Introducing: Restless Youth

Jazzy art-pop, alive and well in Leeds…

YOUR NAME: Theo Wakeling.
BAND NAME: Restless Youth.
WHAT DO YOU DO/PLAY?: We play art pop – blending spoken word lyricism with upbeat, catchy rhythms!
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER AS A BAND/PLAYING MUSIC? We’ve been playing together for about three and a half years now (!!), but only six-months in our current line-up as Emma (vocals/sax) and Elle (backing vocals/violin) joined us in July.

GIVE US 3 REASONS WHY WE SHOULD TRACK DOWN, LISTEN AND DISCOVER YOUR MUSIC?
1. You have never heard anything like it. I’m sure everyone says that about their band, but trust me. Love it or hate it, there’s something wholly unique and infectious about our music. Don’t trust me? Here’s a testimony from a random punter at one of our last shows: “Yous are kinda like The Streets right?? But… I don’t know… jazzier???”
2. We tell stories about our lives in Leeds, often based on characters we happen upon – like the guy selling questionably cheap tobacco in Hyde Park, or the kid who never left home and still looks like a stretched out version of their younger self.
3. It’s fun. Our gigs are fun, our music is fun – it’s catchy, intriguing and danceable. Plus our debut EP comes out very soon, so we’ll be doing all kinds of cool stuff to celebrate. It’s a good time to start listening!

WHERE DO YOU SOUND BEST – FESTIVAL, CLUB, BEDROOM – OR SOMEWHERE ELSE?
Festival!! We loooovvveee playing to new audiences – and I think we really feed off the buzz and energy of a festival environment. But, if I may say so myself, I reckon we sound pretty decent anywhere, whether that’s in your headphones, or in a cramped sweaty bar.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST…
RECORD? The others would probably have some cool chique answer to this (I’m picturing Devon, our keyboardist, offloading a story about happening across some obscure death-jazz-stomp record that changed his life), but I don’t think I’ve ever actually bought a record for myself (heresy I know!). I didn’t own a record player as a kid, so aside from flicking through my dad’s old peeling vinyls, I don’t have much experience here.
CD? I had some atrocious CDs as a kid though, that I used to play through an indestructible old walkman. I think among the first might have been Bruno Mars’ Doo-Woops and Hooligans (no offence Bruno, but it’s not exactly your best work).
DOWNLOAD? Okay this is much cooler because by the time I had my first iPod Nano at 12, I was developing my own taste. I had a huge reggae/ska/dub phase. And I mean huge – I could name pretty much every single reggae record of the 70s and 80s by the timbre of its opening drum fill. I think the first download would’ve been Damian Marley’s Welcome To Jamrock.

SO, WHEN IT ALL GOES RIGHT AND YOU’VE GOT A HUGE QUEUE OF HANGERS-ON AND A RIDICULOUS MANSION, WHAT WILL BE YOUR BIGGEST INDULGENCE, MUSICAL OR OTHERWISE?
I love trees. I’d probably buy up a load of land, reforest it, reintroduce native biodiversity and open it up to the public. But that’s a pretty boring answer so I should probably say something like get a toast-making robot. I can imagine Elle buying up the entirety of Lucy and Yak, and Jude (our drummer) building a home cinema to watch his obscure anime films on.

SO, WHEN IT ALL GOES WRONG AND YOU’VE ACRIMONIOUSLY BROKEN UP CITING HUGE MUSICAL DIFFERENCES, WHAT DO YOU FALL BACK ON?
I make a pretty mean stir fry.

CITE SOME INTER-BAND MUSICAL DIFFERENCES…
Oh God. Where to start. I’m hoping that when I send the others this article they won’t read this far. The main one is probably a philosophical debate about whether it’s better to play ultra-weird spoken space-jazz to a small cult of fans, or whether to make the music more accessible by losing some of the space-jazz in order to reach a wider audience. I think Devon probably wants us to be more like Akira Ishikawa, and I probably want us to be more like The Beatles. Never heard of Akira Ishikawa? Yep, that’s probably my argument. Your Nan knits to ‘Yellow Submarine’? Yep, that’s probably his argument.

WHO ARE YORKSHIRE’S FINEST IN CULTURE, SPORT AND MUSIC?
I have to shout out some of our incredibly talented friends on the Leeds scene – Marnie Glum, Eleanor Joy, The Sound of Modesty to name but a few. There’s so many great artists here.

NAME YOUR SUPERGROUP:
I don’t even know. Akira Ishikawa featuring The Beatles?

GO SEE THIS FILM: The Banshees of Inisherin.
GO READ THIS BOOK: A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini).
GREAT LOST BAND/ARTIST: Dizraeli. I am obsessed with Dizraeli.
WOULDN’T BE CAUGHT DEAD SUPPORTING: Coldplay. I detest Coldplay. I don’t actually know how it is possible to be as mediocre as Coldplay. P.S – Coldplay if you see this I’m sorry, please ask us to support you and make us famous xx
LONDON, L.A OR LEEDS?: Leeds. Big up.

AND FINALLY… AS YOU LEAVE THE STAGE, WHAT ARE YOUR PARTING WORDS?
I always want it to be something profound and memorable – but it usually ends up sounding like “thank you so much for coming out I love you we love you it really means a lot to us get home safe you really brought the energy go follow Restless Youth on insta and keep streaming lots of love okay thanks bye”.

Restless Youth release their debut EP ‘No One Talks Like That’ on February 19
For more info visit: instagram.com/restlessyouthmusic