
Yachtley Crew - Philly
TM - Hi, this is Amelia and Elizabeth from Twinmusix and we are here with Philly from Yachtley Crew thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
PY - Thanks for having me.
TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?
PY - We are so excited to come to Australia. It is a dream come true to come to Australia and not many of the guys in the band have been there, I was lucky enough to go to Australia in 2004. When I perform I like to give people an introduction to Yacht Rock in case they don't know what it is. Yacht Rock is a collection of your favorite hits from the 70s and 80s so we play music from bands like the Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, Little River Band, Kenny Loggins, and more. We play all of those guilty pleasures from soft rock artists and it comes together in a very high energy nostalgic show. It has been dubbed Yacht Rock and people show up in Captain's hats and dressed up as sailors and it's alot of fun.
TM - Are there any tourist attractions you want to see in Australia?
PY - We have a pretty rigorous schedule but I was hoping to spend a day in Melbourne. We are going all over Australia and we are excited to go to Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and a venu that we cannot talk about right now that hasn't been made official. We are excited to meet everyone in Australia.
TM - Are you working on any new music?
PY - we are working on a new album and we are in the studio this week. We had a couple of weeks of shows and we are back next weekend. We always have a lot going on and we have a pretty full schedule. We are bringing out our first full length album with one original song on it which is exciting. The rest are Yacht Rock Classics that we play at our shows in our version and our energy that people seem to love.
TM - What was your writing and recording process for your new album?
PY - we have been working on that album for quite a while for over a year and our producer Chris brings so much to the plate. He has worked with Mick Jagger, Green Day and Aretha Franklin and he has so much knowledge of music and he gets what we do with these songs. He understands our energy and our take on music. When we went to him with our songs he had an intuitive understanding of what to do with our music and our arrangements. People come to our shows because they know us and they hear our version of these songs and we wanted a way to capture that and that's what Chris did.
TM - How did you go about writing your own song?
PY - our first original called "Sex on the Beach" came together because we just wanted to write something. We wrote that during the pandemic and we were just getting together and being as creative as we could. The original on our new album is called "Pain Of Losing You" and it was written by Diane Warren who is a multi award-winning songwriter and our manager has known her for many years. She heard of Yachtley Crew and she said I have this song for you and I think it would fit for what you do and your whole vibe and we heard it, we loved it and we recorded it and it will be out on our new album.
TM - If you could have any band play "Pain Of Losing You" or "Sex on the Beach" what band would it be what song and would it be in your style or their style?
PY - I think it would be really cool to have Michael McDonald play one of our songs because we play one of his songs I think he would do a really good version of it
TM - What's your favourite memory with your fans?
PY - We just played this past weekend and there is a nice woman in a wheelchair and she comes to all our shows when we are in town and she is right up the front singing and bobbing her head. She came up to me after the show and said you have no idea how happy you guys make me. She said this is the time I am most happy, when I am at your shows and she said thank you for the sacrifices we make for being away from our families from such a long period of time and thank you for the late nights and months on a tour bus. It makes it so incredibly gratifying to hear that kind of thing from people that it touches them in that way and they enjoy it that much.
TM - What was your first band or Artist you saw live and can you tell us a story?
PY - I saw Jimmy Buffett as a kid at a venue in Arizona where I grew up. He used to come and play every summer at a venue called the desert sky Pavilion. It was just so much fun and people were enjoying themselves and singing every word, it was an example of what people's music can do and what Joy it brings.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
PY - I would like to say the coolest thing to see is our audience really get into our music and they dress up. Our fans come out to have a good time and they tell their friends and tell everyone they know. This is a new thing in Australia and I have listened to our music to get back into the swing of things so bring some friends and have a good time.
TM - Thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
PY - Thank you.