You Me At Six at HMV, Birmingham

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Fri 06 Jan 2017 - Thu 12 Jan 2017

Rock band You Me At Six will celebrate the release of their new album with appearances at HMV stores around the UK, including Birmingham Bullring Shopping Centre on January 6, 2017.



The five-piece will be signing copies of the new record, Night People, and playing live at selected shops.

The full 'tour' dates are:
January 6, noon: HMV Leicester (signing);
January 6, 5:30pm: HMV Birmingham (acoustic session & signing);
January 9, 5pm: HMVCardiff (signing);
January 10, 5pm: HMV Reading (signing);
January 11, noon: HMV Leeds (signing);
January 11, 5:30pm: HMV Manchester (acoustic session & signing);
January 12, noon: HMV Middlesbrough (signing);
January 12, 5:30pm: HMV Newcastle (acoustic session & signing).

Fans pre-ordering the album from participating stores will be allocated a wristband allowing entry to the sessions.



Night People is You Me At Six's fifth album, the follow-up to chart-topping Cavalier Youth. After forming the band 12 years ago, frontman Josh Franceschi, guitarists Max Helyer and Chris Miller, bassist Matt Barnes and drummer Dan Flint (who joined in 2007) feel it's now time to take the group to another level.

Their search for a new sound led them to a new producer, Jacquire King, known for his work with James Bay and Kings of Leon. With the band already fans of Jacquire's work, they were delighted when, after a 20 minute phone call, he agreed to produce the new album. It meant decamping to Nashville, Tennessee, first for three weeks in February 2016, and again for a further four weeks in May.

Being in Nashville, where King is based, and working with the producer, inspired the band in numerous ways.

"When you're in LA, where we've often recorded before, you're focusing on socialising and parties," says Max. "When you go to Nashville, recording in the room where Kings of Leon recorded their biggest albums, you're there trying to create magic."

Josh agrees: "In Nashville you are constantly around people that want to make great music and great songs. When you go out for drinks with people, they talk about the heyday of great songs; you're always thinking about songs and songwriting. We really wanted to make a record that wasn't a reflection of what somebody else was doing on the scene, or in rock music in general – we were hoping to create something timeless. That's why on Night People there's this massive hip-hop energy and influence to it, because that's what we were listening to a lot of while we were making the record."



In the studio, King's preferred technique was taping the band live.

"To play live in the studio, all five of us at once, capturing the energy of the song, capturing the emotional feel, feeding off each other, working as a unit, you can't beat that," says Max.

Finding quiet and solace was also key to the process for the band, whose party days are far from behind them but who take the business of pleasing their audience just as seriously. New to this album was an interest in meditation, inspired by "our gaffer Dave, who is heavily into it."

Josh explains: "Dave had been doing some work out in New York with the David Lynch Foundation, so we went out there to learn how. I think it was just sort of, we're always trying to find new ways of dealing with the pressure, finding a mechanism to shut it off a bit. There was a time where you'd think you're in a band, you're vegetarian and you meditate: and you should probably keep that to yourself! But actually, culturally I don't think we live in a society where that stuff should be poked fun at. It brings real benefits in your week to week psychology when you are constantly on the move and in the public eye."



The band has lofty ambitions, Josh admits."Do we want to headline Wembley Stadium four nights in a row and headline Glastonbury? Yeah, we do. I look at Biffy Clyro, Bring Me The Horizon, Tame Impala, Arctic Monkeys, Foals, all these bands who are having their moment and trying to become the new headliners, and we believe it's our turn next."

#bands
#birmingham_city_centre
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#music
#pop_culture
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#january
!date 06/01/2017 -- 12/01/2017
%wnbirmingham