FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: YONAKA

FEATURE:

Spotlight: Revisited

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Palmer

YONAKA

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THIS is a terrific band…

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Palmer

that I spotlighted in 2018. I am long overdue a reappraisal of this three-piece. YONAKA are made up of Theresa Jarvis, George Edwards and Alex Crosby. Jarvis is one of the most exceptional and engaging band leads in the country. In terms of what she brings to live performances and on records. Their second studio album, Until You're Satisfied, will arrive on 13th March next year. I am really looking forward to that, as I have been a fan of YONAKA for many years. 2019’s Don't Wait 'Til Tomorrow was a sensational and distinct debut from a group who instantly stood out from their peers. The Brighton-based band are back in my sights because there is a recent interview online. I wanted to put them back under the spotlight. The band have some British tour dates next month. You can go and pre-order their album from their website. Before getting to this new interview and an NME article that highlights their latest single, I want to take us back to 2023. That was quite an important year for YONAKA. That is when they released the E.P., Welcome to My House. If this E.P. contained some of their best work, I feel like Until You’re Satisfised will be their best release. In terms of consistency and overall impact. I do want to head back to 2023 before coming forward. DIY spoke with Therese Jarvis ahead of YONAKA headlining DIY’s takeover at this weekend’s Y Not Festival:

“Hello Theresa! How has 2023 treated you so far?

I’m well! This year has been so far a good year for growth. I’m learning new things about myself all the time and welcoming change even though it can feel scary at first but I’m riding the wave, everything is as it’s supposed to be.

You’ve just released your new EP ‘Welcome To My House’ - can you tell us a bit about what you wanted to explore on the EP?

So, the EP has seven tracks on it: they kinda go all over the place in tempo, sound and emotion, it feels exciting and nothing sounds the same. Originally we wanted to do an album so we actually had to really carve out the EP but it works nicely. When writing for a body of work there will be a song that is a moment where you go ‘OK, this is where it is’ and that song was ‘Panic’ for the EP and we worked around that being the heart of it.

Do you have any anecdotes from making the EP that you can share with us?

We went out to LA to record the EP, but that didn’t quite go as planned as LA is way too fun a place to stay inside. We stayed in this house with a studio and our friend Barns Courtney stayed the whole time on the sofa. We would just hang out, drink and then make music, and we were jumping on each other’s tracks so you can hear him layered up with my vocals, in the middle eight of ‘Panic’.

You’ve also been playing a whole host of festivals this summer; what do you think you enjoy most about playing at festivals?

I love the fact that you don’t know what you’re gonna get. I like that people will just stumble across you and either hate you or fall in love. I also like being around and seeing all the other artists and like getting to enjoy being the punter too.

What should people expect from your set at Y Not? And will you be checking out any of the other acts on the line-up while you’re there?

They can expect a lovely old show with new songs and some classics. I’m looking forward to seeing Sad Night Dynamite, Cassyette and Kid Kapichi”.

Welcome to My House seemed to be seven songs that were about Teresa Jarvis’s life, I wonder if their upcoming album follows the same lines. Recent singles Cruel and Problems have an autobiographical edge and could be new chapter for Jarvis and YONAKA, I want to briefly stay in 2023, as it is important to see where YONAKA were a couple of years back and where they are now. Kerrang! are big supporters of YONAKA. They spoke with the band about Welcome to My House:

“Talking of changing your style and mixing up genres, is it important to you to not pigeonhole yourselves?

Theresa: “Yeah, I feel like when we are writing it comes from a feeling and a mood, rather than kind of just being like, ‘Okay, now we have this kind of rocky song, so let’s write another rocky song.’ We base it on: ‘If it feels good, then let’s write it.’”

You’re launching your new EP with the release of By The Time You’re Reading This. Was this song in particular one you wanted to save for release day?

Theresa: “That song is quite upbeat, fast-paced and really fun, and so we’re using By The Time You’re Reading This to kind of head up this EP. The song is about living in the moment and it’s a feel-good song. It’s just loud and fast!”

You’ve also made a music video for each track as well. Was that something done over time, or did you do all of that back-to-back?

Theresa: “We filmed them back-to-back. We spent one day filming the PANIC video and that was like a full video where there were different scenes, and all this kind of stuff. And then we filmed five videos the next day – we are actually calling them visualisers because they’re not like moving scenes actually. But yeah, it was pretty intense!”

A lot of Welcome To My House comes from Theresa’s lived experiences. Was it a cathartic experience writing these songs?

Theresa: “Yeah, it was really cathartic. It’s nice to get it out of my head and onto paper! I’ve really benefited from hearing about other people’s experiences through life – especially when it comes down to things like mental health. If I can share my experience, and someone hears it and understands that, ‘Oh, I’m not fucking crazy,’ and that they’re not freaking out on their own then that’s a big deal for me. Because they’re not alone in that, and I’m not alone in that. It feels good, and it just pours out. Sometimes I’ll write a melody and I’ll have to make words to the melody, and then sometimes when it’s just right there the words come out at the same time as the melody.”

Lastly, YONAKA are a three-piece now, with drummer Rob Mason having departed the band earlier this year. How’s that going?

Theresa: “Yeah, it’s been good. We still get drummers on board, because we still need drums! We’re still working it out and it’s a massive change that has had to happen, but we are enjoying it. Things do happen for a reason and changes do come, and it just depends how you roll with them. You either freeze and you go, ‘Fuck!’ or you just keep rolling and you make it into a positive.”

Alex: “For now, in terms of writing music, it’s going to be the three of us”.

