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Written by Demi Marshall
Chicago-based alt/punk band Team Yoko recently dropped their first single "30 Days." Featuring the talents of Ryan Morris (vocals), Patrick Smith (guitar), Matt Legrand (bass), and Jeremiah De La Pena (drums), the band injects a storytelling flair into their music. Team Yoko's debut EP releases in 2024 exclusively from Oakley Avenue Records. In this interview, the band discusses their debut single, creative process, and experience breaking into the Chicago music scene.
Tell us about your first single release "30 Days." What inspired this song? Was there anything unique about the creative process?
Our first single is a post-punk amalgamation of early 2000s New York rock and classic 70s punk. After writing sad and somber (and often boring, if I’m being honest) acoustic tracks for years, writing a rock track in the vein of my favorite music/artists was really invigorating. Instead of writing the song on an acoustic guitar, this song and all of our other tracks were written on the bass guitar and then built up from there. Starting with the bass felt natural and provided an opportunity to establish a strong groove for the track while layering in melody and structure.
How would you describe your current sound?
Our current sound is somewhere between post-punk and classic rock from the late 70s and early 80s.
What does your process look like when writing/creating music?
It starts with recording bass, adlibing lyrics and melody until something interesting starts to take shape, and then creating a full demo. For the demos, I attempt to make them sound as polished and complete as possible before tracking live drums and completely overhauling the entire production. It’s definitely a lot of extra work, but it
gives me the best understanding of how to shape the song/production into something
worth listening to.
Tell us about your experience with the Chicago music scene. How would you
describe it? What are the best parts about it?
I moved here from Nashville, TN, where I was heavily involved in the DIY scene. I lived in and hosted shows at the last DIY venue in Nashville (most had been shut down by 2018), but then moved to Chicago after my studio/home venue was purchased and torn down to build AirBnbs haha. So restarting in Chicago without knowing any other musicians, producers, bands, etc, was very intimidating at first. But fortunately, I fell in with the right people and have found the scene here to be much more supportive, collaborative, and wonderfully eccentric.
What was the most memorable show you’ve played, and what was great about it?
We’ve only had 2 so far - the first was a bit of a warm-up. We played on our friend’s back deck, to other friends. At the time, we only had 5 songs, and since our songs were about 2 minutes each, it made for a quick experience, haha. Recently, we played at our first venue (Bottom Lounge), expanded the set to about 20 minutes (hard to lengthen a set with punk songs, haha), and brought on a saxophone player to fill out the sound. The best part for me was watching people already know the words - I’ve sent the demos around, so it was amazing to see that the lyrics actually stuck in some people’s heads (and that they listened to them more than once!)
Do you have any pre-show rituals? How do you relax or celebrate after a live show?
So far, we don’t - this last show, I just shouted ‘TEAM YOKO’ at my bandmates and was surprised to see how excited they were to perform :] so maybe that’ll stick.
If you could get any artists to tour with you, dead or alive, who would be on the bill?
I’m a huge fan of the Strokes, Interpol, and the Hold Steady, so opening up for any of those bands would be a dream come true. Also, a band called Viagra Boys is a newer obsession of mine - hearing their album Cave World is what inspired me to put this band together, so touring with them would make everything come full circle.
What artists did you grow up listening to? Do they influence your music today, or did you branch to different styles?
I grew up listening to 80s rock like Springsteen, Journey, Phil Collins - as much as I tried to distance myself from it as I got older, I find some of their writing styles, production styles, etc, creeping into what I make. I still listen to a lot of 80s rock, albeit less of the arena groups that were around at the time. The Smiths is definitely a big influence, so I guess I haven’t distanced myself too far from what I grew up listening to.
What is your favorite venue to play and why? What is one venue you dream of
playing one day?
So far, I loved playing in my friend's backyard on her deck! Haha. I’ve always loved house shows, so I’ll play as many of those as I can. A dream venue would probably be Salt Shed, but honestly, I’m happy with any venue so long as the audience has a good time.
What can we expect from you in the future?
Lots of music! 7 songs have been demoed so far, with lots more in the writing stage. So expect a new single to come out every 6-8 weeks. Odds are you’ll like at least one of them!
Keep up with Team Yoko:
Stream 30 Days: