Yard Of Blondes
New album “Feed The Moon”
Release date: May 19th 2021
Label: Secret Pole Dance Music
Written By: Vincent Walter Jacob and Billy Graziadei
« Feed the Moon »
the cursed album that was almost shelved
Mental health problems, financial struggle, multiple line-up changes and a pandemic are part of a series of events that almost prevented Feed the moon, Yard Of Blondes’ debut album, to come to light.
Facing many difficulties for more than 8 years, the band almost dissolved but the two founders of the band, Vincent Jacob (Vocals/Guitar) and Fanny Hill (Bass/Vocals) didn’t give up. They managed to keep the band alive during the wildest storms for one very good reason, they had each other. Married since 2012, they started the band as a folky duet in Los Angeles where they recorded a couple of EPs. Everything was great and the band was growing into a full band, forging their unique combination of heavy music and heavenly harmonies. In 2013, they released the acclaimed EP Murderology that took them from the most iconic stages of California (Whisky a gogo, Troubadour, Viper Room) to the roads of their home country, France.
In 2013, they were ready to write and record new music and they met Billy Graziadei, the founder and guitar player of hardcore New York legends Biohazard. Graziadei, now located in California, runs Firewater Studios. Yard Of Blondes wanted to do things differently for their first album, they wanted to really produce it and arrange it with someone who had the experience, someone who could bring their sound to the next level, allowing the band to get heavier without losing their melodic strength. As production mattered less and less in the new digital era, they wanted to do things the old school way, trying to emulate the icons of the past decades who influenced them.
But as they started writing the first demos, two band members left the band, leaving Jacob and Hill as a duet once again. Another struggle soon became a serious obstacle, they didn’t have the money to book the studios for weeks. They only could record once in a while, and work in order to save some money to pay for the next session. Billy Graziadei made things easier for the band and he came up with a plan. He would make the rates cheaper if the band could sneak in between booked sessions by other artists. Yard Of Blondes would come to the studio whenever a band cancelled or whenever the studio was free. As a result, it took Yard Of Blondes four years to rearrange and produce the album with Billy Graziadei.
The result is really up to the expectations Vincent and Fanny set when they first gathered with Billy. It actually goes beyond. Vincent says Billy gave those songs the dynamic push they needed. A lot of people don’t know it but Billy is also a classically trained musician and he brought some of his harmonic skills to the table and helped Vincent fulfill his Beatlesque dreams regarding the vocals.
Track list :
1 - Do you need more 3’57
2 - Murderology 3’28
3 - Lowland 3’34
4 - You and I & I 3’34
5 - Monomoria 3’46
6 - U drive me crazy 3’19
7 - 1994 4’11
8 - Hummingbird 3’04
9 - Evil Twins 3’36
10- Teenage Dreams 3’35 NEW RELEASE
11 - Whispers 3’16
12 - Because you’re the river 4’07
The emerging French/Californian rock band YARD OF BLONDES is composed of Vincent Jacob (vocals/guitar), Fanny Hill (bass/vocals), Burak Yerebakan (guitar) and Forrest Mitchell (drums/vocals).
With their female bassist, their raw energy and influences we can’t help but being reminded of bands such as Sonic Youth, the Pixies and the Smashing Pumpkins.
Yard Of Blondes released 4 EP’s since 2011, was featured along with Eric Burdon (The Animals) and Victoria Williams on the Hi-Desert compilation «Highway 62 Love Songs», and were remarked in 2013 by Rodney Bingenheimer, legendary KROQ DJ, who began playing their track Murderology on his show. He was then imitated by more than 100 international radio stations (KCRW, Kerrang!, Doble Nueve…). In 2014 French National TV France4 broadcasted the one-hour documentary «Joshua Trip» about the band and in 2016 the band was featured on the compilation «I love you all the time» along with Eagles Of Death Metal, Florence & The Machine, Kings Of Leon, JimmyEat World and many more. All the proceeds were given to the victims of the Paris attacks.
In the summer of 2019, Yard Of Blondes released their first original bilingual song, «Je veux danser tout l’été». The song was remixed by French superstar DJ & producer, Joachim Garraud (David Bowie, Beyonce, David Guetta). The track stayed in rotation on National TV channel C-Star (France) and Reelz (USA) for several months.
In the fall of 2019, the band released « You and I & I », the 1st single off upcoming album «Feed The Moon». The song and the video were well received, especially in the USA, France and Latin America.
« Heavy, dark, edgy and reminiscent of the 90’s rock : with its detuned guitars, haunting vocals and thumping rhythm section, Yard Of Blondes ‘You and I & I’ is the new alternative rock from the land of grunge. »
In February 2020, the 2nd single « Lowland » came out and the band continued its ascension : The song reached #1 of USA Underground College Radio charts in May 2020.
In April 2020, Yard Of Blondes signed with the labels DIE LAUGHING RECORDS (California) and GOLDEN ROBOTS (Australia) and released a live EP : « Close to Home ».
The 3rd single of the album followed in October 2020 : « Do you need more? ». It was noticed by Spotify and landed on major editorial playlists « Music Friday », « French Noise », « Frog N roll » and « All New Rock » along with Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Nothing but Thieves and many more. The song reached 50K+ streams in 2 months.
But this was their last release with Die laughing records and Golden Robot. Almost a year after the beginning of the pandemic the band had to part ways with the labels.
« With the pandemic hitting harder than anybody could expect, they couldn’t offer us what we needed from them, which was, at this point, financial support and more exposure. And the album was being delayed again and again, we couldn’t stand it anymore. It was heartbreaking but we decided to reclaim our freedom. Fanny learned how to promote the band along the way. She is now a seasoned and experienced PR and she is really the one getting our music heard around the world. It’s a hard decision, but we can’t keep waiting on others and we need to really take our destiny in our hands. » —Vincent
100% independent again, Fanny and Vincent proudly released the 4th single off the album, « Hummingbird », in February 2021 and confirmed their status as an emerging act that matters.
All 4 songs have been continuously played on hundreds of radio stations worldwide, acceding new territories with major stations airplay in Japan.
The album « Feed The Moon » was produced by Billy Graziadei (from Biohazard) mixed by Mike Patterson (Nine Inch Nails, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Beck..), and mastered by Maor Applebaum (Faith No More).
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