Although they’ve only been performing under the moniker ‘Young Buffalo’ since 2009, Ben Yarbrough and Jim Barrett have been writing together for over 10 years. After the recent release of their new single ‘Sykia’, the group’s shiny new 11 track debut album ‘House’ is complete and is scheduled to come out early next year. From love poems to burritos, we ask the guys what helped them out while recording in the studio…
Love Poems, by Pablo Neruda
This book of poems was given to me by a good friend when we were out on tour a few years ago, and got me through some tough times. I was never that into poetry, but if you think about it, a ton of song lyrics are just love poems. I wouldn’t say that this book influenced my writing directly, but it definitely helped me put pen to paper and get some difficult things out there. Very therapeutic.
This Snowball microphone is the shit!
It’s what I’ve used ever since I started recording demos for early Young Buffalo stuff when I was in high school in ’08. When Ben and I were writing for our album, we recorded probably 20+ demos on this mic and out of the 20 we used 11 on the album. This mic made it easy for us to get down our ideas and cobble our thoughts together.. even if the songs came out rough around the edges.
This clip from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross
This was shown to us in between takes by our producer Dave Schiffman at some point over the 2 months that we were recording. It was the first time any of us had even heard of the movie, let alone heard this sweet Alec Baldwin monologue. “Fuck you! That’s my name.” So sick.
The Beach Boys Shred I Get Around
I’m sure a lot of folks have seen this, but we’d we go down the video rabbit hole every once-in-a-while just to break up the long stretches of recording with a shit ton of laughter. Also, a coincidence of with this video: we actually recorded in Studio 2 of Eastwest studios in LA for about a week; The Beach Boys recorded a large portion of Pet Sounds in Studio 1. This vid gets me every damn time…
Fiesta!
After we recorded drums and few other other things at Eastwest studios in LA, we travelled to the Valley to record all of the overdubs, etc at a studio called The Bank in Burbank, CA. This unbelievable take-out Mexican joint was right next door. Needless to say, we ate our weight in dank-ass burritos.
Keith Richards, ‘Life’
I read this book cover to cover whilst recording. It was one of the most interesting reads, partially because I’m a huge Rolling Stones fan, but also because I never really knew that much about Keith or his style of playing/songwriting. Dude’s a machine, I feel like he’ll keep on cranking out albums and touring from the grave.
Dwight Twilley, ‘Looking for the magic’
I leave you with this. Somehow all of us in YB got turned on to this guy, not sure by who… If you take a look in the background you’ll see ol’ Tom Petty playing a little bass. Pretty awesome shit.
Take a listen to Young Buffalo’s latest single, Sykia here.
– Georgia Rose
