(Craig) I guess in a sense, yeah, it was at school, but probably not the schooling you’re thinking of. It wasn’t a musical school. I met Bradley at school in the early days, and obviously Bri and I have known each other because we’re brothers. We came together jamming out at first on some cover tunes, and found that we had a really cool sound going, and so we worked up a bunch of originals and started playing out in clubs around town and really got a good response.
The first time I heard about Bradley was from a mutual friend at school who told me that he knew this drummer I had to hear. He said not only could Brad play along with every beat Neil Peart played on the Rush albums, but he would play them with the album running at 45 RPM speed on his record player. I thought to myself "My god, there’s barely anyone who can play along with Neil Peart at regular speed, and if this kid can do it at double speed, then I’ve got to see this!
(Brad) We always got along real well and had a lot in common musically and as friends. I used to do gigs playing drum solos, and sometimes would be on the same bill as Craig and Bri’s band. Their live shows really rocked, and I used to attend all of their concerts. Every time I’d watch them perform, I always felt like I wanted to be drummer in their band, and wanted to be on stage rocking out with them. And then one foggy Christmas Eve, Craig called to say, "Bradley with your drumming so tight, won’t you join my band tonight…" (laughs)
(Craig) So, shortly after that we got together. Right away we had cool spontaneous vibes where we would find ourselves doing the same musical lick simultaneously, and some really uncanny by the moment stuff which continues to this day.
Originally as a kid, it all began on guitar, playing rhythm parts for Bri’s all night lead solo sessions. I just worked those power chords until my hands really got the strength in them to start doing some more complex guitar work.
(Brian) Right, originally playing on distorted acoustic guitar because the electric guitar was more money than we could afford.
(Craig) I did manage to obtain an acoustic guitar pick-up which I employed through a distortion box. Ultimately we wound up doing a goodly amount of club gigs and we worked up a lot of original material. We got to the point where we had hours and hours of all original songs, so we’d be doing a four-hour set of our own material. We started playing college gigs and decided at that point we really had to get some of that stuff on tape, so we went into the studio and cut our first EP, which was a 4-song collection. We toured around in support of that for a while, then went back in the studio and recorded "Masque of Shadows", rocked out a bunch of shows for that, and here we are getting ready to record our second full length CD.
One of the main characteristics of your band, is that everyone can identify innumerable influences within the music. Arguably, that might be because those influences are actually there, or maybe because your style of music evokes individual comparators that aren't necessarily the same from person to person! What influences DO you have? Do they come out into the music?
(Craig) It’s funny you say about the comparatives, because occasionally we’ll have somebody come up to us and say "Oh, you must listen to a lot of ‘this’ or a lot of ‘that’". Some of these bands they mention I’ve never even heard of, so maybe they’re drawing on something that we don’t know about. Generally people hear tinges of things that we are definitely into or influenced by, but I think it’s just that, it’s little tinges that the listener gets. We dig a lot of stuff from the early and mid 70’s in terms of rock & roll, but it really expands across into things that are interesing to us in time periods before and after that, because different genres of music that we listen to come into our inspirational palette. Everything from classical, jazz, blues, eastern music, etc. Every day you’re hearing something new it seems like you haven’t heard before. Even in songs that you’ve already heard, sometimes you’ll hear a new aspect if you listen more closely, or in a different frame of mind (if you know what I mean), the Beatles are classic for that. There’s always something new to check out and be inspired by. And hopefully that’s what Yoke Shire’s doing for people right now.
Influences? Zeppelin, Sabbath, Beatles, Queen, Floyd, Rush, Yes, Kansas (to name a few), and sometimes it’s just a cool tune that you catch by some oddball band that really just came up with one cool song here or there, and you’re like "Wow, that really had something that is driving me to get into that style of whatever it was".
(Brian) There’s really a lot of worthwhile individual songs from otherwise obscure bands that actually make up a good portion of the music people listen to.
(Craig) It’s almost a conversation within itself… "Classic rare cuts"
(Brian) Actually the bands we just named are the types of bands that are able to consistently come out with material, tune after tune, that you can stand behind, and that’s really what we are doing here as Yoke Shire.
How exactly does a new piece of Yoke Shire music come about?
(Craig) It usually starts as a spark of inspiration which will either be in a spontaneous jam type situation where we are working on some material and we come up with stuff on the spot at rehearsal or live.
The other kind of spark is, I’ll come up with an idea and bring it into rehearsal, and we’ll work through something that is a more pre-conceived idea. I hear a lot of music in my mind and will sometimes record a demo for the band to listen to. Other times Brad & Bri come in with riffs and ideas.
(Brad) Every once in a while, I’ll be in the office and hear Craig call in to the answering machine and record a great new riff that he got while on the road, to get it on tape, so he wouldn’t forget his idea. I usually play back the message 5 or 6 times in a row because it sounds so cool, and is always great inspiration for that night’s rehearsal.
