YARD ACT SHARE NEW SINGLE & VIDEO ‘WHEN THE LAUGHTER STOPS’ FT. KATY J PEARSON OUT NOW

 YARD ACT SHARE NEW SINGLE & VIDEO "WHEN THE LAUGHTER STOPS" FEAT. KATY J PEARSON

SECOND ALBUM WHERE'S MY UTOPIA? OUT MARCH 1ST

UK & EU SPRING 2024 TOURING - INCLUDING EVENTIM APOLLO HAMMERSMITH


Photo Credit: Phoebe Fox
 
Listen to "When The Laughter Stops" feat. Katy J Pearson HERE 
Watch the "When The Laughter Stops" feat. Katy J Pearson video HERE
Preorder Where's My Utopia? HERE

 
Yard Act have shared "When The Laughter Stops" feat. Katy J Pearson, the final advance preview of their upcoming second album Where's My Utopia? due out on March 1st.
 
Where's My Utopia? is the follow up to the Leeds band's breakout debut record The Overload, which arrived in January 2022. The Overload was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize after a slew of positive reviews, national radio playlistings, and a placing at #2 on the Official UK Charts. The new album is a co-production between Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr..
 
Yard Act have announced a huge run of shows in the UK and EU for spring 2024 - including the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on March 27th and their biggest hometown show to date at the 5,750 capacity Millennium Square Leeds on August 3rd.
 
"When The Laughter Stops" follows the album's singles "Dream Job," "Petroleum," and "We Make Hits," with videos for the tracks directed by longtime collaborator James Slater.
 
One of the first tracks written for the record, Yard Act's James Smith says of "When The Laughter Stops": "The sentiment of the lyrics gets to the heart of 'Where’s My Utopia?' almost immediately and finds the cynicism first spawned from the same circumstance I found myself in during 'Dream Job' now giving way to a more genuine sliver of misery. Fortunately - spoiler alert - I've managed to find a way out of this pit, for the time being."
 
He continues: "Whilst the lyrics came quick, musically it went through the wringer. As is often the case when Ryan presents a bass line, harmonically it's pretty ambiguous, and we all hear things differently. I was hearing the song in a pretty bluesy, minor key, whilst Sam [guitarist] heard a very saccharine and sweet major key tune. The song pedalled back and forth, we talked about 'Lovefool' by The Cardigans quite a lot if I remember correctly. During a recording session in Kettering with Russ Russell at Parlour Studios in December 2022, I was fucking about on a Roland Juno with the arpeggiator whirring away over the end. Ryan flipped the rate so it went half time and all of a sudden the eeriness of the track made sense; it sounded like some John Carpenter doomsday clock countdown or something. Sam reworked the guitars to sound like 'High Voltage' by Electric Six, and we stripped away the funkier percussion and made the rhythm more aggressive, like 'Seven Nation Army.' Katy came to meet us at Metropolis in London to dub the chorus vocals, and it gave the whole track a huge lift I'll never have the voice for. She's fantastic. I asked David Thewlis to recite Macbeth over the end for obvious reasons. The results speak for themselves!"
 
Yard Act opened the main stage at Reading & Leeds Festival last summer, as well as making appearances at Latitude (headlining the BBC Sounds stage, no less), Fuji Rocks, and Boardmasters. The band also returned to North America in November 2023 with a run of headline shows across the US, culminating in a slot at Mexico City's Corona Capital Festival. Yard Act delivered an unprecedented five night residency at their hometown's Brudenell Social Club in 2023, which was awarded four stars each in reviews from Rolling Stone UK, The Telegraph, and The Times. The band were joined by a stellar lineup of comedians; Phill Jupitus, Nish Kumar, Lolly Adefope, and Harry Hill. Yard Act also made their festival headline bow at Dot To Dot in Bristol & Nottingham, performed at Primavera (Barcelona, Madrid & Porto) and played their maiden shows in Australia and New Zealand, truly making their mark on the global stage.
 
About Yard Act:
What do you do when everything you've ever wanted suddenly lands in your lap, but the questions still keep on coming?
 
Since first steering their golden Rover into swift public acclaim back in 2020, Leeds quartet Yard Act have become one of the great indie success stories of the decade so far. Along the way, they've ticked off milestones ranging from a #2 chart placing and Mercury Prize nomination for debut album The Overload, to a co-sign from Elton John who joined the band to guest on a string-laden reworking of album closer "100% Endurance."
 
Yet, whilst the band's trajectory continuously shot upwards, vocalist James Smith and his wife had also welcomed in a son. And it's this duelling sense of responsibility and ambition, guilt, love, drive, and everything in between that forms the narrative backbone of brilliantly exploratory second album Where's My Utopia?
 
