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Yellow Card.
 Ryan
Key, singer/ songwriter/guitarist with US punk/rock band Yellow
Card sounds exhausted having just arrived in his Sydney hotel
room. "This year is fully booked, we are touring like motherfuckers!"
he laughs as his jetlag settles in. "We're in Sydney for twenty-four
hours. We then have forty-eight hours off. Then we are co-headlining
a US Tour for six weeks, and then over to Europe for five weeks
and finally the Warped tour for sixty days. And after we are
hopefully coming back to Japan and a full Australian tour in
November, December for the album," he sighs, sounding overwhelmed
at the thought of the next twelve months.
Yellow Card are all in their early twenties and have just signed up with Capitol Records for their new album 'Ocean Avenue'. Don't make the mistake of writing them off as just another punk/rock band: they have a unique sound thanks to their thoughtfully witty lyrics and catchy tunes.
"It's what I have to write about, it's what the group and I have been through," Key explains. "When I left home my family gave me financial support, but they were saying negative stuff like 'I can't believe you are doing this! You're throwing away your life!' But when I sent home a copy of [previous album] 'One For The Kids,' they started realising that their kid can actually make music."
While many pop-punk bands write predominently for a young audience, Yellow Card cast their lyrical net more widely: "My parents' friends who are like between fifty and sixty are hooked on the album," Key laughs.
He believes that the main appeal of the band is the message listeners get out of this CD. "It's in light of waking up and moving on. It's about doing something with yourself that maybe you didn't know you were capable of or other people told you weren't capable of; and lastly just moving forward and just doing what you want to do with your life."
Inspiration for Key's songs come from every part of his life.
"The song Life As A Salesman is about my father and our
relationship together. It is how the relationship is today as
we have both grown up and I have come out of high school, which
were sort of trying times. And ended up at the right place where
people wish they where with their parents or father."
Another subject Key explores is romantic relationships (although I was glad to see there was only one song about the situation).
"Only One is about the only real relationship I have
had. When I try and write about love or anything to do with
life, I try to find something different that I could do about
it, not just the usual 'you're hot, you broke my heart, life
sucks' kind of attitude. I wanted to write a song with some
emotion, but not bleeding your heart out crap," he laughs.
"The song says 'look, I can't really give you a reason why I am leaving you, I know you're the right person to be with but I need to leave you anyway, I need time, I need space, I need this and that."
Key also explained the process that the band uses when they go about writing these deeply emotional songs. "I usually write a melody, basic chord structure, and verse/chorus idea and then go to the band, and we start working together right away. Sometimes I will have an idea where the violin should fit and Sean [Mackin] will write the violin riff or he will have a riff to start with and we will work from there."
Thus it's not just the lyrics that sets this band apart: after all, violin is not normally used as a main element of a punk band.
"Sean has been playing the violin since the age of six. I think that it is just something people would not expect to go with a rock band. It's something you would expect to go with mellow band, but with the people who are shocked by it you say 'Well, have you never heard of an Irish folk band?!"
Robby Anderson
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'Ocean Avenue' is out now through Capitol/EMI.
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