Winning the BBC Sound of 2015 makes them feel terrified
“It’s pretty overwhelming. It’s a mixture of emotions – grateful that we have got this kind of recognition, but also quite terrified of crashing and burning and us doing something really terrible! Hopefully that won’t happen.”
Olly is an expert shower singer
“It’s sort of true that I joined the band after Mikey (Goldsworthy, bass) heard me singing in the shower. It was at a house party but I would like to clear up that this was at my house, and I was in the shower the next morning. I’ve read about this online and it sounds like I was just casually showering and wandering around someone’s party, very free in this commune style house. Anyway, I probably sang Killing Me Softly because that’s my shower song. Did I use the shower head as a microphone? I hate to disappoint you but probably not. Unless I’m feeling particularly confident, I normally just sing into the wall.”
The band bonded over a five-hour Radiohead conversation
“That was actually Mikey and Emre (Turkmen, synths). When they first met they bonded over their mutual love. What did they talk about in five hours? I don’t know, they still talk about them a lot so you could probably add another 50 hours to the total. I guess they just talked about feelings, emotions and synths. Actually, ‘feelings, emotions and synths’ is quite a good description of our sound, I might call our debut album that.”
Marilyn Manson contributed to their 90s house sound
“We didn’t make a conscious decision to make 90s inspired house music, or electro soul pop music, or whatever you want to call it. It was more just things we liked from the past filtering into the music we were making. It’s important to have as varied taste as possible. For instance, Mikey likes Marilyn Manson and Metallica! We listen to country and western singers, too, and Emre loves the Beatles … it all filters its way into the music in some subtle way.”
The band are addicted to social media
“Our fanbase grew through the internet. I remember when we had 200 Twitter followers and about 2,000 likes on Facebook … then, when we put our songs online they just started getting shared around the world. It was an amazing thing to watch happen and I found it really fun. Social media is a really good way of having an authentic relationship with this growing fanbase, but it’s also dangerous. Sometimes I have to switch it off and go cold turkey. There are scientific studies that have been done to show how you get a dopamine hit whenever you get a ‘like’ or a notification. I don’t think that can be a healthy thing ... but it feels so good.”
Olly has starred in Skins ...
“I understand why a lot of people ask about that but it was such a small part of my career, I only spent a few weeks on the show. Choosing music over acting wasn’t a hard choice … I’ve been in bands since a teenager, and I fell into acting which meant I could move to London and support myself, and that’s where we formed Years and Years.”
... and also in Gaspar Noé’s ultra-disturbing film Enter The Void
“Yeah, it was quite disturbing. I was 17 and I’d never been away from home before and suddenly I’m spending two months in Tokyo! I was surprised I even got the role because it said on the script that it was for an old, fat guy. It was a really formative experience. And it’s cool because we got to go back to Tokyo for a show with [the band’s early label] Kitsune, and it’s such an incredible place.”
Olly once opened a show for Belle & Sebastian with a solo keyboard cover of I Wanna Dance With Somebody
“That was at Sundance [film festival]. Stuart [Murdoch] knew that I was in a band and asked me to play some music before they went onstage one night. I was like ‘yeah, sure!’”
Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan … of Mikey’s waitering skills
“Mikey used to work at the River Cafe, a really great restaurant in west London. A lot of famous people go there and he was a very loved waiter. One year at a Christmas party, Gwyneth Paltrow showed up and I guess she asked for a dance with Mikey. Actually, I doubt that’s how it happened. I’m not sure, I wouldn’t want to cause any rumours.”
Aaron Paul is also a fan ... of heckling the band
“My friend Imogen was working with him so she brought him to a show. Everyone was more interested in him than us! Then he started yelling our names out, it was all a bit crazy. I’d not seen Breaking Bad at the time so I was a bit like ‘who is this guy?’”
