Yours Truly Graduate From Pop-Punk to Become Who They Want To Be

Yours Truly’s fresh-from-the-oven EP, Is This What I Look Like?, is a musical metamorphosis for the Sydney pop-punk favourites.

The seven-track offering, which follows on from the band’s 2020 debut album, Self Care, is kind of like Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban. It’s the third chapter in our main characters’ journey. There are some blockbuster cameos (Stray From The Path’s Drew York and You Me At Six’s Josh Franceschi to be exact). It’s darker, it’s grittier, it’s moodier. But the magic is still just as potent.

Yours Truly – ‘Careless Kind’

Is This What I Look Like? sees Yours Truly expand their sonic universe with brand new influences, from the serrated-edge arena rock of Bring Me The Horizon to the dance-ready pop rock of The 1975. Lyrically, lead vocalist Mikaila Delgado tackles darker themes, pouring all of the uncertainty, anxiety and loneliness of the Covid era onto her lyric sheet. It’s the sound of a band who aren’t afraid to take risks, who refuse to be pigeon-holed, and who are ready to take on the world.

Yours Truly have certainly wasted no time in doing just that. The Sydney band have performed at two of the year’s biggest rock festivals: UNIFY Gathering in regional Victoria and Download Festival in the UK. And now, after wrapping up a brief east coast acoustic tour to mark the EP’s arrival, the band are packing their bags for another overseas adventure.

This time, they’re supporting metalcore titans I Prevail on their North American tour throughout September and October. It’s the latest in a sequence of milestones for Delgado and her band mates Teddie Winder-Haron, Lachlan Cronin and Bradley Cronan.

Despite this choc-a-bloc touring schedule, Music Feeds was lucky enough to catch up with the multi-talented Delgado to chat about Is This What I Look Like?, working with her heroes, and Yours Truly becoming the band they want to be.

Yours Truly – ‘Bruises’

Music Feeds: Happy Is This What I Look Like? release month. What was behind the decision to go for an EP this time around as opposed to another full album?

Mikaila Delgado: The concept for this EP was never to do something long. It was actually supposed to be three songs only. But as we kept writing, it didn’t make sense to leave out songs we felt told the story of what I was going through a little more and decided to do a longer EP.

MF: This release is being dubbed a “new sonic chapter” for YT, which feels very apt. What inspired the decision to expand beyond that core pop-punk sound we all know and love?

MD: I think after spending two years without being able to do anything, you begin to put a lot into perspective of where you want to be. We sat with our debut album – which was very pop punk – being out and not being able to tour it. When it came to writing these songs, we were still in the idea of touring Self Care, so we took a lot of pressure off ourselves to write something that was like that album and just have fun and try new things. Which in turn helped us find who we want to be.

MF: Digging how collab-stacked the EP is too. Out of the handful of guest vocalists you worked with on this one, whose contribution was the most surprising and why?

MD: We all knew Drew was an awesome vocalist, but when we heard the parts he wrote for ‘Bruises’, we were all blown away at how different it was to what we expected. We all sat there with our mouths open. His vocals are unreal.

MF: Can you tell us a bit about what it was like to collaborate with a hero of yours like Josh Franceschi?

MD: It was so surreal. You Me At Six have been such an important band to me since getting into alternative music and are one of the main reasons I wanted to start a band. Hearing his voice on our song still is hard to comprehend. And to make it even better, he is such a nice person and has been so encouraging and helpful to us.

MF: Who’s at the top of your wish-list to collab with in the future?

MD: I would love to collaborate with Lzzy Hale from Halestorm or Amy Lee from Evanescence. They’re two of my favourite bands and both two amazing frontwomen. The dream collab!

MF: What song on the EP would you say is the most special to you and why?

MD: They’re all super special to me, but I would have to say ‘Lights On’ or ‘If You’re Drowning’. I cried a lot writing both those songs – I know, dramatic – but they both hold very large parts of my heart and soul.

MF: We’re excited to see you at the end of the year for some headline tour action. With so many bangers in the bank now, how do you go about whittling down a set list?

MD: Putting a setlist together now, it’s so hard. We try to play all the singles and then pick some fun live ones. Sometimes we wish we could act like they’re all singles and play different songs every night, but we know people want to hear the popular ones. Maybe one day we can do shows where we play different releases in full.

MF: You guys have already achieved so many incredible things and are showing no signs of slowing down. What are three of the biggest things still on the Yours Truly bucket list?

MD: 1. American headline tour; 2. Reading and Leeds festival; 3. Headline Hodern Pavilion in Sydney.