below.
Turn Down the Noise is due out April 10. You can follow the band on Facebook and Instagram.
