Interview: You Me At Six

It’s just after 5PM and Matt Barnes has been awake for 20 minutes, still in his bunk. Youthful laziness? Debauched hangover? Somewhere in between. His band, You Me at Six, has been busy touring America. “It’s been really good for us so far, the shows have been fun and we haven’t properly headlined the US before so it’s just great seeing so many people come out,” he animatedly tells me over the phone. “I really enjoy doing club tours.”

This smaller scale overseas is something Barnes takes to heart. “I’d say we’re pretty firmly established in the rock world in the UK, outside of that we’re definitely growing. In a wider sense, we’re still small fish but we have a lot of time to prove ourselves. We’ve got a lot more to give.” I enquire about how he feels about the response to new track ‘Lived A Lie’. “It accomplished what we wanted it to, it charted well and now it’s sandwiched between loads of shitty pop music that all sounds the same! It’s good to get some rock band from Surrey into the top 20 next to Rihanna, quite a cool accomplishment really.”

In contrast to the dark tone of You Me At Six’s last album, 2011’s Sinners Never Sleep, Barnes informs me that ‘Lived A Lie’ and new album Cavalier Youth represents the band transitioning into a “straight up rock” he compares to the likes of Foo Fighters. “Our producer, Neal Avron, definitely pushed up to do something different. We knew we had to up it and he helped us a long way, he’s recorded bands like Linkin’ Park and Fall Out Boy so we knew we had to up our shit. We’ve done a lot better and he pushed us to try new, better things. “

With this experimentation, and for a band that has for so long identified with a chiefly young, female audience, does he think his band has left their fanbase behind? Barnes is quick to respond. “I definitely think they’ve grown up with us, there are a lot of familiar faces that turn up to our concerts but luckily we still manage to draw new fans. It’s a lot of fun.”

As his band has a fair degree of clout, I ask Barnes which up-and-coming acts he recommends. “I really like our friends in Don Broco, Deaf Havana’s new album is amazing and I’m glad we’re able to give them attention when the industry or labels don’t. The new The 1975 album is great, we played shows with their old band years ago.” I ask him about the old days. Despite seeming perpetually fresh-faced, it’s easy to forget that You Me At Six have been around for nearly a decade. Any misty-eyed recollections? “We look back at the times we used to have when we’d have a day off and just get absolutely wasted for just 10 hours, roll up and down the bus doing roly-polies! Now we just wake up, have a few beers, go back to bed, get up again and back in the day, I don’t want to say it was more fun, but when you’re younger everything’s just much more fresh,” he remarks thoughtfully.

However, Barnes insists that You Me At Six always intend to move forward. “We never want to stop until we’ve made it, other bands reach a stage and they get happy, we’ll always continue, our music will change, until we’ve genuinely peaked.” Cavalier youth indeed.

You can catch You Me At Six (supporting 30 Seconds to Mars) at the Phones4U Arena on the 24h November whilst album ‘Cavalier Youth’ is out in January 2014.