Last Wednesday (March 14) Young The Giant played a show at the University of South Carolina.Â
I was very lucky to both attend this show and interview guitarist Jacob Tilley. He was an extremely nice guy and I’ll post his interview below this short show review. I was fortunate enough to catch Young The Giant last September at Music Midtown in Atlanta, so I knew what to expect from last Wednesday’s show when I was waiting. Their show was fairly similar (albeit just as impressive) to September’s show other than the fact that they played some fantastic new songs. For those of you who have not had the chance to see Young The Giant play, they are all extremely talented, but lead singer Sameer Gadhia is the star of the show. He spends his time solely on his two microphones, except for a quick bit of piano from time to time, and seriously, he owns the microphone. One mic is a regular no-nonsense microphone, and the other is beautiful (see picture above) and creates some reverb that somehow manages to make better Sameer’s already brilliant voice.
All I heard after the show on Wednesday was “that was better than I expected”. This was very pleasing. A lot of the people that I knew there had not heard of this band before and came out of the show as fans. However, the ones who were fans were also blown away. This is exactly what I would strive for if I was in a band like this. You not only please the fans, but gain a whole lot more fans from your live show. A lot of bands are absolutely amazing when their fans see them but not so much to non-fans, you know? Anyways, the whole show was fantastic including, like I said, their new songs which they said will be on an album that will be released next spring. The two songs that stuck out for me in the set were the new song I Wanna and God Made Man from their debut. Though I was a bit disappointed as I had heard that they had been covering Empire Ants by Gorillaz on this tour and we were not graced with that performance. Other than that, the guitarists were on top of it, the bassist was staying cool, the drummer drummed so well, and Sameer sung his lungs out. One of the best shows that I have ever seen in Columbia, SC. All the fantastic pictures in this article were taken by Alexis Schwallier, so thank you so much to her!
Interview with Jacob Tilley
What’s your name and what do you do?
I’m Jacob Tilley and I play guitar for Young The Giant.
Where are you from?
I’m from Litchfield in the UK.
What is your spirit animal and why?
Um, I gotta pick a good one. I’m gonna go with a sea otter because I’m not the best surfer in the world but I can hold myself in the water. And I’m furry as fuck.
The singer of Okkervil River is a sea otter as well!
(whispers) I had their album on my iTunes but I didn’t like it so I deleted it.
What are some of the worst interview questions that you have heard?
Well, the one I just did nailed all three of them on the head: she asked us what our band name was; she asked us the significance of Cough Syrup; and like “Did you expect to be here?”. Like, I obviously wanted to be here but odds are against us. I mean come on, there’s a lot of shit going in the world, you could ask me something intellectual. I have opinions on everything. I don’t know, it’s sometimes frustrating.
Well, my questions are not very intellectual.
It’s chill.
Most of the shows on this tour have sold out. Is this headlining tour different for you than others you’ve done?
Yeah, it is different. This time last year we did a similar North America tour and we were playing to like 100-200 people rooms and lugging all our own gear. We didn’t even had a tour manager at the time. We had to get one because we realized how busy and underarmed our arsenal was to deal with what we were actually taking on. So this is different because I don’t set up my guitar amps anymore, my back feels much better. It’s very weird, I actually have time for myself. I felt for a long time, just doing tour after tour, it was just so taxing on us. To be able to go to the gym today, to get up in the morning and not have to drive 700 miles, and to be able to eat on a regular schedule. There are so many benefits to where we are now. It’s one thing that people have a misinterpretation of. That lots of bands just get here without really putting in the legwork, and we really did. We toured for a long time in a van and trailer to get here. Some questions we get are like “oh, did you expect it to happen this fast?” and I’m like “well actually, it took a long time”.
It just seems fast to people who don’t really know you, I guess.
Well, if it’s not in your stream of consciousness that a band is on the horizon. Like, you do meet people who really read into the blogs and pay attention to the more underground scene and they have a better idea of what’s going on. I’m not that person myself, but I definitely have realized that there is a lot more to it. That’s sometimes what people think.
What do you do on your free time, since you said you have quite a bit now?
