Somewhere in between rushing tributaries and vast oceans, you may discover a kick-ass band, Young Sportsmen. Maybe they’ll be fishing; maybe they’ll be showering you with an undeniable musical energy. Whichever the case, they’ll surely bait your senses, hook your ear and reel your attention in with songs of pure power pop-rock. Infectious rock that’s addicting like fresh caught, fried halibut. Who’s afraid of mercury content? Not I, nor their fans. We like mercury; we’re saying “more please”, while licking the oily crumbs from their saturated plate.
Wesley and Ryan, how do you think this band differs from Muzzle, the former incarnation of the current band, what would you say to any Muzzle fans to turn them on to Young Sportsmen?
Ryan: Well the songwriting is ten times more consistent and we’re a lot more selective about the songs we play. The songs are closer in style to one another. Before we just wrote songs and whatever we wrote we played. They didn’t have a congruent sound to them. YS [Young Sportsmen] songs are easy to identify.
Wes: One of the things that I love and appreciate about this band is that it’s super democratic. With Muzzle, often times certain people would steer things in a certain direction. The struggle became troublesome. A lot of ideas that could have been attempted were discarded and not taken as part of the process. It’s a pleasure to get in the room with the YS guys and actually create stuff.
Ryan: We are closely aligned in our tastes and that reflects in the music.
Wes: When we come up with something we all like, I really trust that it’s the way the song should be. I think we’ve learned a lot hopefully grown a lot musically, since Muzzle. YS songs are a lot more solid and crafted better. But that’s really serious, that’s a very serious answer.
Ryan: If you like Muzzle you’ll like Young Sportsmen more, the songs are catchier without being cheesy pop. There’s a lot more energy, a lot more diversity of influences in YS.
Jeff: Let’s not bag on Muzzle too much; they were a great, great band.
Rich: We pay Jeff weekly by the way, every week he gets a new T-shirt.
How would you describe your sound, without references to other bands?
Wes: We play mod-infected popular rock music and we play it loud. It’s very energetic and colorful
Ryan: It’s just catchy rock ‘n’ roll.
Wes: And it’s good with Pabst.
Rich: It’s infectious rock, did we use infectious?
Jeff: We have like 200 adjectives, besides infectious, don’t worry.
How do you guys collaborate, are there any band dynamics that stand out?
Rich: Wes and Ryan are the primary songwriters but they’re really cool and open about everyone contributing arrangements. It’s really refreshing, and the energy is just incredible. We all end up having the best interest in the music.
Jeff: The songs tend to come together really quickly. We spend time refining them, but they come together fast.
Ryan: I write a lot of the songs and Wesley fills in the lyrical blanks; quite well I might add. We have fairly specific techniques on how the rhythms, baseline and drums should go but these guys [Jeff and Rich] always come up with something better.
Wes: No one’s worried about an idea being shot down, and I love that about this project. We throw stuff out there and whatever sticks, sticks, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. We trust each other.
Rich: The songs are key; it’s all about the song as opposed to personal politics.
Wes: We’ve all been in different projects, we’ve been through all the shit in bands; personality, stubbornness and ego problems. Those issues are sort of gone by the way-side in YS.
Rich: I come to practice and I’m a fan of our own songs, it’s really nice.
Ryan: It makes it enjoyable when you actually like your music.
(Everyone Laughs)
Who writes the music? Are there any particular stories about the musical writing process that stand out?
Ryan: For now I write most of the songs. The last couple songs, Wes has written.
There’s no one way that it happens. “Nickel for Lucy” I wrote in one day. Sometimes they just pour out and other times we hammer and chisel and hammer, and finally, something takes shape.
Wes: I usually write something and 97% of the time I’ll wake up the next day and wonder what I was thinking. But then there’s the 3% that I can’t run away or get rid of. I’ll bring it to practice and it’ll either be confirmed or denied. Often times, I won’t know what the song’s supposed to be until after we work it out together.
What are some of the trends that motivate your lyrical writing?
Wes: I never really liked writing lyrics very much. I’ve always thought writing them sucked. I tend to place the music above the words. I kind of wanted to approach these a bit more thoughtfully, not tell a story, but actually have something in mind while writing them. For example “Rocks and Stars” is about travel, just about being a band, nothing mind blowing. Each song is specific without holding your hand and saying, “this is what it’s about”, and I prefer to leave the interpretation up to the listener. I just hope that there’s enough in each song to create pictures for a lot of different people.
Do you think you have a sense of fashion? How would you describe it?
Wes: I don’t really think I do…
Ryan: Sometimes on accident. I knew you were going to ask this question and I thought about the answer all night.
What if you had to make some sort of fashion statement, describe it?
Ryan: Uhm, contemporary mod? I’m inclined to be against 90% of what’s out there. Mainly, I would just want to look good. I think it’s important to challenge conventions. If nothing else to invoke thought, clothes could do that.
Rich: Is that why you wear your pants on your head?
Ryan: I usually wear my pants on my arm.
Jeff: We like mod bands, we like the look of 60s mod bands.
Ryan: Fred Perry shirts are expensive.
Wes: The Who looked pretty fucking cool in their early days?
Ryan: I love those starched looking dress shirts that are crinkly, with a tie.
What do you hope your fans see in your band “image”?
Ryan: Mostly, we hope the energy we are expending transfers to them. That’s what it all comes down too. We’re not shoe-gazers, but we’re not total dweebs either. Our music is all about the energy, entertainment and having a good time.
Wes: I hope that all the energy leads the audience to look past the giant hole in my pants, because there is a giant hole in the crotch of my favorite pants, and I’m always worried that people will take notice.
(Awkward silence)
What kind of sportsmen are you?
Ryan: Bowling, pool, cards, golf, go-carting and drinking sportsmen. We’re really into lawn darts too.
Rich: What are the things with the go-carts called?
Wes: Go-carting
No fishing?
Wes: Uhm, Ryan and I are… fisherman (wry look).
Ryan: There’s actually a bit of irony, (whispers) we’re really not that sporty.
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