Yes Sir! Mister Machine (April 2009)
It’s like being in a pit and getting hit in the face by a cast on a freshly broken arm. Just before it smashes into your nose and shatters your cartilage in a fountain of blood, someone else’s life flashes before your eyes, rainbows of hearts and sentiments on a plaster cast shell. And it hurts. Both of you. Cause under that messy, doodled exterior; you know there are bones of their own, still trying to mend. A few seconds later as your own memories rush back in, while your nose leaks out, you realise you want some more. Your mother warned you about this kind of kink. But you can’t help yourself. Turns out the lads from Yes Sir! Mister Machine have punches to spare.
Yes Sir! find a begrudging home in the vagueness of the ‘hardcore’ tag, but manage to turn the whole genre on its head in a completely fresh and necessary sound in SA, and pull it all off without being ostentatious. School friendships and MXit recruitment procedures (in the case of the ‘not-lead guitarist’, Pierre Sebastian du Toit) brought the fateful five together to deliver their special blend of mayhem to Somerset-West and Cape Town, (which is apparently soon changing its name to “Not-nearly-as-cool-as-Somerset-West Town”).
Picking up the pieces from their history in emo, indie and ‘black post-metal’ bands, the concept was finally put in motion midway through 2007. The initial model of the band was rather simple; Franco Fernandes who handles things up front armed with a mic explains; “Our basic plan was to go crazy, we just wanted to break stuff. We had all these stupid ridiculous plans in the beginning, we just wanted to make noise and break stuff”. However, the plan, though beautiful in narrative, proved less practical and more expensive than anticipated in action, and was abandoned a few shows in. Without sacrificing the intensity, but sparing the abuse on the equipment and stages, the band built up a fan base that was soon to be put to the test.
In 2008 Paul Melis, lead guitarist and sometimes-vocalist, left for almost a full year abroad, leaving behind many a broken heart and busted nose. Before his departure, they recorded and released a 5 track EP which hinted at the new path this band was determined to stomp, and setting them up to face high expectations in 2009. Proving the band can take a good hit and come back swinging, and under the dedicated wing of Ghosthunter Bookings, YS!MM recently supported CDC on their SA tour, including their first trip up to JHB. ‘Nobody seemed to get us initially in the Joburg scene, which I rather liked cause it meant we really are doing something fresh and unique out here. The feedback we did get was very positive and was quite humbling’ says Gideon de Kock who tames the bulbous bass beast. With tentative plans for a full length album released by the end of the year featuring the bands more focused new material, 2009 will also see YS!MM play alongside Haste The Day and build on their legion of gleeful fans.
Live at the Hidden Cellar, 31/05/2008
Julian Brookstone, commenting from behind the kit, sums things up nicely; “Tambourines during break downs can be fun”. It’s obvious this band that takes pleasure from performing on stage, and are honest about the image and intensity they feast on with their audience. Practicing as they preach, Gideon says: ‘When it comes to watching bands I much prefer if whoever they are on stage and off stage is the same. I hate when I see these metal bands, and I talk to them before and they’re nicest guys in the world but they get on stage and they’re all, ‘We’re so fucking metal! Fuck everyone!’ And I’m all, ‘Oh what happened to you?’ We like to just think we’re just us’.
More from the interview below:
What were the ideas and motivations initially going in to Yes Sir?
Franco: Well our basic plan was to go crazy; we just wanted to break stuff. We had all these stupid ridiculous plans in the beginning, we just wanted to make noise and break stuff. But you really cant do that.
Gideon: We kinda stopped after our fifth show.
Paul: We stopped when we realised it was working for band practice. When you have a broken amp for a year is great. No, no, it’s cool, what we’re doing is cool, we’re definitely doing what we want to be doing.
Julian: Yeah, I think what we’re doing now is what we had in mind when we started.
Paul: Yeah, definitely, we wanted to do something that no other bands in Somerset-West had really done.
Julian: Without trying though, without being pretentious.
