YOURS TRULY // On Their New EP, Touring And More

It’s been a meteoric few years for Yours Truly. Since the release of their debut LP, Self Care, they’ve nabbed an ARIA nomination, toured around the globe, and done their best to tour here too (thanks, Covid!).

MORE: SUNK LOTO: No More Anxiety // STEEL PANTHER: Bringing The Debauchery Down Under REVIEWS: RAISED AS WOLVES: Nervous Feelings // THORNHILL: Heroine // ALEXISONFIRE: Otherness // GREY DAZE: The Phoenix // JOYCE MANOR: 40 Oz. To Fresno // STAND ATLANTIC: F.E.A.R // TERROR PARADE: Revolution // YOURS TRULY: is this what i look like? // OUTRIGHT: Keep You Warm

And now, their star is only set to rise higher with their latest EP, is this what i look like?

We caught up with frontwoman Mikaila Delgado for a chat about how it came together and more.

Hysteria: Take us into your minds when you first started thinking about is this what i look like? With everything going on in the world, how’d you find the motivation?

Mikaila: I think a lot of it was being excited to be back together again. We had spent some time apart, and I struggled with that because I pretty much lived with them. We were always together, and we would do everything together. And all of a sudden, I went from seeing my best friends, like five days out of seven, to not seeing them for five months. So being able to be together again, write these songs and talk about the things I had experienced whilst isolated inspired us.

Also, we put no pressure on ourselves, which we tend to do. That lack of pressure allowed us to do things for the lols. We put parts into songs thinking they were funny, and we’d delete them later, but then we ended up thinking they were cool. It was a really fun experience. And it was the first time that we’d had fun in a very long time.

We heard the original plan was to make this a three-tracker called Self Sabotage. How’d it end up becoming what it did?

The more that we wrote, and the more that we loved it, it just didn’t feel like it belonged in the world of Self Care lyrically or musically. We kept writing and writing, and we couldn’t pick three tracks. We went to UNFD, asking them to scrap Self Sabotage and do a whole new thing. And they were like, okay. We said just trust us; we’ve written some songs. We felt like taking the pressure away and not trying to create something particular almost allowed us to find what we wanted our band to sound like and who we were at the time. And it felt like it deserved to be more than just a companion piece.

As much as writing music is for us, it’s also for the people that want to listen to it. I’m interested to see what direction people like because this EP is very mixed and has many different styles.
[ Mikaila Delgado, Yours Truly ]

That makes total sense. So going off your earlier points, do you have any advice for artists that might’ve gone through similar experiences with COVID and are not sure where to go next?

There’s a lot of pressure on artists to constantly be creating. I think creativity is not something that you can force. I’ve discovered the more pressure I put on myself, the harder it is. We’re in such a fast-paced world where there’s so much music coming out. There are so many videos coming out, and everything’s happening so quickly now because everyone’s trying to be in everyone’s faces. But, I think the past couple of months have shown that art and detail are pushing through. People are getting sick of fast art that doesn’t stick with you for a long time. I think creators feel like they’ll never get there, but I’d say put all the effort into your art because it will pay off.

Yeah, it’s like that flavour of the month thing. Then you get sick of it because it’s got no substance.

Exactly. I don’t think you’ve seen an artist that’s been successful for a long time or has kept that longevity by being the flavour of the month. Creating art that lasts is important. It takes time; it doesn’t happen overnight. And I feel like people are very quick to beat themselves up over it not happening overnight.

Not to compare it to ourselves, but we put High Hopes out a couple of years ago, and half of the streams on it came in the last year. Even though that song was really good for us initially. Sometimes it just takes time for people to find things.

Working with Josh from You Me At Six and Drew from Stray From The Path must’ve been such an incredible experience. Tell us about how those collabs came together.

They were both easy situations. Drew posted something online, saying who wants to collab. I said me, and he said send me something, and it was that easy. He sent me a demo the next day, tracked it the day after, and then it was done. I was just like, you’re absolutely unreal.

Josh, we asked, and we didn’t think it was going to actually happen. But he said yes and that he liked the song. It’s cool when a band you like, one you really look up to in the scene, likes your music. I was working with him while I was in the UK last year. I watched him track the song I wrote, which was crazy. He wrote his parts. I’m a huge You Me At Six fan, so it’s wild that we asked, and it happened.

Give us some standout moments from your recent shows and festival appearances.

Slam Dunk was my favourite part. And we were on tour with Against the Current. When we started Yours Truly, I was listening to their song Gravity, and I showed Teddie (Winder-Haron, guitarist) saying we should write a song like that, and now we’ve toured with them. I told their vocalist, Chrissy Costanza, that story, and she was like that’s so nice. They were such nice people too.

We were doing some things here and there around the UK, and then Josh asked if we wanted to play the You Me At Six 10th anniversary show the day of it. We were practising for Slam Dunk, and we had two hours to get to Leeds, and we ended up getting this 200-pound taxi to another city. We literally played Hallucinate for the first time, supporting You Me At Six, which was absolutely crazy.

And with Slam Dunk, I remember going on stage and just seeing the number of people that were there, that knew our songs. I thought – we’d been in the UK for about three months, playing shows non-stop, and it paid off. Seeing people that were there for us, knowing our songs, wearing the merch that we were selling while we were in the UK, so they’d seen us before. It just felt really nice. Like we’d done something right.

What’s next for Yours Truly’s sound?

We’re still figuring it out. This EP was interesting because of that lack of pressure. We created songs that we didn’t think we would have. As much as writing music is for us, it’s also for the people that want to listen to it. I’m interested to see what direction people like because this EP is very mixed and has many different styles. Some songs are poppy; some songs are darker. So I’m interested to see what people like because it’s definitely going to help us navigate where we go next.