Yes Sir Boss | Exclusive Interview

Huddled around a table in a quiet pub on Brighton’s windy, cold sea front, Yes Sir Boss, a genre defiant “cow punk” band from Bristol, were about to embark on what they called “One of their favourite interviews” (Not our words!). Present from the band were guitarist and backing vocalist Potter, Backing vocalist and bassist; Josh and Jehan… Backing vocalist, saxophonist, glockenspielist, Harmonica player, tambourine shaker and any other instrument she can get her hands on ist… With musical influences ranging from blues to hip hop to jazz to afro beats, Yes Sir Boss really can’t be boxed or categorised in terms on sound and genre. Coming up through the festival scene the band have a just been signed by Joss Stones record label Stoned Records and with an album set to come out, 2012 looks positive for this Bristolian sextet.

So for everyone who doesn’t know much about the band, we picked their brains to find out about the birth of the band, what makes them tick and if they would rather eat a million tarantulas and a human or a member of their family.

Okay so the name Yes Sir Boss, what’s it all about, who came up with it?

“It was a song lyric from a song that was written about bush and Blair and the Iraq oil bulshit thing that was going on basically and it was kind of a reference to the yes sir boss, do what you want kind of thing, and we just thought we’d take it on. It was a good punchy name and it was much better than our old name.”

What was your old name?

“Cellars and the scientists which is a bit of a gobfull so we went for yes sir boss cos its punchy and dynamic and its something you can remember.”

Yeah it’s a good name. So for people that don’t know what kind of music you are what would you say you were?

“Oh fucking hell! Next question! Um… Indie, Horn, Cow punk. We’ve come up through the festivals so we fit in to the festival scene really well. It’s kind of festivaly, circusy. But equally its very very song based, we all like songs and we’ve all been bought up on pop songs that we like so its easily identifiable for people to listen to. Its singable, it’s catchy it’s uplifting.”

What festivals have you played?

“This year? Loads. Glastonbury, Green man, Shambala ,secret garden, sunrise. What was that one in Ireland? Body and Soul oh yeah that was brilliant. We did electric picnic. We tour with a festival venue And that’s kind of an umbrella name for a big organisation tent that they take to the festivals and stuff and its really decent production where like lots of bands who are emerging and coming up through lots of opportunities play on a really decent sound system with a really decent crew and get looked after and its like kind of realising potentials sort of stuff so as good as a bands gonna be on stage it will be really well represented .That’s where we came from. We got signed, guy that runs it, he founds us at and we somehow ended up playing at this pilturn party, it was a staff party for Michael Eavis and all his Glastonbury staff to kind of meet up and have a few drinks and they booked a couple of bands to do the entertainment and we ended up playing there and he saw us there and from then on, just chased us in a car park didn’t he? And then hounded us (laughing) and we ended up playing all the festivals for the past 3 years.”

Wow, that’s so cool. So what’s you favourite festival?

Potter- “Mines Shambala”

Josh- “Yeah Shambala, green man. Green man was cool. I loved secret garden as well”

Jehan-“I think I’d vote Glastonbury and green man this year and Shambala”

What’s the best and worst things about the festivals you’ve played?

Jehan-“ Camping with this lot.”

Do you camp in tents? Like proper slum it?

“Oh that’s not slumming it. That’s if we find our tent. Our lead singer tends to sleep under bits of tarpaulin on the stage, under the stage. We’ve gone up through the ranks as far as camping is concerned. I’ve got a double air bed now; I like to call it glamping. Yeah I’ve got an air bed nowadays and ear plugs.”

Jehan- “Matts taken to sleeping under the stage now though”

“Yeah he likes it under there. Warm he says. What are the shit things about festivals though? Mud, bad if it rains. It’s a bit of a downer. Mud’s bad but people make the best of it. Ketamine. Ketamine’s bad we don’t like that. Travelling to and from. Really it’s all good. It’s a lovely vibe though isn’t it?”

Who would you say your musical influences are behind the band, behind the music?

Potter- “That’s an interesting one I feel. This does have to be an individual thing I think. Because we all studied our instruments and in like set ways there are quite specific things, like for me I played blues guitar so I really like all the old guitarists like Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton stuff like that.”

Josh-“ Then I was really into and loved Tom Waits and also listened to loads of hip hop like kind of old like fireside and de la soul and then yeah and funk and stuff as well loads of stuff.”

Jehan- “I come from a bit of a jazzy background and a classical background but also love loads of afro beats stuff and big horn sections but also like the old classics like led zeppelin and stuff like that Fella Kuti is one of my favs.”

“So yeah you put them all together and it’s this weird thing. I think that’s why it’s really hard to explain what the music’s like because it comes from so many different places that you just end up reeling off a load of stuff. Someone text me and said what genre are we.. (sighs) what genre aren’t we? I don’t know, so you just end up with a big list of them basically. We need to make up a name.”

