Indie rock trio Yellow Jacket Avenger, which has, under the direction of Geoffrey Pye, reared its head in many different incarnations over the years, will part ways with a goodbye show on September 19 at The Seahorse. The key reason is the departure of drummer Nathan Elliot-Doucet to Korea, but Pye himself flew the Halifax coop at the beginning of summer.
“I grew up not too far from here,” he says on the phone from outside of Wakefield, PQ, “and wanted to break from the Maritimes and this seemed like a good spot. We have a little girl and it seemed like a good place to raise her.”
YJA’s last album, Double Nature, has been making waves at zunior.com since the spring, it will go untoured. “It goes in the archives, where everything else I do goes,” he says, laughing. “I just finished one of my own as well. I’ve been spending the last year trying to find some serious support for that. It’s been a hit and miss experience.” A pair of tracks produced by Joel Plaskett---YJA bassist Chris Pennell’s main gig is The Emergency---will likely see a release, however. “As with most of what I do, they’re songs I wrote 10 or 15 years ago and re-worked,” says Pye of “Silhouette” and “The Ghosts.” “Joel did a wonderful job capturing what we sound like, and will appear in some form, I’m told, in the future.”
Though Pye has been through lineup changes before, he figures this time is not just a reshuffle, but the end of something.
“I’m content on totally disappearing. My priorities have kind of changed and I’m no longer really interested in live music,” he says. “I’d like to believe there’s a world out there, and I know there is, that still appreciates albums that get made to be listened to. But it’s harder to do these days since nobody buys records anymore. That’s how I got into music, the idea that you could make a record and it would be a piece of art, not these disposable flavours-of-the-week we’re subjected to now. I’d like to think that will come around again. So I’m putting all my money in there, if it’s a waste I’m not sure.”
“This has happened to me several times because I’ve always been one to move. However what’s different about this is were all pretty close friends and I feel kind of sad,” he says. “I almost didn’t want to do it.” His daughter squawks in the background. “What’s that, kid? Just a minute. It’s applesauce time.”
Yellow Jacket Avenger will be joined by The True Love Rules at The Seahorse. Show starts at 10pm, tickets are eight bucks.
