Yeah Yeah Yeah's

From their perfect thrashing entry into the world and the unchecked maelstrom of Fever To Tell, New York three piece Yeah Yeah Yeahs have constantly stayed ahead of the pack. Cue third album It's Blitz! and another sonic spanner is thrown into the works of expectation.

He may be hideously jet lagged having just arrived in London earlier in the day but rapier thin Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner is ready to counter the inevitable questions about new album It's Blitz! Namely, that the band have gone electronic, traded the guitars for synths, the punk for funk. It's no doubt the prevailing question being put to the man whose shredding guitar licks have been every part as vital as the ferociously fragile voice of Karen O in the band's history, but it's one he happily dispels.

“The guitars are still prevalent on the album, they're just used in different ways. A lot of the time they're run through synth pedals to make them sound different, and there's only one song with any programming on it for the drums, the rest of the time they're made to sound like it's a drum machine.”

There is no denying however that the third album for the band is markedly different to both of its predecessors, leaving behind the raw thrall of their Williamsburg roots, expanding on the acoustic sensibilities of Show Your Bones and heading off to shores you'd never imagine the band who made Fever To Tell would visit. The most exciting part of this journey though is that It's Blitz! is every bit as alive and exhilarating as their first two efforts; it's just traveling a slightly different route. The title of the album hints that the band have not forgotten those Brooklyn roots, as Nick explains: “I guess it came to Karen randomly but something about it just spoke to all of us. It's meaningful enough and ambiguous enough for it to fit. Karen says there's a very blissful element to the record. It's also a nod to New York City and the Ramones, the essence of which we still believe in, no matter what style of production we're currently using.”

The trio made a huge impact on the New York scene in the early part of the decade, first by touring with The Strokes and The White Stripes, then by releasing their acclaimed first EP, which galvanised their popularity. While many bands went on to fall by the wayside after the initial shine wore off the whole art-rock scene, Yeah Yeah Yeahs continued to shine. They accrued masses of fans with their electrifying live shows and their 2003 debut album Fever To Tell went on to sell over 750,000 copies worldwide. Show Your Bones showed a softer, more vulnerable side to Karen O and earned the band places on many end of year lists in 2006. Though it was considered by many a toned down effort on their first album with its more acoustic feel, the band still packed a ferocious punch, which was plainly evident when they toured the record.

The production of all of their albums is inexorably linked to Dave Sitek from TV On The Radio, who has played a part in the production of all of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs albums. Zinner divulges that he is one of their best friends and isn't afraid to try something a little different.

“Dave's the kind of guy who'll walk into any situation and completely rearrange everything and try out a thousand things to get to the right one. So it's great to have someone shake things up and also to take things in a direction you never thought they could go in. Sometimes it's too far and you have to reel him in (laughs), sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it does. But it's this very radical element that he brings in and that's what we're looking for.”

Whilst Sitek steers the band in un-thought of directions, it was the band themselves who brokered the shift towards electronics, a decision that was not so much based on wanting to employ that particular sound but rather a feeling that they had to do something completely different from their other albums.

“It wasn't really something that was discussed before going into it,” says Zinner of the album. “But we did know that it had to be different. We just didn't know how and it didn't become clear to us until we were more than half way through. We're actually a really intuitive band so we just keep trying things until they feel right to us. But we knew that in order for us to remain excited about what we were doing it would have to be radically different from anything else we'd ever done.”

Album opener and first single Zero addresses that intent with Zinner's guitars set to 'Moroder' while Karen O asks “can you climb higher?”, while Heads Will Roll more completely realises the dance aesthetics of the album by invoking you to “dance 'til you're dead” and sprinkling “glitter on the west streets, silver over everything”.

Brimming with ideas, It's Blitz! Also marks a more healthy period for the band who very didn't make it to album number three. So burnt out on touring and constantly putting themselves under pressure, the recording of Show Your Bones was apparently a tense affair with the lines of communication breaking down between the three members.

“I mean I don't think any of us ever said I, but it was a really dark time and a really uncommunicative time, as well as a really passive/aggressive time,” admits the guitarist with a light chuckle. “Basically all of those band dynamics that you hear about were being played out. We were just putting ourselves through so much pressure and then taking it out on each other. I think a lot of bands go through it, we're certainly not the only ones. But a lot of bands break up from it and for us it feels really good that we worked through it because now we're in a much better state and there's no drama.”

With Karen O now living in Los Angeles and the guys still living in New York, the trio allow each other more space, ensuring that any tension remains on a creative level rather than a personal one.. Zinner talks about the root of the past problems coming from a “tour hangover” that lasted into the recording of the next album. He says that he's usually a mess after a tour, being used to having so much attention lavished upon him by so many that by the time he arrives home he feels like he's been dropped off the face of the earth.

“I'm a disaster, I wake up not knowing what to do with myself,” he relates of post tour depression. “It's a really strange thing being on tour because you're going in to this completely different world and way of living and a lot of people have a hard time shifting between the two, especially going back to the real world after tour world. That's where most people become drug addicts or drunks. I think a lot musicians can get like little kids after that so we really try not to fall in to that trap. I guess it's just stay in my apartment for about a week and then I'm fine.”

One of his tricks in keeping sane on the road is by taking photographs of the different cities they travel to. Feeding on the inspiration of being in new situations, he says that it not only helps him see things more objectionably and creatively but it also helps to shake off any band mentality of what a rock star should be doing whilst on the road.

Another welcome diversion for Zinner is undertaking extra curricular musical projects. To that end he occasionally remixes other bands (among them so far Bloc Party, Gang Of Four, Tommie Sunshine, Blood Brothers, Marilyn Manson and The Hives – despite telling me that his remixes are “usually just favours for friends”) as well as his own. Fans of his hard, slashing guitar style welcomed a side project of his called Head Wound City, which featured members of the Blood Brothers and Holy Molar, though the future of that project looks bleak as Zinner tells me that none of the members have the time to continue collaborating.

For a band who has evolved under their own direction and has now seen their fair share of others come and go I ponder how they regard other American rock acts and what is going on there.

“I feel like there's more of everything. You know there are bands that are really truly original but there's also more the same boring TV video shit that we've all been hearing for the past ten years, so it's hard to say. I feel like everything has kind of spread out now, and it's not quite so genre specific. But it's hard to tell, I'm so overwhelmed by the number of bands and how big the whole music culture is. I feel like we've been living under a rock for the past year and a half making this record.”

With our time together rapidly drawing to an end I ask Zinner if he has contemplated that the new sound on the album may help the band meet with more commercial success.

“Who knows?” he answers dismissively. “I mean it might happen but it probably won't. We didn't really think about that at all. As long as we're playing to our fans and perhaps inspiring people to go and start something on their own. I don't even know what commercial success is any more. I mean no-one's selling records so it's not going to be that.”