Lo-fi rockers Yuck were one of last year’s top breakout bands. But Dan Blumberg tells Mark Tjhung why 2011 wasn’t all that easy

Dan Blumberg sounds a little displeased. It’s uncharacteristic for this softly spoken, amiable Londoner, but as he chats over the phone, for just a moment, it sounds like he’s waging a mini-war. On leaflets. “They keep putting these things in my door, every day. It’s really annoying. When I moved here, I got so much filler. I asked my neighbours what I should do, because I’m going to be away for a while,” says Blumberg, as he gestures a leaflet back to its pusher.

It might sound like a minor problem, but see it from Blumberg’s position. For the past year, he and his fellow Yuck comrades have been on the road, touring that little thing called the globe, and leaving him completely unable to deal with this ever-growing pile of take-out junk. All budding successful bands take note: this is what happens when, in the period of 12 short months, your young multinational band goes from mere hyped blogosphere hipsters to one of the most-lauded breakout bands of last year. Blumberg sounds helpless: “I don’t know what to do.”

As difficult a situation as it poses, you get the feeling he wouldn’t necessarily trade in his band’s success. Early last year, Yuck’s self-titled debut caught many by surprise, unleashing a dozen tracks of irrepressible guitar-driven indie pop and becoming a near-universal entrant on those ubiquitous end-of-year ‘best album’ lists, appropriately, giving the band the opportunity to tour much of the world. Appropriate, we reckon, because Yuck themselves are a pretty global band.

Three-quarters of the band is based in London now, but the members are from all around. Londoners Blumberg and schoolmate Max Bloom, who were both members of short-lived, semi-successful outfit Cajun Dance Party, started the band and later recruited bassist Mariko Doi (mandatory sexy bassist) and their American drummer, Jonny Rogoff, complete with his physics-defying hair. And to add an extra international spin to things, as the story goes, Blumberg initially met Rogoff in an Israeli kibbutz. “When I got [to the kibbutz], Jonny was there in an apron, serving iced tea,” he says. “He was working the kitchen. And we just got on.”

From there, Yuck plied their trade in the kind of lo-fi dressing reminiscent of the early 90s. In tracks like the fuzz-pop The Wall, stately Stutter, and languid album closer Rubber, fragments of Pavement, Teenage Fanclub and Yo La Tengo all pop out in a mélange of distortion and lilting beats, as do call-signs of the band Yuck is frequently compared to: Dinosaur Jr.

“I remember first hearing Dinosaur Jr. There’s a band in London who are one of my favourite bands called Video Nasties, and their drummer introduced me. He just sent me You’re Living All Over Me. I’d just got into Pavement before and, a few months earlier, he’d recommended Redhouse Painters, who are now one of my top five favourite bands.”

Indeed, in the past year, they’ve toured with many of their favourite names and idols including Lou Barlow & Co and Teenage Fanclub (“Teenage Fanclub were really lovely people and they lent us guitars because we didn’t have any spare”), as well as a list of their fellow next-big-things, such as Smith Westerns and Tame Impala. But as Blumberg confesses, it hasn’t all been about benevolent, generous gestures from legendary bands of the past.

“I think [touring] is a mixture – the excitement of starting a band, writing together and then going away for so long is a massive change. I found it very difficult – I write songs, and I get very frustrated when I don’t,” he says. “This month, we’re doing this cruise in Miami [with Weezer], this festival in Australia, and Hong Kong and Singapore. We’ll do a handful of things this year but we’re just going to concentrate on making music again.”

He’s excited to be writing again, he says, but it’s not something that resonates in his voice. When asked about the new Yuck tunes, what they’re sounding like and where the band’s headed, he’s rather hesitant. “I don’t know. It’s really exciting. I don’t really know,” he says, mumbling, perhaps avoiding the question. “I’m sure when it’s done, I can talk about it over and over again but, at the moment, I’m just enjoying it… I’m rubbish at talking about it.” Hopefully, they’ll drop us a leaflet when it’s done. 

Yuck play Hang Out on Thursday January 26. Tickets available here. 

Photo: Angel Ceballos