I guess the biggest difference in the band since their formation is they are as trio now. Starting out with drummer Robert Mason, streaming slightly has not sacrificed any of their potency and quality. I am not sure what their plans are for 2026 but, with a second album coming and tour dates locked in, they will be on the attack and brining their new music to fans around the country. I will skip ahead to that NME article concerning YONAKA’s amazing single, Problems. One of their strongest singles, it bodes well for Until You’re Satisfied (which will be released through Distiller):

“YONAKA have returned with a new single called ‘Problems’ – you can listen to it below.

The song marks the first preview of the Brighton band’s upcoming second album, which is yet to be announced. Their first record ‘Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow’ arrived in 2019, ahead of their ‘Seize The Power’ mixtape (2021) and EP ‘Welcome To My House’ (2023).

“‘Problems’ is about when love starts to turn a little bit ugly. And it was the only song that could open up this new era of YONAKA,” explained frontwoman Theresa Jarvis.

Per a press release, the track opens the door to some new lyrical themes for the singer, as she explores matters of the heart.

“Don’t call me baby anymore/ Don’t need your web not like before/ I tried my best to reconcile/ It don’t come easy when you feel the void/ Making noise,” Jarvis sings in the restrained first verse, before ‘Problems’ blasts into a heavy, visceral chorus.

“It’s like I said/ I’ve got problems/ It’s hard to hear/ When you can’t solve them/ Oh and it hurts like death/ My only friend/ How could I ever love again?/ Forgive me I’ve got problems, yeah,” the frontwoman adds.

I know there will be new interviews closer to the release date of Until You’re Satisfied on 13th March. However, Kerrang! spoke with Theresa Jarvis about their punchy single, Problems, and how it is a new chapter for the band. A new era. It is a step more towards writing about love and relationships, though not necessarily romantic ones – plutonic relationships and friendships could be at the heart. Also, Jarvis talks about a time when YONAKA were perhaps on the brink and pulled it around:

“Going into making your second album, what questions were you all asking of yourselves as a band?

“We were on our own, we had no label, and we went through some rocky patches through the years. Lots of music was happening because we were like, ‘We need to make music,’ rather than doing it out of love. It got to a point where it was time for us to make a second album and I was like, ‘If this is the last thing we ever make, this needs to be the fucking best thing.’ I really approached it from that feeling, because you just never know what will happen. I wanted to make something incredible. And this is fucking brilliant, it’s the best we could have done. Throughout the years, there have been times when some of us won’t like something, and some of us would, and we would put it out. But I really, really love every single song on this new album. We all feel really connected to it.”

You mentioned again there about it possibly being “the last thing” you make… Were YONAKA close to breaking up at one point, and if so, what was required to turn that around to make this new record?

“We’ve been in a band for 10 years, and that’s a long time to be with anyone. You go through falling in and out of love with each other and being like, ‘I want to do this anymore. I don’t know if we’re all heading in the same direction anymore.’ We were actually doing a festival in Austria a few years ago and we spoke about that and it was weird, because obviously everyone thought, ‘We’re done, this is it.’ Then, the next day, just before we went onstage, we all felt a bit shit thinking about it. The thought of not doing this anymore became fucking terrifying. I didn’t want to let go. And we all felt like that – we were all like, ‘No, fuck that, we’re doing this!’ Then we went and had a great show and said we 100 per cent wanted to do this. It’s still a process, you can still have ups and downs, but everyone’s on the same page now.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Palmer

Any idea why love is finally starting to flood into your lyrics after years of not really writing about it?

“It’s all from personal experience. It’s about how I’m feeling and it’s not all just love with a person that I’m in a relationship with. It’s friends. It’s platonic love as well. It’s losing someone that you loved. It’s being in that relationship and finding what works and what doesn’t work for you. And, ‘How is this gonna last?’ I love the line ‘love looks different for me and you’ so much because if you’re having a bad time in your relationship and you see someone else who’s literally falling head over heels, you’re just like, ‘Fuck off! I’m having a shit time!’ And the opposite can be true as well. You can see someone going through the roughest relationship and you feel so good and comfortable in yours. It’s just funny.”

You also mentioned the idea of feeling more empowered in your lyrics nowadays. What changed in you to feel that empowerment, is that just growing older, or were there specific things that happened in life?

“Both, actually. So, one is me growing into myself. I’m 33 now, and I feel like I’ve found myself now more than ever before. I was always trying before, I would wear clothes, but the clothes would wear me. I would dye my hair a million times, and nothing would quite fit me the way I most feel now. You have to fall in love with yourself. You have to feel comfortable. I’m not fully there at all, but I feel like I’m seeing myself in a different light. I was like, ‘If I just pull away all this stuff, what’s left? What is there?’ I started doing that musically as well. I don’t want to listen to loads of new songs and try to sound like other music, because that’s not me, and that’s not what I resonate with. If I sing something and say something from the heart, whether it’s ugly or beautiful, then it’s the realest thing, and that’s the best I can be. I would also say, from a mental position, I’ve done a lot of work on myself to feel like that doesn’t have to control my life as much as it used to. I’m in a whole new position now”.

Apologies if it seems a bit scattershot in terms of interviews and timelines. However, I wanted to discuss YONAKA again and, with that Kerrang! interview up, it provided that platform. Teresa Jarvis is one of my favourite people in music and she is an extraordinary lead and songwriter. Together with George Edwards and Alex Crosby, they are this close and connected band who are looking ahead to the release of a new album. One that I know will pick up some incredible reviews and lead to festival demands and tour dates far afield. European or U.S. dates. Even though YONAKA have been around over a decade, with Until You're Satisfied out in March, I think that 2026 will be…