I’ve been learning Spanish on Rosetta Stone. Done with the first course, now I’m on the second one. I know how to go around and ask for directions which I will be putting to use as I’m going to Spain soon. I skateboard to make up for the surfing I am missing in California. We just kinda hang out together. I love watching movies and being a normal dude. Nothing too intense.
Other than a few shows coming up, what do you have planned?
This year is pretty much split right down the middle. We’re touring up until the midway point and then we’re going to go and take some time off and some time to write. Then at the end of the year we’re going to record. At this point in the year we have a good handful of new songs, we’re playing three of them live now. I’m excited since our first album was a long time ago for us. Though it’s not stagnant for us because our new fans are keeping it fresh for us. But we’re excited to shed out this skin and get into a new self. The first time we went into the studio we were unprepared and naive but I feel like this time we’re going to go in there and have a lot more of a coherent idea of what direction we want to go in.
When you’re writing new songs, do you personally try to challenge yourself with the guitar?
Yeah, I do. I rely on a lot of guitar pedals and I do a lot of the lead lines. I felt for a while after we’d done the record that I’d gotten more comfortable playing the parts but then I realized that I was kind of doing the same thing all the time so now on this album I feel a lot more comfortable playing the guitar. Last album it was kind of my crutch because it’s intense to be working with a multi-grammy award winning producer. I feel more confident now and I’ve been listening to the new songs and being like “have I done this before?”. I’m trying to expand my bag of tricks. I’ve been listening more different guitarists and see their approach to it.
Like who?
I’ve been a huge fan of St. Vincent for a long time. In one of the songs, I’m sorry Annie, I’ve stolen some of her tricks. Just things like that I’ll think “oh she’s doing it this way, maybe that will work for me with the way that I play”. Also, I was classically trained and I used a pick a lot on the last album but recently I have felt a lot more comfortable playing with my fingers live. I think I always would have but I always referred to a pick because it’s “rock music”. On this new album I have been playing a lot with my classical guitar which is giving me a lot more agility and expression because I have a lot more control over the instrument. That’s a good way for me to get around doing the same thing over and over again.
Have you seen St. Vincent live?
I’ve not. I saw her in the street once in Vancouver. Any girls I’ve ever dated knows that I love her. I’m actually going to see her at Bonnaroo and the girl I’m taking to Bonnaroo is going to have to hold me back. I don’t think I’d even be able to compose a sentence in front of her.
What are your impressions of the South?
I love the South. I have some really good friends scattered all around this area. You guys are very pleasant and it’s not as saturated as a lot of other places on the east coast. Good food and good people.
Where is one place in the world that you’d like to go to?
We’ve played in Indonesia which was amazing. I’d really like to go down to Costa Rica but it’s hard to say. Any good surf destination, and I’m there.
You’ve played shows in the UK, obviously. Do you see a difference between the fans there and here in the US?
I do. We played really small shows in the UK and we did it right after we played Jools Holland so they were sold out 100-200 people rooms. I think people just kind of get it a little bit more. I think it’s taken the States a little longer to warm up to us even though now we’ve been received more attention here recently. I think the UK have a bit more of a glimpse of what’s going on in the music scene. They are the trendsetters, I’ve been told, and I’ve seen. I think we’re kind of an anomaly because most bands do really well in Europe but don’t really make it in the States. So we are trying to do the opposite now.
What is something surreal that has happened to you since you have gotten bigger?
Well today I was at the campus pool. I was really enjoying listening to music and chilling. Then we got back and these people were like “you guys were at the pool, weren’t you?” and I was like “yes, that’s weird” and they said “oh everyone was talking about it on twitter”. I don’t really do twitter so it’s just weird to me that people were kind of spying but not being verbal about it. I’m not a twitter person but I think it’s cool that you can reach out to people in a different way but it kind of takes out some of that face-to-face conversation that was more present 4 years ago.
Who’s your least favorite member of the band?
Who’s my least favorite member of the band? Um, I’m not doing that. But my least favorite member of the crew is… no I’m not doing that either.
If you could say something to Nicolas Cage, what would it be?
Who’s Nicolas Cage?
This interview is over.
Thanks so much to Jacob Tilley for doing this interview with me. Also to Roadrunner Records for setting this up.
All Photos by Alexis Schwallier. They’re wonderful aren’t they?
