3 Is A Band: Young Empires
While listening to Young Empires‘ debut EP Wake All My Youth, I had to check once, twice and then again to make sure I read correctly: Young Empires do NOT come from Australia? The land of up-beat, positive and lush sounds? The land with a seemingly endless supply of joyful electro-pop bands? Think of whatever cool dream-pop band from Australia, and throw some from the UK in for good measure and then…
…are you thinking of a few? Well, a combination of them all might very well describe the sound of Young Empires. And now get ready for the real surprise: Young Empires hail from the far North – Toronto, Canada to be precise! They’re around since 2009, originally three band members, then four and now three again, because one of the original members has left the band since. By now, Matthew Vlahovich (vocals, keyboards), Jacob Palahnuk (bass), Taylor Hill (drums) are the ones who create the lush sound of Young Empires and they themselves summarize their sound as “world beat haute rock”.
Simply check for yourself, which label you’d put on. I still go with Cut Copy meets The Temper Trap meets St. Lucia, and now knowing they’re from Canada, I can even hear Arcade Fire at times – although in my ears Matthew Vlahovich’s voice is more charming than Win Butler’s.
I can honestly say, that I don’t have a favorite song of theirs, I love them all! If I am allowed to just pick one, I’d go with White Doves, for which you also find the video further down. Check out the band’s soundcloud page though for even more tracks than included here.
Young Empires are to be expected to play this year’s South By South West Music festival and I am looking forward to seeing them live. And snatch a few photos… there seem to be no current ones and overall, I got the impression that they seem to be happy with that. Fine with me. Let the music speak! To contradict this thought though, find here two official videos. Enjoy!
While White Droves is a bit more “rock” than “pop”, the next song brings out the whole joy and exuberance of Young Empires’ music:
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