{"id":108594,"date":"2021-06-16T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/?p=108594"},"modified":"2021-06-16T07:07:42","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T12:07:42","slug":"interview-kayhan-vaziri-of-yautja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/interview-kayhan-vaziri-of-yautja\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Kayhan Vaziri of Yautja"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Lyrically and musically, <strong>Yautja<\/strong>\u2019s <em>The Lurch <\/em>is a 45-minute reminder of the chaotic state of the world.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em>The Lurch <\/em>is a ferocious record with the feel of a live recording. \u201cA Killing Joke\u201d kicks things off with a burst of drumming while the guitar and bass sear through like a wildfire. The tracks that follow each bring their own flavor of brutality to the record. \u201cThe Spectacle,\u201d one of the songs that really\u00a0<em>lurches<\/em>, is seasoned with dolorous chords reminiscent of <strong>Inter Arma<\/strong>; tracks like \u201cTethered\u201d have the slightest tang of DC hardcore.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\"  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_67061\"  width=\"320\" height=\"240\"  data-origwidth=\"320\" data-origheight=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/efbMY7sIrS8?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&fs=1&playsinline=1&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe>\n<p>While this record is relentless, it\u2019s not unapproachable. In fact, repeated listens reveal an LP that is ultimately quite a cathartic listen because of, not in spite of, the fact that it doesn&#8217;t flinch in the face of society&#8217;s ugliness. Meaty basslines like the one that kicks off \u201cWired Depths\u201d are impossible not to headbang to. Everything about this record is immediate, down to the lyrics, which plumb the depths of our fatal attraction to technology, political repression, and toxic masculinity. Take a look at these sweaty lines bellowed from the center of \u201cUndesirables\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Earn my stripes<br \/>\nCradle the balls<br \/>\nSwung my weight<br \/>\nDenim\u2019s weaker when wet<br \/>\nShe needed it<br \/>\nIt\u2019s all just brown noise from here<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yautja has never hewed to metal orthodoxy, and <em>The Lurch <\/em>is no exception. From the beautiful, lurid cover to the chonky guitar tone, this record is very much its own thing. It\u2019s tighter and meatier than <em><a href=\"https:\/\/yautja.bandcamp.com\/album\/dead-soil\">Dead Soil<\/a> <\/em>and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/yautja.bandcamp.com\/album\/songs-of-descent\">Songs of Descent<\/a><\/em>, but still loose, organic, and noisy. These three dudes are versatile, covering everything from <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/kayhan-vaziri-bringing-the-change-in-punk-rock\/id1441360871?i=1000428783728\">punk<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metal-archives.com\/bands\/Thou\/104484\">sludge<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metal-archives.com\/bands\/Mutilation_Rites\/3540306985\">black metal<\/a> in other projects, and <em>The Lurch <\/em>seems to represent an ore smelted from all their collective influences. It\u2019s also a record that is pissed at the state of the world and unafraid to show it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 420px; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3554547532\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/track=897018299\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yautja.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-lurch\">The Lurch by yautja<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I talked with bassist and vocalist Kayhan Vaziri via email about <em>The Lurch<\/em>, its gestation, and what\u2019s coming down the pike for Yautja. The following interview has been lightly edited for style and clarity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB: Thanks for taking some time to answer my questions! <em>The Lurch\u00a0<\/em>is your first full-length in 7 years, and it\u2019s a ripper. Tell me a little about the record&#8217;s origins. How did it come together?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>KV:<\/strong> Thanks! The record came together pretty naturally but not necessarily very easily. It took several years in between touring, time spent with other musical projects and just the unpredictable nature of real life outside of a touring band. Some of these songs were riffs or parts 6 or 7 years ago and some were written in the past couple of years. We made a conscious effort in 2018 to slow down on touring to finish up the writing process for <em>The Lurch<\/em> and finally had a full-length\u2019s worth of material at the end of 2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The lyrics on\u00a0<em>The Lurch\u00a0<\/em>feel very socially aware and very punk in that respect. Are there any particular influences you draw on when putting words to the music, or are you basically just commenting on the hellscape of modern America?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think we necessarily draw on any influences when writing lyrics[&#8230;] A lot of it is based on what we witness on a day-to-day basis in our smaller communities and globally, personal struggles and some social commentary. The fantastical hellscape of modern America definitely plays a role.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speaking of hellscape, it sounds like you sat on this one for a little while because of COVID. How did the pandemic affect you all and the timeline of this record? Were there any benefits to waiting it out?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The timeline between finishing tracking the record and its actual release was pretty long, almost a year and a half. We didn\u2019t intentionally wait anything out, but COVID definitely slowed the process of everything. We were still talking with labels\/figuring out how we were going to release the record until the Relapse thing came about last summer, and on top of that the process of artwork, mixing, mastering, etc. all took longer because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There\u2019s been some buzz about\u00a0<em>The Lurch<\/em>, and one thing that\u2019s come up in conversations I\u2019ve had is the sound, which I\u2019d describe as \u201cthicc.