Harrogate hardcore trio Blood Youth have captured hearts around the nation since 2014 with their incredible EPs Inside My Head (2015) and Closure (2016) and their energetic live shows. As the release date for their highly anticipated debut album Beyond Repair dawns (April 7, 2017), we caught up with frontman Kaya Tarsus to talk Beyond Repair, new single I Remember, Hercules and possibly the cutest tattoo ever…
Today you released your new track I Remember, which has a great opening riff by the way! Can you tell us a bit about the track?
Oh thank you. Yeah, we wanted to write a song that was almost like what it would be like if we could have a conversation with ourselves say from like ten years ago. Like what we would say to each other and how we would eal with how everything is now and times that you get really frustrated because you’re not prepared for life and blah blah blah so its just how you’re frustrated and trying to prepare yourself for the bullshit that happens.
That’s on your debut album Beyond Repair which is out in two weeks time on April 7th. We love the album here and have had it on repeat all day. Can you tell us how you came to choose the title?
Wow thats scary! That’s sick though thank you. Erm, I remember when I was writing all the lyrics and we had all the songs together and just kinda the meaning of the album and everything like that. It’s about being angry, dealing with anger and everything like that and I guess it’s kinda hard to change yourself. Beyond repair, when I came across those words I thought ‘oh my god thats perfect’.
So the inspiration for the record itself is about anger and dealing with it?
Yeah.
It’s a lot heavier and angrier than Closure (2016 EP) so how do you personally think your sound has evolved from then?
I think with the two EPs (Inside My Head and Closure) we were kind of experimenting and looking at what kind of band we want to be. Inside My Head (Rude Records, 2015) is a lot heavier than Closure. Whereas Closure starts with almost like an acoustic track. So we were kind of going ‘okay how melodic do we want to be? How heavy do we want to be?’ and this album, the first album, is basically exactly how we wanna sound as a band, we want to be this melodic and this heavy and it all comes out on all the tracks.
It is a good mixture.
I’m glad to hear that, thats exactly what we were going for.
Do you have a favourite track from the album?
It’s really hard to say because each track kinda does something different for me. It’s kinda like asking a parent to choose their favourite child. I really like I Remember, I really like Making Waves or there’s a couple of songs that we haven’t released that are really cool as well. There’s a song called Bless that I’m really into as well. But again I love them all the same really. Like I said, it kinda does something, whatever mood you’re in goes to a different track for a different mood.
You head out across the UK for a couple of shows after the album’s release, are you looking forward to them?
Yeah it’s gonna be sick. We’ve played those venues before (see below for dates) and everytime we’ve played those venues, it’s always been really cool so it’s gonna be even better this time cause we’ve got a full album and it’s not just nine songs from two EPs really. There’s more choice and everything.
April 08 – The Garage, Glasgow
April 09 – Key Club, Leeds
April 10 – Boston Music Rooms, London
Do you have any plans to do a full UK tour during this album cycle?
I can’t really say right now. Everything is kind of being put in motion. I don’t want to say anything that’s misleading or anything.
So there’s a possibility?
Again I cant say, I’m not sure at the moment.
Fair enough, you’re on the festival circuit as well this year, playing Teddy Rocks, Download and Fat Lip. Are you looking forward to them?
Yeah it’s going to be amazine, we’ve always been a band that’s really enjoyed the festivals and everything like that, especially Download and we’re doing Groezrock in Belgium as well. So yeah we have some cool stuff coming up, really enjoy the festivals, especially cause we always see bands that we’re really good friends with so it’s really cool to hang out as well as play a good show.
That’s awesome. We always end our interviews with some random questions; how many tattoos do you have and which has the most meaning?
I think I’ve got like ten or something like that. I’ve got a portrait of my grandparents on my leg. I think that one has the most meaning. It’s a portrait of them on their wedding day.
That’s a really nice one. What would your chosen topic be on Mastermind?
Always Sunny In Philadelphia. I know everything about that show!
If you could be a Disney character for a day, who would you pick and why?
That’s a good one! I’d probably be Hercules because that was my favourite Disney film.
Before you go, is there anything you would like to say to our readers that we may have missed?
To anybody that’s reading this thank you for the awesome support because we wouldn’t be doing an album or having this conversation with you right now if it wasn’t for the amazing support we’ve had so far and just look forward to the album I guess.
That’s great, thank you for speaking to us today and I hope the album is received as much as we like it.
No worries, awh thank you very much.