Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Album Nearly Complete

Portland, Ore. — The debut album from New York City punk rockers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, due out early next year, finds the bass-less trio dabbling with a slower, more emotional songwriting style and utilizing the drum machine and keyboards without abandoning the intensely raw, trashy sound that has made them the hottest new New York band this side of The Strokes.

While their self-titled and highly regarded debut EP — first released last year on the group's own Shifty label, then re-released by Touch and Go this July — was inspired by lead singer Karen O's nights out partying in Manhattan, O said the upcoming, not-yet-titled album is influenced by her decision to settle down a bit. And this, she said, is partially due to her current relationship with boyfriend and Liars frontman Angus Andrew.

"The first slew of songs [came out] of the end of my college days, partying all the time in New York City, dancing, going to clubs," O explained, sitting in the snug back room of the band's blue and silver tour bus, parked out front of Portland, Ore.'s Crystal Ballroom. Smiling but looking a little overwhelmed from behind the straight, dark-brown locks of her moppy do falling into her oval eyes, she continued, "I was a party girl of sorts, and that influenced what I was writing about — a getting-ready-to-go-out mood; get-the-party-started stuff."

But as the Yeah Yeah Yeah's — O alongside guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase (also of The Seconds) — became red-hot, and O found a steady boyfriend, her life changed. "I'm partying less," said O, who wore faded, hip-hugger jeans, a black and green muscle shirt, dozens of black jelly bracelets up one arm and a single black band with a large black rose attached to it on the other wrist. "I'm thinking about a lot of stuff. I'm in a different headspace — we've hit puberty as a band."

Early puberty perhaps. The band has lived the past year — half of their existence — in the glare of the media spotlight. And they've been courted relentlessly by the major labels. At this point, they think they're going to remain independent in hopes of avoiding being "screwed with," drummer Chase said candidly. They haven't signed a deal yet with anyone, major or independent.

The band, named buzz-worthy by both NME and Rolling Stone, was unprepared to deal with the media and music-industry attention. "One thing about getting as much attention as we have so early is that we've been forced to grow much faster," O said, hugging her knees to her chest, her baby-blue flip-flops flat on the blue couch. "And we've been put in positions where we wouldn't be in as a band who's not even two years old. And it skewed our concept of how mature we were and how developed we've become as a band."

Performing a few new songs that evening at the antiquated Crystal Ballroom — sandwiched between The Liars' ferocious opening set and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's classic closing one — the Yeahs' showed their slower, more heartfelt side. O dedicated "Love of My Life" to Andrew; the band also played "Maps," a darker, down-tempo number. Still, set against the lunging, gritty riffs and immense, stomping beats, the band certainly hasn't gone soft. They also played their "hits": "Miles Away," "Art Star" and "Bang" from the EP.

O's stage performance is stirring and captivating. She jolts her body from one side of the stage to the other, stops sporadically to bend over and hide her head like an ostrich, thrusting her hips to the beat. She swings the mic from its chord like a lasso, stops to dangle it upside down above her mouth, just barely brushing against her lips, as she wails into it.

At one point she picks up a folding chair and lets it hang from one arm, then sets it down gently. She grins like a little girl with a secret before suddenly shifting to hardcore shrieks or pleading wails. Again and again, she pumps her fist, or just one finger, into the air. There's no question about it: she's completely lost in the music, and watching her you can't help but be either.

Earlier, before their set, she spoke about the album that they've nearly completed. "I think we thought at first that we could do the album how we did the EP, like blow right through it and it would just be this raw thing," O said. "But the level of the songs changed, so the level of production needed to change. We had to rethink how to record and produce the songs to do them justice, because the way we did it with the EP would be doing it no justice at all 'cause of how far we've come. So, our mindset was still young about the whole thing, and it had to catch up with the songs — that's why it took so long; we had to refigure out, or figure out again, how to get them down."

Keeping their feet on the ground and remaining focused on their music has been difficult. "We've been put in a position where our environment was pulled from under us," O explained. "Bands that are as young as we are make songs in a certain environment, a certain time and space. And that space just goes. It becomes difficult to find that space again — everything all of a sudden changes and you have to change with it."

O said they've worked hard to create the space that allows them to write the one-of-kind arty, sexed-up songs that knock out the people who hear the EP. "It's unbelievable how we've been able to sustain," O said. "[We're] trying to protect the space around songwriting, so we're working within a safe space."

Moving out of Manhattan — "I lived right above a bar," she said, shaking her head and laughing — and into Brooklyn also prompted O to mellow out. Outside the clubs and inside the awkward place that is being the band of the hour, O's songwriting has became more reflective. "I'm not sure the songs are instant hits," she said. "But it [the album] is gonna be a good one — really rad."

Both "Maps" and "Love of My Life" — inspired by Andrew — are ballad-y emotive songs written for the new album, and unlike anything the band has done before. "It's just a leap of faith that fans will have to take with me," she said.

Still, O said the band isn't leaving behind the deceptively catchy, yet jagged and thrashing, sound of their live shows and EP. "I don't think people who've listened to the EP are gonna listen to the album and think it's that different," she said.

Asked to play two of England's biggest music festivals — Leeds and Reading — this summer, the band turned them down and opted to focus on recording the album. "If we would've gone to those, we'd have no album at all," O said. "We were only like a third of the way done at that point, when we were supposed to leave. Things do move too fast. We thought we could be touring and showing up to play the huge festivals with all the other hyped-up bands [The Strokes, The Hives, the White Stripes] we're often lumped in with. I think that would've been really bad for us, in retrospect, 'cause now, at least in Europe, we're set apart a little more from those bands — 'cause everyone was there except for us."

In contrast to the EP, which was recorded in two days, the Yeahs wanted to devote a heftier amount of time to the new album, which they say is now 90 percent complete. They've spent two months working on it thus far. "It was great taking the time to lay down the tracks and taking the time to put it together in a nice format and have a really nice document of the songs," said drummer Chase, sporting glasses and a green T-shirt that said "The Seconds."

Sitting on the bus that unusually muggy September evening, all the bandmembers exchanged glances, chuckling on occasion. To work on the album, guitarist Zinner said "I sacrificed my personal life, cut off all ties." A thin young man with a reserved demeanor (offstage that is), Zinner added, "I was also staying [in the studio] all night — a bit obsessive.

"All my disorders come out," he added, laughing.

The band will continue its U.S. tour up the West Coast then down through the Southwest before catching up with Sleater-Kinney to open for some of their East Coast and Midwest dates throughout the month of October. Check the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' site for tour dates, news and other info. — Jenny Tatone [Monday, Sept. 30, 2002] ]