Youth Group On New Album “Big Whoop”

Twenty years on from the recording of their ARIA number 1 single Forever Young, beloved Sydney band
Youth Group have released new album Big Whoop via Impressed Recordings in conjunction with Cassell Records. The record Big Whoop combines this familiar Youth Group magic with some new explorations into a more dance rock feel as previewed on the 2024 single Siberia with journeys into a dark synth and beats world with long time friend and producer Wayne Connolly. It’s a fresh approach for Youth Group and some say, their best record yet. Toby Martin tells Hi Fi Way more about the album.

Definitely exciting times for album number six!
It feels pretty good. The release of this record really snuck up in a way. I don’t know why. It’s great. I I’ve done six albums now! We’re getting a good list. It’s good to see them all laid out.

It must be really good being in Youth Group these days because you don’t have the pressure to be a certain type of band, you can go about it the way that you want, make the music that you want, and whatever else happens on top of that is a bonus?
Yeah, it’s like in the mid-2000s, that period is like Youth Group was, for me anyway, it was THE thing in my life. It was my job, it was my all my thoughts and feelings, and my dreams were channelled into that band. That was intense. I mean, it was great, but it’s different now.

We all have other musical projects, not just Youth Group. We all have other jobs, and other things we do in our lives. We’ve all got children and partners, families. Youth Group is now one of the things that we do. But that’s good, I don’t mind that. I quite like it. It means that I really value it for what it is, as being something that’s quite special in my life when the four of us play music together. That is its own special thing. It’s not like I could just go and form another band and play these songs. Being a little older, and having a bit more space around it, it’s like wow, we love it.

Did you approach this album any differently?
No, I forced myself to write. Very unromantic! Our timetable now is often based around Danny, who plays drums in Youth Group, lives in America, so now the timetable’s based around when he’s back in the country. A couple years ago, he had to come back for a Youth Group show, and I was like, well, can’t just come back for a gig, we’ve got to do something, so we should record another album.

It was just a small issue of not having any songs. I just really locked myself away for a few days, and wrote half the songs on the record. That’s how I work these days, I just have to force myself to do it. Not that it’s a chore, but it’s just very easy for other things to get in the way, so I did that. There’s a couple of songs on the record which Cameron, who plays guitar, and I wrote together, which we’ve sort of tinkered away with over the last couple of years. So he writes musical stuff, and I add the lyrics.

Then there’s another couple of songs on the record, Siberia and When I Was, which are actually completely different, which I wrote with my friend who’s an electronic dance music producer called Ming who is based in New York, and we wrote heaps of songs together in 2013. Almost ten years ago we did this, and they’ve never seen the light of day. I just thought Youth Group were talking about doing something that was a bit more dance music orientated, so these songs really work, so we kind of Youth Group‑ised them.

When you’re sort of forcing yourself to write, do you kind of worry about what might come out, or still not actually having any ideas come out at all?
It’s weird. I’ve been doing it for so long, but every time I think, okay, okay, this is a writing morning, or I’ve set a few days aside to write. I’m like, what if I don’t know how I do it. What if nothing happens? It always works out. It’s just one of those things, when you start doing, you suddenly remember that’s how it works. When you try and imagine how it works in your head, it’s like, I just don’t know how that works. I don’t know how I can do that.

Sonically, how would you compare Big Whoop to the last couple of albums that Youth Group have done?
It’s pretty different. As I was saying, it’s got this quite strong dance music flavour. So, it’s got the backpacks and the fluoro glow sticks out for this record. There’s live drums in every song, but there’s also quite a lot of looped drums, sampled drums, a lot of synthesizer… more of a dance music aesthetic, I guess. It’s probably our loosest record in terms of tempos and flow and that kind of thing.

Was it always in your mind that it would have a bit more of a dance sort of flavour to it, or did it evolve that way?
Sort of emerges over time. I’m not sure where the idea comes from. It came from my working with Ming, but we’ve always loved that kind of New Order, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses era of English music, and I lived just near Manchester for four years recently. I think getting into bands from England like Working Men’s Club, Sleaford Mods, and kind of stuff that which we just kind of leaned into.

What was the feeling like amongst the band as the album started to take shape?
There’s always a moment with that stuff, when you feel like it’s all clicking. I think for me I could tell you with every album, the moment when I go, okay… it’s got something. I think for me, it’s probably mixing Siberia, I reckon. Hearing that come together as a mix, we kind of knew it would be the first single, and that was very cool.

2025 was the twentieth anniversary of break through single Forever Young, are you surprised with longevity of that song and how it connecting new people with Youth Group?
I love it. It’s very surprising it keeps on keeping on and popping up in different kinds of ways. Every few months, there’ll be some interesting request or interesting ideas someone’s got for the song, or want to use it in something. Yeah, it is kind of amazing. It’s got so many resonances. I mean, it got used a lot in funerals, which is sad. But a lot of people write to us about that. It got used in graduations, Year Twelve or Year Six graduations as well, like Good Riddance (Times Of Our Lives) by Green Day. It’s got this complete life of its own and I really love that. I didn’t at the time, when we recorded it, when it first came out, I was fairly annoyed by its immense popularity compared to our other songs. But now it is its own beast. We really don’t have very much to do with it, so we’re happy to be the vehicle of it.

Are there any special plans to celebrate that?
We’re trying to put together a few shows around the middle of next year and we do have some fun things planned for the twentieth anniversary for everyone, but I cannot divulge yet. I’m sure we’ll make another record as well. There’s already a couple of new songs floating around, so we’ll keep on rockin’ it.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Big Whoop is out now via Impressed Recordings. Purchase HERE…