YOUR TWENTIES
A fusion of West Country and East End, Your Twenties have made an album about how brilliantly complicated it is to be young and in your prime
Nestled in a plush velvet couch. Your Twenties front man Gabriel Stebbing nurses a hot chocolate, occasionally mussing his brown mop with his left hand. He’s mulling over the strides his band have taken in recent months. After four years as the bassist for brilliant, electro-wonksters Metronomy, he recently left his childhood friend’s outfit to develop his own project. It’s lucky he did too. Having grown up in the West Country (Totnes), but now fully ensconced in London’s East End, the music he has made with Your Twenties is almost a union of the two places: gilded innocence caught in the whirlwind of lost nights in the city; a charming concoction of Beatles-esque hooks, a soupçon of Phoenix’s sophistico-pop panache and Fleetwood Mac’s top-down, widescreen vision. Trust us, they’re going to be huge.
A&W You recently wrapped your debut album [produced by Metronomy, aka Joseph Mount]. Have you noticed any overriding themes in the collection?
Gabriel Stebbing Yeah, I’d like to think that loosely the album starts with the broad optimism of leaving home, and ends with almost resignation; ten years later you’re not sure if everything’s worked out exactly as you thought. And en route there’s this kind of idealism, young love, and stuff like that. You’ve got bits where you lose your mind; you lose your dignity...
A&W Like in the song ‘Gold’?
GS ‘Gold’ is about infatuation and just being caught up in the moment, lending someone money that you’re never going to see again! It’s not a concept album as such, but I always refer back to French band The Teenagers. They write songs about how lame and dumb and dizzy it is to be a teenager, and they do it pretty well. They encapsulate something about it - like hitting people up on MySpace. With Your Twenties, I wanted to reflect how brilliantly complicated things are during that decade and that was a guiding theme.?
A&W Is London an influence?
GS I think it is. It’s competitive to a certain extent because there are always people doing really interesting things. Like you might bump into someone in the street and more often than not they’ll tell you that they’re doing something amazing, and if you’re not in a good frame of mind you just want to go out and kill yourself! [laughs]. But really that conversation will inspire you to not just sit at home all day.
A&W One of your greatest strengths are your lyrics. You really tell a story, particularly on ‘Long Forgotten Boy’.
GS There’s elements of London as a tough place in the song, but it’s also about seeing a generation partying itself out. It’s funny thinking about it; the 2006 party scene cresting, and now you see that generation crashing; the wave hitting its furthest extent and drawing back again; hedonism petering out.?
A&W You also do a great duet with Anita Blay (aka thecocknbullkid), on ‘Everynight’…
GS I started going to her shows with Joe [aka Metronomy]. That’s how we found out about a couple of bands really early: people like her, Late Of The Pier and The xx, they all got in touch with Joe on MySpace. I wanted that song to almost be a throwaway track, like a ‘Lovely Rita’ on ‘Sgt Pepper’s’. It skips along but the lyrics have an intimation that it’s about a controlling, dark affair. It might be about somebody being kept inside a flat and not being let out. In fact, I was listening to the Police quite a bit while I was recording the album!
A&W Your younger brother Michael left art school in Edinburgh to play guitar and keyboards in the band...
GS He’s always been diligent, rehearsed a lot. He’s our Jonny Greenwood. He does drawing courses - he sneaks into UCL to go to lectures. He’s a renaissance man, a homo rotundus, except he’s anything but: he’s skinny. He’ll probably be Prime Minister!
The debut album by YOUR TWENTIES is out this summer
