Get to know youproblem, a fresh up and coming Sydney duo who this week have dropped their cute debut single ‘Wasting Time’.
We’ve been warned that this is just the first in a succession of fresh new music that will be coming our way throughout the course of 2022 – and beyond.
But who ARE youproblem? How did they get to here? And what are their plans for world domination?
Scratch the surface and do a deep dive with youproblem!
01. Band name : youproblem.
02. Where are you based? Sydney, Australia.
03. Who are your members? Alistair Hayes and Alana Patmore.
04. And what role do they play in the band? We like to mix it up, but primarily Alana writes the stories and Alistair underscores them. We both sing and play instruments, but Alana is the main singer and Alistair is the main instrumentalist.
05. How did you choose your band name? It was a phrase that we had been saying religiously for like a month straight. In context, “That sounds like a youproblem”. We were stuck on a band name for agessss, but eventually we realised that maybe we were… the you problem…
06. Give us five words to best describe the band. We are cute, chaotic, passionate, annoying, (with) problems. :)
07. How was the band formed? OK SO we’ve technically known each other since year three but haven’t really intersected that much. We were actually each other’s first writing session way back in 2014. The song we wrote was absolute garbage, but every now and then Alistair would share the lyric note we wrote and remind us of that song.
Years later, after we both grew in our own musical pursuits, we decided to try writing again. We bonded over the french band Phoenix, wrote a song just straight up ripping them off it and the rest is history. Our sound has developed heaps since then, and we’re excited to show it.
08. Tell us a little bit about your sound. We’re indie pop rock lovers at heart, but covered in an angsty, alternative coating. We love trying to balance that bubbly pop vibe, with some darker undertones – like happy production with heavier lyrics.
We slip right into that feeling of when someone kinda pisses you off, but you still like them anyway. We try to be weird and creative with the sound design; e.g. Alistair sampled a toy piano he had for a whole bunch of our songs.
09. If you had to compare yourselves to an already established act sound-wise, who would it be? We would *humbly* say COIN. They’re often an influence whenever we write.
10. What are your members’ favourite songs of all time? That’s so hard cos we both change our minds all the time, but for you we’ll try to pick one 😉 .
Alana’s is ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell just because it is a wonderfully written song with a beautiful concept, and Alistair’s is ‘blind’ by ROLE MODEL ‘cause it bops.
11. Which song from history do you all wish you’d written? ‘Lisztomania’ by Phoenix. ORRRR ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC. Like, it’s not our vibe at all, but the way that song builds is unparalleled. Short fast stuff, random plucky things, big stabs with the whole band, then an explosion of a chorus. As if it’d be anything else. But yeah I guess we gotta go with ‘Lisztomania’… it’s pretty cool too.
12. What’s been the biggest highlight of your band’s journey so far? FINALLY releasing our debut single! It’s been a long time coming and we are bursting at the seams with music to share. It feels so good to finally get the ball rolling.
13. What’s been your strangest experience as a band? Realising how crazy in sync our melody choices are. Often one of us will sing a melody that the other person was already thinking, and it’s happened a few times where we’ve sung the same ideas at the same times. We’ve also fallen down the stairs together once, so that too.
14. Who’s your most passionate groupie? Shelley (Alana’s mum). She’s the ‘put the song on repeat’, ‘make all her friends listen and follow’, ‘tell randoms at bus stops her daughter is a musician’ kinda groupie.
15. Are you hotel trashers, cup of tea drinkers or somewhere in between? We’re fun hotel trashers, but the ones who clean up the next morning, still show up to work, and then wonder why we’re tired all the time.
16. If you could score the support slot for any act, who would you choose? Holly Humberstone. We love everything about her.
17. Tell us about your debut release. ‘Wasting Time’ is an ode to all the time and sacrifices you make when you’re young, dumb, and in love. It’s about that obsession with someone that makes everything else seem like it doesn’t matter.
On the surface it seems like a happy, plucky, pop song but when I was writing the lyrics, I was trying to capture that stage where you feel secure in someone but you’re really just infatuated and undercutting yourself in the future.
When we were first starting to write together, we decided to write 20 songs before we picked which ones to release. ‘Wasting Time’ was song 16. We ALSO completely reproduced it so it actually sounds really different from the original. It’s the first of many and we’re genuinely so excited for this year.
18. What do your plans for global superstardom involve? Constantly releasing music until we drown out every other musician and monopolise the market. Also tying in visuals with our sound is super important to us (music videos coming soon xx). We’re just gonna try until we make it, no backup plan.
19. Where can our audience catch you live? We’ve just started getting our live set together, so nothing in the books just yet, but we’ll be coming atcha real soon!
WEBSITE : https://koji.to/youproblem
FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/youprobs
INSTAGRAM : https://www.instagram.com/youprobs_
TWITTER : https://twitter.com/youprobs_
SOUNDCLOUD : https://soundcloud.com/youprobs
YOUTUBE : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAWRl93GtehGFBM29vIf7FA
Australia's first stop for pop!