\u201d Friends have noted the guitar tone and the album\u2019s live feel. What went into the production\/recording of\u00a0<em>The Lurch<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Over the years, I\u2019ve had people tell me that they like our recorded output, but that it doesn\u2019t necessarily do the band justice compared to how we sound live. And while I love the recordings on the last few things we\u2019ve put out, I think working with Scott Evans at Electrical Audio was crucial to capturing us in our best light. We did a fairly basic setup in the big live room in <a href=\"https:\/\/electricalaudio.com\/studio-b\">Studio B at EA<\/a> and kind of just did our thing after a bit of experimentation with getting sounds. Shibby has always been a tone master, so I can\u2019t speak too much about his specific setup, but I know him and Scott [sic] spent some time dialing it in and getting it sounding right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How would you say the band has evolved since\u00a0<em>Songs of Descent<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Dead Soil<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Musically, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve changed that much since\u00a0<em>Descent<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<em>Dead Soil<\/em>; we still have the same Yautja \u201csound,\u201d just sharpened the blade a bit. The songs generally seem to be a little bit longer on\u00a0<em>The Lurch<\/em>\u00a0and at times a little more \u201cmetal\u201d but no drastic changes stylistically. I\u2019d like to think we might be a bit better at playing our instruments and doing the whole \u201cbusiness\u201d side of being a band, but that might be a little too subjective, haha.<\/p>\n<p><strong>All three of you get vocal credits on\u00a0<em>The Lurch<\/em>. How do you divvy that up on this record?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s never really a road map or plan when it comes to divvying up vocal duties on new songs for us. If someone has lyrics written that seem to fit or hears a cool vocal pattern, then we\u2019ll go from there. We all take turns writing lyrics and doing the vocals [ourselves,] but there\u2019s no real conscious effort in that responsibility.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your releases have featured some really beautiful, unorthodox cover art, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carolinedraws.com\/\">Caroline Harrison<\/a>\u2019s drawing for\u00a0<em>Dead Soil\u00a0<\/em>and the striking <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brandongeurts.com\/\">Brandon Geurts<\/a> cover on\u00a0<em>The Lurch<\/em>. What\u2019s your process for choosing or commissioning album art? What do you look for?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve been really lucky to befriend some incredible artists over the years of touring with this band even before they\u2019ve created anything for us. Our process is super simple: choose someone whose art we enjoy and aligns somewhat stylistically with the band, give them the music and lyrics, and then let them go to town with a little input here and there from us. Brandon has done a couple shirt designs for us and the artwork for our split with F\u00f3rn, so we knew what to expect with him, but he really blew us away with what he cranked out for\u00a0<em>The Lurch<\/em>.\u00a0<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>You all have done some exciting collaborations over the years, including the recent <a href=\"https:\/\/gcbtrecords.bandcamp.com\/album\/yautja-chepang-split\">split with Chepang<\/a>. Are there any other acts you plan to\/would like to collaborate with now that the pandemic is easing?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We had been talking with Chepang for years about putting out a split together, so we were super stoked that it finally came to fruition earlier this year. I think it\u2019s important to look outside of the American\/English-speaking realm for legit bands\/music because there\u2019s so much of it out there. We are always open to collaborating with our peers\/friends\/bands we\u2019ve toured with, but there\u2019s nothing currently in the works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And speaking of the pandemic easing, any live shows coming up or other ways you\u2019ll be supporting\u00a0<em>The Lurch<\/em>\u00a0this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve got a show with Withered in Atlanta on August 6th (which will be our first show back since the pandemic started) and then Mutants of the Monster Festival in Little Rock, Arkansas later that month. We\u2019re in the process of setting up some tours for later in the fall and earlier next year as well. Hopefully there will be a belated release show for\u00a0<em>The Lurch <\/em>before the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anything else coming up for the band or the other projects you guys are involved with?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Watch for some more festival and tour announcements soon for Yautja, and we are also slowly working on new material. Tyler plays with Thou who (of course) are always working\/scheming up new stuff, and Shibby has releases that are new from his bands <a href=\"https:\/\/thirdface.bandcamp.com\/\">Thirdface<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sallowtn.bandcamp.com\/\">Sallow<\/a> which are completely different stylistically but equally amazing bands. Hope to see y\u2019all on the road soon!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The Lurch\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>came out via Relapse on <a href=\"https:\/\/yautja.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-lurch\">Bandcamp<\/a> on May 21.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lyrically and musically, Yautja\u2019s The Lurch is a 45-minute reminder of the chaotic state of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":108595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Theobomb is with Yautja for one T H I C C interview.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[478,12,39],"tags":[2145],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/YAUTJA_Chappy-Hull_2021_1.jpg?fit=3398%2C2251&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108594"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108613,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108594\/revisions\/108613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}