Introducing: Young Buffalo

Their effortless “cool” first came to my attention when I heard them supporting Guards back in February, but don’t let their relaxed attitude fool you. I recently caught up with Young Buffalo’s Jim Barrett to find an ambitious young singer/guitarist/sometimes drummer who has already set his sights on a second album – without even having a first.

So lets start at the beginning. How did Young Buffalo come into being?

Well throughout highschool I had always been in some band or other. Alex and I actually played together for about a year before we started Young Buffalo. I had been working on some stuff and once I had recorded a couple of songs, I realised I needed to find some live band mates. I already knew Alex could sing, play the drums, the guitar and bass so I asked him and then Ben to join. We played a couple of rehearsals then recorded some more demos in July 2009 as a complete band.

Did you guys gel as a three-piece immediately?

Pretty much. I found myself not really being the driving force musically anymore, everyone got involved and we just clicked. We decided a few things we wanted to try and just went for them.

What did you decide you wanted to try?

We all decided we really wanted to keep it loud, keep it fun, keep it energetic and avoid anything folksy.

Any bands that may have influenced that kind of direction?

Around the time we started playing there was all the Animal Collective/Yeasayer stuff going on which definitely had an impact. I mean we thought that was all pretty cool but I guess they were not really a major or direct influence. Recently we’ve been delving back further into stuff like Talking Heads, The Smiths, T-Rex and David Bowie. We each have our own different influences but they all just work. As far as writing goes, personally, I would just have to say the classics like The Beach Boys and The Beatles. For me at least it is about keeping it simple and pretty poppy.

What about non-musical input? Do you feel that growing up in Oxford, Mississippi had any impact on your output?

It hasn’t not affected it! I mean, yeah, it definitely has although I’m not exactly sure how! I guess the place, the people and the community are pretty responsible for the larger world paying attention to us. It was definitely a good scene to be part of, it was very supportive – all the bands would come and check out your show even if it wasn’t really their kind of thing.

You signed to Fat Possum around this time last year. How did that come about?

Fat Possum are our hometown label and, around March last year, when they heard a hometown band were in talks with a few small Brooklyn labels they pricked up their ears. They liked what they heard and we all signed off on it in May last year. They helped figure out our recording situation and put our album together.

So you guys have got an album in the works?

Yeah, it’s been recorded and finished since August. We plan on putting out an EP in US in May, and then, tentatively, I would say we’ll put the album out in the UK/Europe around July, and then in the US in the fall.

With the album having been finished for a while now are you working on anything new?

We’ve been working on some stuff that is kind of in the same vein but hopefully it will be a little less radio friendly. I think it will be pretty cool though. We want to experiment more, play around with some studio tricks and have some fun with it. The stuff we’ve been working on recently has been really exciting because we’ve been playing the same old songs for a while now, so new ones are always really invigorating.

http://soundcloud.com/tlobf/young-buffalo-anthems-for-a-17

You recently played a show over here, did you guys have fun in the UK?

That show with Guards was was a weird one. I mean, we knew about the whole London crowd where nobody really talks or does anything but that was kind of extreme. To be honest, to me it just felt like I wanted to finish the set and get the hell off that stage. I mean it was still fun being over here, and playing that show was cool but yeah a little awkward.

Don’t take it personally, The Lexington crowd can be like that sometimes and I was there, I know people still enjoyed the show for sure. I noticed actually that on stage you guys swap instruments around a fair bit. How does that work when you come to laying down a track?

We actually approach it the same way; it keeps things exciting. One time we were recording, I was on drums and we had to do like 30 takes so the next day I was sick of drums and luckily I could just pick up the guitar part. It was kind of nice the way it worked out. It was a lot of work, a really fun experience but really intense because we were only in the studio for four weeks. But you know I think next time around we will have more time to mess about, I feel we will be more ready for the next one.

You guys seem to have quite a long-term plan for the band. Your music has been classed as kind of “slacker-indie” by some critics but in terms of ambition it seems like this is something you have always wanted to be your ‘day job’ so to speak?

Yeah, I think one reason we’re called “slackers” is because we don’t look like you’re run of the mill, manufactured indie band but as far as ambition goes I want to be on the road, playing gigs, selling records and essentially doing exactly this. I think that is the same for all of us.

What are your plans for being on the road in 2011 then?

We’ll be over in the UK in May doing regional stuff for around two weeks, then we’ll head back here and tour our EP through June, then probably come back to the UK/Europe in July to tour the record. Festival-wise I know we’re doing The Great Escape in Brighton but we left the record a little late to get in on the summer festival action, at least early summer festivals.

We might end up doing some closer to the fall I guess, it’s all a bit up in the air at the moment, we’re just living month to month you know?

o.