Paul: That was a big motivation when starting the band. We didn’t want to come across as a bunch of kids that started a Hardcore band because we wanted to be in a Hardcore band.
And in the scene at the moment, do you see a lot of that still happening?
Franco: Totally. Me personally, Franco, I can’t handle it. I can’t handle the scene; I really don’t like it at all. I think in the scene everyone just tries too hard to dress right, have the right image. I’d rather go to a chilled show.
Gideon: I think personally, when it comes to watching bands and stuff, I much prefer if I can watch them and whoever they are on stage and off stage are the same people. I hate when I see these metal bands, and I talk to them before and they’re nicest guys in the world and they get on stage and they’re all, ‘We’re so fucking metal! Fuck everyone!’ And I’m all, ‘Oh what happened to you?’ that sort of thing. I think we like to just think we’re just us…
You released a demo a while ago. Is it a fair representation of the band, and are you looking to record again soon?
Gideon: It’s definitely doesn’t represent what we are about and the kind of sound we’re going for now.
Paul: I feel, and I feel I speak on behalf of the rest of the band, that the stuff on our demo doesn’t really illustrate what we’re about.
Gideon: Definitely, the stuff we’re been writing now and what coming out now is a lot more together.
What kind of new sounds are you going for?
Franco: I think it’s more… As cheesy as it sounds, people say music grows up. I think when we started the band we had an idea of what we wanted but when we look back we think, ‘what where we thinking?’
Paul: No true, I think we tried to do too much in our early stuff, we aren’t toning it down in the newer music we’re writing, but it’s a lot more focused and a lot more together.
Do you think with the scene growing as quickly as it is, there is a lot more pressure on bands to do high quality releases and videos etc, losing that DIY aspect?
Paul: Definitely, I think when we first sat down with Bryan (Ghosthunter) and discussed management; we said to him, all we want to do is play more shows. It’s gotten to the point now where realistically, if you want to ‘keep up with the Jones’s’ you got to think album launch, music video…
Franco: Things like MK at the moment though, are so completely monopolised. There’s like maybe 5 bands dominating, and anything else in the underground struggles so much to get anything out that’s going to compete with that, cause the music scene is run by like, the same people… Also, bands need to aim higher, cause a lot of them settle for a certain level of mediocrity, I think we really need to put time and effort, and spend the money to bring something new and decent. I mean, look at some of that stuff on MK, as much as I like the home video thing, it’s refreshing to see a band try aim higher.
Do you think having MK as one of the only media outlets for music videos makes them a realistic aspiration for struggling bands?
Julian: In terms of South Africa, the music scene is extremely limited, but you can’t let that limit you. There are definitely a lot of good bands out there who want to get in and make a great video, but it’s not that easy.
Franco: I think also, I prefer to get an album from a band doing the DIY thing and listen to it, and then go to the show and see what I’m hearing and say, ‘This is just like the album!’ A lot of the time a band releases and album and music video, and you go and see them and you think, ‘You know what? This is terrible’. It’s kinda a bummer.
What is it about Yes Sir! That excites you personally?
Julian: I like that it’s not dark, and metal, we’re not trying to give ourselves a metal image.
Paul: It’s a hard question. You can’t really be objective in that sense. But I think, I think just the fact that we try, whether or not we get it right is another question, but we try and do something new, that isn’t typical of the scene. In South Africa anyway, and I think that’s just what I would be looking for in a band.
Franco: I think we want to play what we want to play, whether it’s in or not. And if it was in, that’d be fine too; I wouldn’t feel like I was putting on this facade that we’re not. If we’re doing what we want to do and it’s comes across as that and it’s good, whether we’re liked or not doesn’t really matter to me.
Gideon: And having fun doing it, that’s the most important thing. The fact that some people actually started to like it is really humbling, it’s really cool. We’re playing music cause it’s super-fun and we love doing it, and if people enjoy it, then hey that’s kinda cool.
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