We say ‘tourists,’ they say ‘banned’
You Say Party! We Say Die! won’t be visiting the U.S. for a few years
Rob Nay

Being banned from playing concerts in the U.S. would be a sharp uppercut to the chin of many bands, but Vancouver’s You Say Party! We Say Die! is taking just such a ban in stride.

“It’s kind of a blessing in disguise because we don’t have to tour the States now. We can focus on other areas, going across Canada more often and going to Europe,” says YSP! bassist Stephen O’Shea, speaking from inside the group’s van. “It opens the doors of doing Australia, Japan and China and things like that, too.”

The U.S. ban was handed down a few months ago because YSP! tried to get across the border to play a string of shows in the States without the necessary paperwork.

“We really did try (to get visas), but we were denied, based on the fact that we didn’t make enough money per night,” O’Shea says.

The group’s subsequent gamble to cross the border without paperwork backfired when its tour itinerary and contracts were found by border guards. O’Shea, as group spokesperson, was charged with fraud and banned from entering the U.S. until 2011, while the rest of YSP! — Becky Ninkovic, Krista Loewen, Devon Clifford and Derek Adam — received warnings. The group is considering seeking help from an immigration lawyer to enter the U.S. earlier than 2011, but it’s not sitting still in the meantime.

YSP!’s frequent non-U.S. road trips have helped establish the group’s reputation for boundlessly energetic performances and have also played a part in naming new album Lose all Time.

“When we’re touring in the van, nobody knows what time it is,” O’Shea says. “Nobody knows what day it is, what month it is... There’s this lost concept of time in tour world.”

While O’Shea might be exaggerating somewhat, that general sense of being unchained from clock and calendar manifested itself in the record’s title and a line in the disc’s opening song. Lose all Time shows the group offering more varied material.

“We weren’t interested in re-creating another dance-punk record since there are a lot of other sides to us,” says O’Shea.

YSP! spent four weeks crafting the record, nearly double the time spent on its predecessor.

“We knew we were creating a better record than Hit the Floor! in our writing, and we wanted to step up the production a lot more to kind of match that,” O’Shea says.