New drummer, album motivates The Young

The ever-maturing Knoxville band The Young is, from left, Stevie Miller, Trevor Greene, Eric Griffin and Nathan Gilleran.

In a market where party and cover bands are king, the thoughtful Young has its work cut out.

Self-described as a listener’s band — as opposed to background music for a night of drinking — The Young requires a attentive audience to appreciate its subtle, often downbeat music that progressively builds to a crescendo. Rather than expand its live show to areas beyond the land of short attention spans, the group hopes to reach the masses with its recordings despite the consensus that live shows are its most captivating method of delivery.

That said, The Young are far from lacking a rabid local following. The band’s November CD release show was received by an overwhelming turnout at the new Relix Theater. Up to that point, The Young had played only a few times this year. With its long-awaited full-length “After the Crash” just unveiled nearly two years after initial recordings began, the group intends to be less scarce in the coming months and set to work quickly on its next studio effort.

“We really want to create an impact here in Knoxville,” says front man Eric Griffin. “If we keep playing shows here and keep pushing and getting our name out there it’s going to break. You’ve got to conquer your hometown before you do anything else.”

“When we play at a bar, there are always a few people that come up to us and feel it, and there are always a few that say, ‘Well they’re good, but that was depressing,’” says guitarist Steve Miller. “A lot of people are surprised we’re local when they hear us, and that’s a huge compliment.”

The band’s moving live show has been furthered by the recent addition of Nathan Gilleran on drums. Now with four members, Miller has moved to guitar to take pressure off of vocalist/guitarist/pianist Griffin, who can emote on a grander scale.

The Young, which originated as a piano-focused band, also points out that this will allow for a fuller incorporation of keys in the long run, but venues are a factor as well. While Griffin writes much of the music on piano, the logistics of bringing and setting up a grand piano in venues that don’t have their own presents a challenge that will eventually be met upon discovering an authentic synthesizer.

“We’re actually incorporating more of it now,” says Miller of the piano. “For the CD release we played the last song on the album, and it turned out great because they had a piano there on stage. It was only the second time that we were able to play piano live. ... I think we’re going to be seeing more of it.”

In addition to the dynamics and fuller sound allowed by its four-piece lineup and the shift back to key-driven writing, The Young says the tone of its new material will be more upbeat than past work. Having been accused of being somber, Griffin says “After the Crash” was a dedication to the brother he recently lost, and that the subject matter since has been less thematic and exhibits a wider range of moods while staying true to the act’s Brit-pop influenced sound.

“I don’t know how that happened, but we have a lot more upbeat songs,” says Griffin. “The album is really dark. All the songs are about working through those times and dealing with tragedy and the good and bad that comes with all that. Now it’s still there — it’ll always be there for me — but we’re getting older.”

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