Potter- “ Lets say we’re genre defiant.”

Josh- “I think we need to make up a name. I went on genre thing on wiki the other day, there’s fucking loads of them! There are as many as there are bands. People like us that think we’re so genre defiant have to make up their own genre.”

Potter- “Lets just be genre defiant, I’m happy with that. GD”

“Yeah GD. Giant dicks (laughing)”

How long have you guys been performing together and how did it all start?

“Um it was a uni thing. It all started at uni so it was like 5 years ago. People joined, like people came in and here we are with this kind of set up. We all moved to Bristol after uni, that was 4 years ago now. So this line up is 2 years old, give or take. We were going before then but this one is two.”

“Jehan- There’s loads of musicians in Bristol and there’s a really supportive network between musicians and venues. And loads of people playing each other projects. It’s a great vibe to be in and amongst that.”

So what do you think about Brighton? As a place and for music?

“It’s a bit bloody windy (laughing)”

Yeah it is today, you haven’t picked the best weekend to come down.

“We were gonna move to Brighton, weren’t we? It was a toss up between Brighton and Bristol. Bristol is much cheaper. Yeah we couldn’t afford to move here. And it’s really far away. It’s a bit harder to get places from here. It’s a lovely place to visit though. Again Brighton has got a really vibrant music scene and art scene and stuff like that. Some bands that we’re playing with tonight Tim Roots and people like Disraeli have all come up through here. So it’s got an equally kind of vibrant scene. Got some nice pubs as well.”

We saw that you were signed by Joss Stone, how did that come about?

“Josh- I went to school with her and then kind of saw her, she got taken out of school to do her music but then we kept in touch. And I was always into music as well all the way through and she had always kind of said ‘right lets do something together’. And when she had seen that we had this band she was really really into it like all the way through it, very supportive for a long time. So she had always loved it but there was never like a chance to do anything in particular and then as soon as she got out of her deal BMI she was just like ‘right I’m gonna make a record label, do you want to sign to it?’ so we said yeah…”

That must have been a pretty amazing feeling?

“Yeah! We got a double case of champagne and we signed the contract in the wrong place cos we were pissed (laughing) so we had to do it again. Yeah it was wicked. But yeah she’s got a good idea for this label, kinda new model while everything in like the music industry is like bandit country at the minute, everything has fallen through all the big companies are fucked, all the money’s all over the place, no one knows how its going so everyone is just making it up as they go along and making their own rules so she has a good ethos. So I think she’ll do quite well with it. She’s been really kind to us in terms of like how much she gets involved and creative control and where it lies. We’ve been able to continue developing the way we want to develop which, I’m not sure I haven’t had many record deals in my life, however (laughing) you hear stories, and I feel really good about this one in terms that we’ve been left alone and the album that she funded we’re really proud of. So it’s like there’s a team of people rather than us and them. It’s a tiny operation basically but it’s all really close.”

Okay, so if you guys weren’t doing music, where would you be? What would you be doing?

Farming (laughing)

Josh-“ I think I would be a music teacher.”

Jehan- “Probably working in a big afro beat bar making my money in some other country, somewhere hot. FIGI! Tom would probably have a full time allotment.”

“Yeah Tommo would be a full time gardener he’d go on countryfile. Rueben would be managing some massive stage somewhere. And Matthew, what would Matthew be doing? I don’t know. Answers on a post card please. To Dolly Rox.co.uk (laughing). Dolly Rox, why didn’t they just call it tits! (laughing) We did get told like ‘er yeah you’ve got these girls coming down for a magazine called big tits, er doing an interview for yes sir boobs.’ Hahahaha”

Ah that’s completely thrown me; I don’t even know what I’m asking. Okay, have you got any advice or dos and don’ts for anyone that’s trying to push themselves into the music industry?

Potter- “I’ve got a good one. Quit your job. Go self employed get working tax credits and housing benefits and make sure you commit properly if you really really wanna do it and you’ve got a team of people that are in exactly the same point and pushing towards the same thing, commit fully and give it a go. And look after each other otherwise, you’ll be part time forever.”

Johan-“That’s it, we’re all in exactly the same boat and at the same point. No ones got more commitments than the other. That’s a bit thing, cos we’ve all got the same amount of time to put into it.”

Josh- “What’s the theory of hours? There’s that theory that if you do enough hours or something you become an expert in it. I think it’s something like, what is it? Something like 25,000 hours and by the time you’ve done that you’re an expert. Someone said that, that’s true for everyone and the Beatles clocked that when they went to, I think they went to Berlin and they played gigs 6 days a week, like 6 hour slot gigs for fuck knows how long and they were racing up all these hours and they came back absolutely dynamite. So yeah you’ve got to dedicate all your time to it.”

How many hours have you done?

“Er.. (laughing) 9…? I don’t know. What other advice could there be?”

