In the music world, there’s a little known saying: “The band that stays away from each other as much as possible, stays together.” Okay, we made that up, but it’s working wonders for Young Wonder, a Cork two-piece that have specialised in celestial pop since 2012 and realise that two can often be a crowd.
“I write better when I’m on my own,” says singer Rachel Koeman, who weaves melodies and lyrics over the soundscapes Ian Ring sends her. “I have the space to think things through on my own. If there’s someone else there, it’s a pressure almost to come up with something. If I’m on my own, that’s a completely different space altogether. It’s where I’m most creative. I think Ian understands that and respects that. And I respect Ian’s space when he needs it.”
It’s the old Morrissey and Marr method that worked so well for The Smiths, updated for the information age in that they don’t even have to call around to each other’s gaffs with bags of tapes or lyric sheets. Although, The Smiths didn’t last terribly long... Luckily, Koeman and Ring are enjoying a much more harmonious relationship than those Manc legends. Johnny Marr once reflected on a beautiful piece of music he’d written and how, when his singer got his hands on it, the glorious, lilting guitar part was transformed into ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’. Koeman hasn’t given her colleague similar cause for concern.
“No, and I’ve never really been like that with him. There has been the odd time when I’ve been like ‘Okay, I’m not feeling this’. But again, there always is a real respect thing... We’re lucky it’s just the two of us. It makes things less complicated.”
It’s also made their debut album, Birth, an effortless sounding affair. Released in May with the pair “launching it everywhere” since then (yes, by playing in the same room), it is a collection of sophisticated pop songs that hang together immaculately. You can add “time” alongside “space” in the list of ingredients Young Wonder find essential in creation. Birth was pieced together over two considered years, but there were very few labour pains. Koeman felt patience was the key to making good on their early promise.
“We had seen a few bands who’d released a few singles and got a buzz about them. When they went away to write an album, obviously it was on their and their label’s minds that they needed to get it out fast. Or else the buzz would die down and it wasn’t going to do as well. Then when they released the album, it wasn’t as strong as the stuff they previously released. We just took our time and crafted our songs. With the lyrics, I had no problem sitting there for a few days and thinking about things.”
It tells in how layered the songs are, as the band pull off that great pop trick of lacing upbeat- sounding melodies with darker themes. Matters of life, death and loss are all tackled on Birth.
“I work in a nursing home, so I see a lot of those things. You write about what you know. I read a lot about loss and I’m really interested in psychology. But yeah, Ian is always mocking me about that! The music is really upbeat, sunny, ‘la la la!’ and then when you listen to the lyrics it’s like: DEATH. LOSS.”
The track ‘Hear Our Cry’, which features Kanye West collaborator Marcè Reazon, is about finding light in the darkest of situations.
“We started talking to Marcè on Twitter. We were listening to his raps and thinking ‘wouldn’t it sound unreal to have him rap on a Young Wonder track?’ So I wrote the song ‘Hear Our Cry’ and Marcè did his thing on top of it. It’s the coolest track ever. It’s our gangster song.”
A gangster song that deals with the horrors of World War II concentration camps.
“I was watching a lot of Nazi documentaries at home,” Koeman says of its inspiration. What really stuck with her was one Holocaust survivor recalling being loaded on to the back of a lorry for transportation and, most significantly, what he saw when he looked to the heavens. “There was this massive cherry blossom tree over the lorry. Something so beautiful, to do with growth and life, in a place that is so opposite to that.”
“We’ve always wanted to write great pop songs,” Koeman concludes. “But more than that, we wanted to write something people can relate to. An amazing sound that also really gets to you is such a powerful thing.”