Written in snapshots of time between a relentless touring schedule, and produced jointly by the band and Gorillaz' Remi Kabaka Jr, the quartet's second act is a giant leap forward into broad and playful new sonic waters. "The main reason that 'post-punk' was the vehicle for album one was because it was really affordable to do, but we always liked so much other music and this time we've had the confidence to embrace it," James explains. Across the record, influences ranging from Fela Kuti to Ennio Moricone via Spiller's ‘00s pop smash "Groovejet" make themselves known.
 
It's a celebratory palette upon which Smith allowed himself to reach lyrically deeper into himself than ever. Gone, largely, are the outward-facing character studies of yore, replaced with a set of songs that stare fully into the headlights of life, wrangling with the frontman's own fears and foibles to create a sort of Promethean narrative - but with jokes. "You can commit to the idea that we’re just animals who eat and fuck and then we die, and that’s fine," he suggests. "But for me, creativity always seems to be the best way of articulating the absolute minefield of what human existence is."

See Yard Act live in 2024:
29 Feb | Pryzm, Kingston, UK Early Show
29 Feb | Pryzm, Kingston, UK SOLD OUT
01 Mar | Rough Trade, Bristol, UK early show SOLD OUT
01 Mar | Rough Trade, Bristol, UK evening show SOLD OUT
03 Mar | Rough Trade East, London, UK early show SOLD OUT
03 Mar | Rough Trade East, London, UK evening show SOLD OUT
05 Mar | Rough Trade, Nottingham, UK early show
05 Mar | Rough Trade, Nottingham, UK evening show SOLD OUT
06 Mar | HMV Vault, Birmingham, UK
07 Mar | Jacaranda Baltic, Liverpool, UK
13 Mar | The Nick Rayns LCR (UEA), Norwich, UK
14 Mar | Rock City, Nottingham, UK
15 Mar | O2 Academy, Glasgow, UK
16 Mar | O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK
17 Mar | Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
19 Mar | Mandela Hall, Belfast, UK
20 Mar | Vicar Street, Dublin, IE
22 Mar | Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool, UK SOLD OUT
23 Mar | O2 Academy, Bristol, UK SOLD OUT
24 Mar | The Great Hall, Cardiff, UK
25 Mar | The Dome, Brighton, UK
27 Mar | Eventim Apollo, London, UK
04 Apr | Stereolux, Nantes, FR
05 Apr | Cabaret Sauvage, Paris, FR
06 Apr | Rock School Barbey, Bordeaux, FR
08 Apr | LAV, Lisbon, PT
09 Apr | Mon, Madrid, ES
11 Apr | La 2, Barcelona, ES
12 Apr | Le Transbordeur, Lyon, FR
13 Apr | Locomotiv Club, Bologna, IT
14 Apr | Santeria Toscana 31, Milan, IT
16 Apr | Mascotte, Zurich, CH
17 Apr | Muffathalle, Munich, DE
18 Apr | Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE
19 Apr | Loppen, Copenhagen, DK SOLD OUT
20 Apr | Slaktkyrkan, Stockholm, SE
24 Apr | Uebel & Gefährlich, Hamburg, DE
25 Apr | Paradiso Main Hall, Amsterdam, NL
26 Apr | Doornroosje, Nijmegen,NL
27 Apr | Kantine, Cologne, DE
28 Apr | Les Nuits Botanique, Brussels, BE
30 May | Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, CA
31 May | The Regent Theater, Los Angeles, CA
1 Jun | Pappy and Harriet's, Pioneertown, CA
3 Jun | The Catalyst Atrium, Santa Cruz, CA
4 Jun | The Independent, San Francisco, CA
6 Jun | Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR
7 Jun | Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver, BC
8 Jun | The Crocodile, Seattle, WA
27 Jul | Truck Festival, Oxfordshire, UK
28 Jul | Tramlines, Sheffield, UK
02 Aug | Y-Not Festival, Derbyshire, UK
03 Aug | Millenium Square, Leeds, UK
10 Aug | Oya Festival, Oslo, NO
12 Aug | Sziget Festival, Budapest, HU
23 Aug | Victorious Festival, Southsea, UK
31 Aug | Meo Kalorama, Lisbon, PT



Tracklist:
1. An Illusion
2. We Make Hits
3. Down By The Stream
4. The Undertow
5. Dream Job
6. Fizzy Fish
7. Petroleum
8. When The Laughter Stops (feat. Katy J Pearson)
9. Grifter's Grief
10. Blackpool Illuminations
11. A Vineyard for the North