Yard of Blondes – Murderology

Originally from France, Fanny and Vincent of Yard of Blondes found a new home in Los Angeles (who could blame them!). They are both really great musicians and multi-instrumentalists, full of crazy ideas that make it a pleasure to work with them. Plus, who could beat that awesome French accent 😉

I was introduced to Vincent and Fanny while working at Billy Graziadei’s Firewater Studios just South of LA and we instantly hit it off pretty well. YOB wanted to set out to record their first fully-fledged EP at Billy’s place and I had the chance to engineer the record for them. All the songs were written by Fanny and Vincent, and I really dug their style of writing as well as their great sense for vocal harmonies. Somewhat eclectic, but definitely catchy! They were going for a pretty raw, somewhat “desert-ish” indie rock sound with influences like Queens of the Stone Age, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana. Fuck yeah!

Fanny and Vincent were joined by (also French) drummer Benjamin Lecourt, guitarist Will Schlich, and bassist Dean Chamberlain (formerly of Code Blue and The Motels) for our sessions at Firewater Studios. The studio proved to be an ideal creative space for us thanks to its great sounding live room and Billy’s awesome collection of great guitar amps. This sort of music needs a natural, rockin’ vibe and so we cut the basic tracks of guitars, bass and drums all together without a click track. This was followed by a series of overdub sessions for keyboards, more guitars, and vocals. Finally, I mixed the four-track EP at Firewater Studios as well making use of a good selection of outboard gear to get the guitars as aggressive and the drums to pop without sacrificing the signature vocal sound.

Titled “Murderology” the EP was released independently by YOB to much critical acclaim. Award-winnnig director Cameron Crowe had this to say: “The reckless echoes of Neil Young-style guitar explosions mix with daydream harmonies”. Some of the songs were played on KROQ radio in LA and were featured on Kerrang! Radio in London, UK. The band also struck a few licensing deals with Melboss and Guitar Center for their marketing campaigns.

Check out some of the behind-the-scenes photos below and also don’t miss the video to the title track “Murderology” shot near the Joshua Tree high desert above.