YOUNGBLOOD + Support 25.04.17 in Berlin, Monarch
Tickets – YOUNGBLOOD Berlin
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is a case study in the power of contrasts. The creative outlet of Vancouver’s Alexis Young, the music of Youngblood is dreamy but insistent, a feather-soft pillow of lush sound anchored by electronic grooves. The siren-like voice at the centre of it all is fierce and sultry in equal measure—a bit Grace Jones, perhaps a trace of Nancy Sinatra, but always pure Youngblood.
Inspired by the French electronic retro-futurist duo Air, Young has described her music as “what the ’60s thought the future would sound like”, and that’s as apt a description as any of songs that fuse timeless melodies with an aesthetic rooted firmly in the here and now. You could say Youngblood has an old soul. This is dream-pop to be sure, but a close listen reveals that Young is singing songs of obsession, self-destruction, and romantic catastrophe.
Youngblood’s debut EP, Feel Alright, (released September 23rd, 2016) features five sweet pop confections with hearts of darkness, concocted by Young in collaboration with co-writer Parker Bossley
(of Gay Nineties, Mounties, and Hot Hot Heat) and produced and engineered by Juno-nominated DJ, producer and Diplo collaborator Sleepy Tom (Fool’s Gold Records).
Two of those songs have already made waves. The first, “Easy Nothing”—produced by Kevvy Mental (Fake Shark, Carly Rae Jepsen)—was released as an online single in May of 2015. The following single, “Feel Alright”, premiered this past March on Vancouver’s modern-rock station, 102.7 the Peak FM, and reached the No. 6 spot on the Spotify Viral Chart, having racked up 300,000+ plays to date.
To bring these songs to life on-stage, Young has recruited a killer band, featuring members of Vancouver indie darlings Gay Nineties and Fake Shark. In a live setting, the material takes on a powerful new dynamic, with the fiery frontwoman a crackling live wire bewitching the audience. This world-class wrecking crew, which has shared bills with Chromeo, Timber Timbre, and Black Mountain, was named a must-see band at Toronto's Canadian Music Week 2016.
