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Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

November 19, 2009


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2009-11-19

To hell and back

You Say Party! We Say Die! nearly toured itself to death - but the Vancouver dance-punk outfit has re-emerged on the other side with XXXX, its striking third album

Jen Zoratti

Vancouver's You Say Party! We Say Die! first exploded onto the scene in 2005 with a hiccupy post-punk freakout called Hit the Floor! - and it's been on the road ever since.

OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, but the relentless touring schedule Becky Ninkovic (lead vocals), Stephen O'Shea (bass), Krista Loewen (keys), Derek Adam (guitar) and Devon Clifford (drums) have maintained over the past few years is exhausting by anyone's standards. The frenetic fivesome spent the majority of 2006 on the road in support of Hit the Floor! and wasted no time recording a follow-up, 2007's Lose All Time, before hopping back in the van and going through the grind all over again.

It was only a matter of time before YSP! WSD! crashed hard - and it was during a marathon 16-week tour in 2007 that took the band across Canada and Europe that things really fell apart.

"We were touring ourselves into the ground," says Ninkovic, 28, over the phone from her apartment in Abbotsford, B.C. "We were pushing ourselves to the limit. I got really ill and, when you get sick on the road, you have no time to heal. I tried really hard (to get better) - I was a walking pharmacy of natural health products - but my whole system was shutting down. Eventually, it lead to a total breakdown."

The "violent breaking point," as Ninkovic calls it, came in the form of a physical altercation between herself and drummer Clifford at a show in Germany.

"It got pretty ugly. It was a blackout moment for me - something chemical happened to me," she recalls. "One minute I was sleeping in the hotel room, and the next I was lunging for Devon's neck without knowing how I got from A to B."

Unbelievably, the band toughed it out and finished the tour in a haze.

"I thought they would send me home, but we made it through the last three weeks," Ninkovic says. "Because we were at our tightest musically and my voice wasn't the strongest, I was overcompensating by dancing a lot. My voice was also really raw. People were coming up to me and saying, 'Oh, you're like Siouxsie Sioux.' It's funny, it was the worst of times and the best of times. We were playing some of the best shows of our career, but we were in bad states emotionally."

When the band finally returned home physically and emotionally spent, Ninkovic - under strict doctor's orders - took a much-needed break from music to rest and recharge.

Indeed, that hellish tour could have spelled the end of the band, but it actually provided the impetus for XXXX, YSP! WSD!'s excellent new album. During her down time, Ninkovic began working with Sharla Sauder, a vocal coach who would prove instrumental in both the singer's healing process and the early writing process for the record.

"She really helped me reconnect with my voice and with my heart," Ninkovic says. "I was a pretty fragmented person by that point. She really helped me find my centre, and taught me that my voice comes from my centre and you can express your true self from there. It was a very spiritual and emotional concept to wrap my head around. A completely new voice came out of me."

Finding her voice was, understandably, a big moment for Ninkovic. In press surrounding the band's first two albums, the singer was constantly compared to other female vocalists, namely Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O. The fact YSP! WSD! rocketed from relative obscurity to in-demand buzz band at a breathtaking pace didn't help matters, either.

"It was a struggle for me," she says. "I found myself in this band. It started as just a fun way to explore this side of myself. I'm not a trained singer. But when the press started taking off and we were thrust into the touring world, I didn't have the fundamentals, such as singing from the right place and preserving your voice."

When it came time to pen songs for XXXX, Ninkovic wanted to "write songs that would give hope, and would feel really good and comforting to sing night after night."

It's no surprise, then, that her dramatic, achingly beautiful vocals are at the fore on XXXX, which is easily the band's best album yet. The record's title isn't meant to be cryptic; from the rallying cry of lead track There is XXXX (Within My Heart) - "There is love within my heart/There is love within my heart/There's love, love, love" - to the primal urgency of Make XXXX and XXXX/Loyalty, it's abundantly clear what XXXX stands for.

Love - and hope, while we're talking four-letter words - are big themes on the record, but don't expect syrupy, overtly sentimental songs. These are angular, jet-black post-punk/new wave anthems with plenty of bite; even the dreamy Laura Palmer's Prom, which boasts cotton-candy synths and a Valentine chorus line ("Could your heart use some romance?/My heart needs a love dance") has an undeniable edge.

Based on the stellar performances here, it would seem that Ninkovic wasn't the only member of the band to benefit from some time off.

"This album feels like the glue for us," Ninkovic says. "These things happen in such a magical way sometimes. (The songs) carried their own energy and spirit, which was so different for us. Before, we'd be so focussed on writing a song and everyone would have to give their 10 cents. This one was about giving the songs the space they needed to come alive.

"A lot of the songs I had the skeleton for lyrically, but I couldn't fill them out until I was in the studio. I wanted to leave myself a lot of room to explore ideas we'd had for months," she continues. "Sharla was there, and it was a really creative and liberating experience."

And Ninkovic is proud of the product.

"I feel like the album is my baby," she says with a laugh. "I've never really been one to read reviews, but this time it was like, 'What did they say? What did they say?' And if it was bad, I'd think, 'Oh, well, they just don't know my child.

"I went through a postpartum depression on its release date," she adds. "I felt this kind of emptiness after and I couldn't understand why I wasn't jumping up and down. I talked to some of my girlfriends who have had babies, and they were describing postpartum depression and I found I could relate. It was sad - the record wasn't in me anymore."

Now that XXXX is out in the world, YSP! WSD! will find itself back out on tour in the coming year - but Ninkovic says she and her bandmates are up to the challenge.

"We're closer than ever," she says. "It's really comfortable among all of us. Krista and I feel like the closest BFFs, or sisters, or whatever you want to call it. And I feel like the boys are my brothers. It's a family dynamic. We've been through a lot of crap together."

At the end of our interview, I thank her for being so candid about all the crap the band has been through together.

She pauses a minute before responding. "I think it's important to share your heart. People relate to that. Even when I read an interview with a band and they say something as simple as 'touring is hard,' I feel less alone, you know? And I don't want anyone to feel lonely."

YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE!
Nov. 25, 9 p.m., Royal Albert Arms
w/ Little Girls, Not Animals

**Toronto's Little Girls will be playing a free in-store show at Into the Music on Nov. 25 at 4:30 p.m.

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