noyou
A Profile
During this current environment of Lockdowns and Social Distancing, many bands have found themselves getting to grips with home recording and self production, each to varying degrees of success. For one Pop-Rock band in the North-East though, rather than the closing of studios being a kill switch to their creativity, noyou have hit the ground running due to their own personal choice to self record and produce even before it was cool, and the results speak for themselves.
But who are noyou? Why did they make this choice? Well, lets go back to the beginning….
“….I started off in a proper death metal, heavy metal band, and honestly we were pretty successful within reason, we even toured round Europe, but eventually I reached sort of twenty-two and was thinking I can’t keep going with the fast, screamy stuff, but then fortunately the band sort of came to a natural end and we all moved on to new things….” Connor Jobes
So, seeing the opportunity to branch out into otherwise undisturbed waters of creativity, Connor began to write and record multiple songs by himself.
“….I’d sort of started writing songs for myself around that time, and didn’t strictly stick to one specific genre, like one might be a bit of Dark Electronica, another might be more straight Rock, I just went with whatever came to me at the time….” Connor
As he moved into 2017, his catalogue of songs had grown and so he invited a few friends along to have a go at creating a band to perform them with
“….we did get together and we had a go at some of the songs but we found it just wasn’t working properly, so we went back to the drawing board….again, I never really had a direction for our sound, I just wanted the vibe and outcome to be natural, no matter what it sounded like genre wise…” Connor
Undeterred, Connor and what would later become the founding members of noyou kept going and eventually began to find a style that they could work with together.
“….Frankly, there are no ego’s in the band, we’re all pretty open and honest with each other, because at the end of the day they’re in the band for a reason, because I like what they bring to the table, so it means we all have an equal say in what we write and do to be honest, and it works….” Connor
Their sound locked in, songs rehearsed, the band took to the stage and. Began to announce themselves to the Sunderland music scene, eventually.
“….From the time we sort of got the set sorted out and completed the band, it took us about three months to get our first gig, and honestly its just that it seems difficult to break into a music scene as a new band because people don’t know what you sound like, and some are a bit more hesitant to book you in, but we eventually got our first gig and things just seemed to be looking up from there….” Connor
However, with only four gigs under their belts and a musical engine that had only just begun to warm up, venues closed and the bands live outings were brought sharply to a close. Luckily this hasn’t meant that the band placed it in neutral and just bided their time. Instead they forged ahead with a project kicked off back in January this year.
“….At the start of the year I’d decided to set myself and the band the challenge of writing and recording one song a month for a year, and so far we’d self produced a few of those tracks already, so when lockdown hit, it didn’t really change too much in the way we worked….It meant that there were a few more files to deal with and a bit more co ordination, but honestly we just feel like the whole thing is helping us to create better, self produced music….” Connor
Not all the tracks had been self produced, several of the earlier tracks from the end of 2019 and the first release in January, had been studio productions recorded in London but the whole thing turned out to be the wrong fit
“….We had a great time recording in the studio, it was a friend from London so he did give us a good price and we were happy with the tracks, but frankly with the amount of songs we had, we just didn’t have enough money to match the cost of recording them all, so we decided to take the job on ourselves, its not always been great, but as the months go on I feel things getting easier and becoming second nature when producing and recording, so it worked out for the best really….” Connor
So we come to July 30th 2929 and the release of their seventh track ‘We’re So Sorry’ and stated at the opening of this piece, the results just speak for themselves. In listening to the track there is very little to distinguish it from a studio recording and it is clear that as time has gone on Connor has definitely taken the best of everything he has learned and is applying it to each track he produces. At the end of it all, noyou are one of those bands that have adapted well to the changes in the music industry and still have so much more to give.
“….its a journey at the end of the day, and for me, that journey will never stop….” Connor
- Hear Connor talk about their new single on Friday’s Barstool Airplay!
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