aaamusic | On 27, Apr 2011

YOU ANIMALS

‘Crimes, Creeps & Thrills’

Album released 25th April 2011

Derby six-piece You Animals release their debut album, ‘Crimes, Creeps & Thrills’ via This Is Fake DIY Records on 25th April 2011.

The story of ‘Crimes, Creeps & Thrills’ began in early 2010 with a collaboration between the band and Mansun’s Paul Draper. Between Parr Street Studios in Liverpool and Draper’s home studio in London, they produced track ‘Everyday Is Like Friday Night’ (yes, a sneaky Morrissey reference).

Six months later, recording resumed, firstly in Leeds with the ever-prolific Whiskas (Forward, Russia) at House of Mook Studios, then back in Derby at Snug Recording Co where the remaining tracks were chipped away at with the help of friends for additional “hey”s, “woah”s and handclaps. Final track ‘Shotgun Valentine’ was subsequently rescued from an older session at Axis Studios recording with Matt Ellis, and the record was complete. Easy!

The band describe the record as “about life, death, love, loss, getting fucked up and everything in between”.

You Animals formed on New Year’s Day following the violent breakup of a previous band. They mash guitars in to keyboards to make scrappy pop anthems.
They rehearse in a tiny building called The Bakery in the middle of one of the less desirable areas of town (‘town’ being Derby in this case). They have to move their stuff in and out in the middle of the night in order to avoid drawing attention from the crazy man across the road who thinks they’re stealing his electricity, and chases them across the car park with pieces of broken glass.

You Animals are Ryan, Liza, Mark, Matt, Martin and Stuart.

Ryan constantly gets mistaken for Tim Wheeler from Ash and has signed autographs as him when the occasional Ash fan just won’t believe he’s not him. Apparently not having an Irish accent isn’t proof.

The rest of the band are convinced that Liza is related to royalty, yet she will neither confirm nor deny this.

Mark runs a number of online ‘businesses’ (don’t ask) to supplement the income he makes from driving other bands (Johnny Foreigner, The Joy Formidable, Dog Is Dead).

Whilst entering a low-roofed car park and in an act of unprecedented panic, Matt ripped the roof clean off the band’s first van on the same day they bought it.

Martin and Stuart are twins born on September 11th. They write the basis of most of the band’s songs. Brotherly love sometimes runs low which leads to the occasional on-stage fight.