(Craig) Some songs start as vocal and lyrical ideas (Brian and I will often collaborate on lyrics); others are usually geared toward a specific grouping of instruments initially. We might start with an organ, guitar and drums just to get the thing up and rolling, and then work our way from there. Sometimes it’s more of a guitar, bass and drums core to the song. Other times it’s an acoustic situation, so it really depends on the song. Usually it’s mostly developed in a setting where we feel we can really go off on excursions and experiment with ideas.
Then sometimes we will go into multiple versions of a particular song and collect the best of all the versions into one that really captures all of the elements that we are looking for.
Often times, the core of the song will come up quickly, and then we will add embellishments over a couple weeks of playing it and build it up from there. Overall we look at it from an artistic perspective, looking at the deeper hues of musical tones and textures. Then we go back out and play the stuff live and get the energy of the live experience into the tunes, and get a feel for how the audience is digging different parts. As we say, we like to let them steep in the Yoken casks.
I get the idea that Yoke Shire is not so much a band, but more of a concept, with image playing an important role. Is that the case?
(Craig) I think it goes a lot deeper than either image or concept, and it’s really more of a spiritual musical connection that has come together in the form of Yoke Shire. We don’t mean spiritual in an orthodox sense, but more just looking at the music with a deeper perspective and getting more out of it.
The important thing for us is a cool vibe. The album "Masque of Shadows" of course has a subtle conceptual nature, but that also carries through in the continuity of our band philosophy. The unity of our perspectives makes it easy to see a cohesive nature to the band. Authenticity and integrity we feel are important on all levels of our musical journey.
There are only three of you, and yet you profess to play live and without the aid of sequencers and other tricks of the trade. Exactly how do you manage to play live?
(Brian) Live performance is really a core thing. It’s one of the essencial and rewarding aspects of being a musician.
(Craig) We really enjoy playing live, that’s so much of what makes us want to play music, is getting out there and really seeing the look on people’s faces when they are digging what we’re doing. There’s a very special energy that happens there between the audience and a band that are connecting with each other. It’s definitely something we get into.
(Brian) Right, realistically music was born as live performance and was experienced live through the ages, but recording has only been in much more recent modern times. So it’s good to maintain a connection with the exciting and dynamic live element of music.
(Craig) But what we do live as a 3-piece band is to really expand our potentials with whatever it is we’re doing. Whether we are singing three part harmonies together, or whether we’re each playing 2 or 3 instruments at the same time, it’s all to make the fullness of that sound you hear on the record happen live too.
(Brian) Interpretations as well. We’ll often do different interpretations of the song just to vary it up, which is part of the beauty of being able to see a band again and again live, is that it’s a different presentation that can go off in any unexpected direction any night depending on the inspiration. We make sure we leave room for that, and let the live essense breathe.
(Brad) It’s the only way to reach those heights, and to allow the audience to reach those same heights also.
I have to ask - where does the band name originate from? (Coming from the county or Yorkshire in England, it intrigues me!)
(Craig) Well certainly the English imagery has always been something that’s played a role in our sound and our heritage too. That’s where the "Shire" comes from. And the "Yoke" is the unity, which is what yoke means, of us as a group of musicians together. Together they are the Yoke Shire experience. It’s a metaphor for a place of oneness that is the Yoke Shire experience. The ever expanding.
(Brian) Coming from the New England region of America, we feel a certain presence of an olde English spirit in the air.
Give an overall summary of "Masque of Shadows" and what you achieved.
(Brian) "Masque of Shadows" is really a musical journey open to each individual’s own interpretation of the story, and it really needs to be heard to be understood.
(Craig) Every song traverses many musical landscapes and moods, and we captured the essence of various genres of music, blending them together to create a sound that people are really enjoying quite a bit. The flow of the songs were very carefully considered, arranged to be enjoyed as a full album experience, although each piece stands solidly on its own.
(Brad) We’ve found that across the world, our music is affecting people in a very positive way. "Masque of Shadows" has accumulated 6 awards including "Album of the Year" and "Song of the Year" and has received outstanding reviews as well from all across the globe, which can be read at our website "www.yokeshire.com". Many of the reviews are from progressive rock magazines and webzines that we’re sure the readers of "Wondrous Stories" will recognize. Since the release of the album, we’re extremely pleased by the great response from our fans who write letters or emails to us, letting us know that our music has moved them in a certain way.
Is the new album likely to be dramatically different?
(Craig) As a band, we are on a certain path and we know what direction we’re heading in musically, so people can expect to see more expounding on the musical approach they’ve seen thus far on "Masque of Shadows". We’ve chosen all the new songs for the upcoming album, and we’re excited about the selections that we’ve come up with. We’ve got some epic pieces, so there will definitely be longer songs on the album. It will have a nice blend of acoustic and electric material as well. We’re really excited to get this material out to our fans.
Will we see you in the UK?
(Craig) Absolutely, we’ve had a lot of interest throughout Europe, so it’s definitely in our plans for the future to travel that way.