Josh- “Do it for the right reasons I think. I think it’s a good idea to have high ambitions and they’ve got to be the right kind of ambitions. You’ve got to be prepared to do it for no money for the rest of your life and still be okay with that. Otherwise you’re not gonna get anywhere at all or just horribly disappointed.”

Potter- “Time and kind of integrity. And be nice to people on the way. Its really nice to be nice and the contacts you make as you go through like its all networking every time you do a gig you’re gonna meet another sound engineer or another stage tech, you’ve gotta think about building your army all the way through. Yeah so everyone you meet you gotta be like, you know, come on board. Cos in the same way you’ve gotta build up fans like that. You know if you haven’t got a record label, record labels don’t provide that team anymore, they don’t have the money, so you’ve got to build that team up yourself and meet them from just being out and stuff so.”

Right we’re gonna move on to something a little bit more light hearted. Move away from kind of….

Potter-“ tits?”

Josh- “Games!!!”

Its not so much games but have you ever played ‘would you rather?

Ah yeah bring them on! I’ve had some fucking horrible ones!

I did think of really horrible ones but then she (pointing to daisy) was like no you can’t say that you can’t say that.

Josh- “Go on! Can you remember any of them?”

(laughing) I can… (daisy- ) go on say it! Okay, this literally destroyed my brain when I asked myself this.

“Okay, go on.”

Okay… would you rather have to watch your parents have sex for the rest of your lives every single day… or get involved once?

“oooh fucking hell… how involved?”

Potter- “What can you like go and get them some water or?”

“ I don’t like it… I don’t like it….. LALALALALAL”

I told you they were horrible!

Josh-“ I don’t know erm… I’d probably… urgh… actually I’m not gonna say. Next question.”

I knew you couldn’t handle that question!

(laughing) “but I know… in my head I know. I’m just not gonna tell you haha.”

Potter-“that’s the sort of stuff that if you do make it, it gets printed on the back page of the sun.”

Jehan- “Just thinking about that is giving me nightmares.”

“Okay ask us a civilised one… for big tits magazine.”

Would you rather eat a million live taranculas and a human…..

(Hysterically laughing) “and a human…?!”-

…Or a member of your family…?

Josh-“ I’d eat a million live tarantulas and a human.”

“Could you pick the human?”

Yeah. It could be a stranger.

Josh-“ it would have to be a baby wouldn’t it?”

(laughing) oh it would HAVE to be a baby!

Josh-“ well I’m just thinking that wouldn’t be too much to eat!”

Jehan- “I’d quite like the take a bite out of George Clooney’s butt…”

“wheyyyyy (laughing) Dolly Rox gold! You’re gonna be on the front page of Dolly Rox”

Potter-“ I suppose you’d only have to eat three tarantulas a day for the rest of your life wouldn’t you?”

Josh- “that’s such an amazing question. I’ve always wanted to be interviewed for magazines and this is what its like. Go on then gimme some more! These are fun”

Okay… would you rather be able to fly or be invincible on demand?

Potter- “that’s more up our street”

Josh-“ that’s fucking like it.”

Potter- “I think flying is the answer. It’s fast you can get places really quick.”

Josh- its just fucking cool. Then you can wear a cape and people would be like why are you wearing a cape…? Oh people this…(signals flying)

Okay, tell us your best drunken experience

Josh-“ I’m not sure I want to.”

Potter-“I met my fiancé”

Oooh how did that happen?

Potter- I was absolutely bananaed (laughing) we just hit it off

Then you proposed?

Potter- (laughing) “yep just like that. No it was at Shambala my favourite festival. My favourite drunken experience happened at my favourite festival with my favourite person. Print that in Dolly Rox!”

Josh- “I think mine would have to be with my bird as well actually! Yeah it wasn’t strictly drunken. It was on a Ferris wheel, being really fucking high at secret garden party with my woman. Had a great time.”

So, coming to the end of our little chat with Yes Sir Boss and getting to know what they’re all about, we are left with some final words from the band and their new born journey so far.

“ Even if you go down another career path like music is something that will stay forever wont it and that’s it if it doesn’t eventually go where we want it to go we’ve always said that we’ve made this album now and that’s something that we’ll have forever and ever to be really really proud of. Come what may we’ve got this far.”

So if you’re into a hundred different sounds and musical influences, chances are Yes Sir Boss will have something to cater to your varied music taste. Check out their MySpace www.myspace.com/yessirbossmusic

And download their FREE ‘Never know’ track! From their forthcoming album ‘Desperation State’. Watch out 2012, Yes Sir Boss are in the building!



Written by: Rearna Ackord and Daisy Martin
http://dollyrox.com/?p=87

of course "Potter" should be Luke and the name they started with was actually
"Sellors and Scientists" but thats ok its a nice article

Loved ths interview!! What nice chaps!!