Why do young people start bands? Because it’s fun. It’s fun to be vocationally audacious when there’s so much future to be had. To sleep on couches and floors. It’s even fun to be broke, for a time. In the pursuit of rock n’ roll, the hardships of obscurity just add flavour to your lore.

I first met Yukon Blonde when they were young, when they moved to Vancouver from a smalltown in BC’s interior. They had their own van, which was impressive, and intowhich I helped them load heavy amps and a full sized Rhodes piano. They all hadlong hair and huge smiles. Frustratingly, even then, they were incredible musicians. They may have been the coolest people I knew. Twenty years later, thesame might be true.

When being brokeand sleeping on couches is no longerfun, bands breakup. And even if money or comfort do enter the picture, success can be just as trying to a band’stangled web of egos. So it’s no small miracle to be a scene survivor.

Yukon Blonde are indeed scene survivors, and the secret to their successful marriage is rightat the core of their 7th studio LP. In fact, it’s right in the title - Friendship & Rock n' Roll. It’s abefitting thesis statement for a band that has spanned decades as indie-rockdarlings, charted singles on rock radio, and built a dedicated audience asmainstays of the club touring circuit.

I’ll admit, the title conjures special memories for me, personally. Years after helping them load out behind some crappy (and long deceased)underground venue, I asked Yukon Blonde to playat my wedding. I’ll never forget the moment they started into a cover of Jackie Wilson’s (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me)Higher and Higher. I excused myself mid-sentence with a distant relative, sprintedto the dance floor, and joined what was withoutquestion the most holisticallyinsane dance party I’ve ever attended. That night, they were the very best bandin the world - and the rest of us were a sweaty, elated mess.

If friendship comes naturally to Jeffrey Innes, Brandon Scott, Graham Jones & James Younger,so too does rock n’ roll. Yukon Blonde has always sounded classic, but theylive in the present day. You won’t see them placating the myth of rock n’ roll.Never have they slipped into a “throwback” caricature of some supposed gloryday. No posturing, or pretending - it’s guitar music that doesn’t wink at thecamera.

On Friendship & Rock n’ Roll, the riffs are bold and the vibes are bright. Even when the lyrical tone is defeated or heart-broken, we get the sense that everything is going to be alright. There’s whimsy in the subtext of Keep On Breaking My Heart, where Innes welcomes the punishment from his distant lover. The mid-tempo burner harkens to Tom Petty’s golden era in tone and playfulness - a cheeky grin behind the melancholy.

This is a seasoned quartet making music for the joy of it with songs thatwere cultivated the old-fashioned way: in a jam space. The band spentthe summer of 2024 poolingsong ideas and

crafting air-tight arrangements before getting to work at Innes’ Vancouverarea studio, Midvale Sound.

As a result, thisis the first Yukon Blonde album with song contributions from every member. Drummer Graham Jones (fresh off a tour subbing for Broken Social Scene’s Justin Peroff) penned Phaedra, a steeringwheel tapper with a Rubber Soul-esquebreak-down. Though Younger and Innes tag team lead vocals throughout therecord, lead guitarist Brandon Scott takes the helm on I’ve Got Yours, an earnest ode to the band itself. Scott, who has recently released several stunning EPs under the moniker Brandon Wolfe Scott, sings, “Cuz’ who knows how long this could all last / I still wanna make it / As long as you’ve got my back, I’ve got yours.”

I’ve Got Yours feels like an importantsentiment for Yukon Blonde today. After all, over twenty years, the creativewanderings of any band will test its constituents. In recent years, the band’sofferings have grown increasingly electronic, and increasingly centered aroundthe personal studio experimentations of band leader Jeffrey Innes. Both he andbassist James Younger have dedicated increasing energies toward producing otherbands and recording soundtracks for TV and film. Innes recently scored Osgood Perkins’new feature The Monkey (starring Elijah Wood and Theo James), and Younger's production-related podcast Impossible Way Of Life has found a rapidly growing audience ofesteemed indie (and not-so-indie) musicians around the world.

“It all became clearduring the toursfor Shuggie,” says Innesof the F&RNR’s impetus, “For one reason oranother, everything that required a synth or drum machine would break; or ourkeyboardist was busy. We ended up playing more and more shows just the four ofus. It felt really rock and roll. So we just went with it and startedrehearsing the set this way, and kinda rethinking about how we wanted to traveland tour. It really started to feel and sound like the music we actually listento and adore.”

 The joy ofliving in familiar tones with your best friends is crystal clear on the quickand dirty single Adore You, in whichYounger summons his inner Joey Ramone. “ gonna play our hearts out… We got more rootsthan a family tree / And I Adore you”.The verses are about loving rock n’ roll and thechoruses are about loving a person and it doesn’t really make much sense exceptthat in the context of the conveyed feeling, it makes perfect sense.

 “This is astraightforward, fun record, made by four people in a jam space,” continues Innes, “and the thing is, it was probably the easiest and most fun record we’veever had the privilege of making.”

 I think thepoint here is that music can be serious, and the pursuit of building a careerin music can involve a great deal of struggle, but music can also be fun. And, if four best buds are goingto love each other for as long as Yukon Blonde have, perhaps it must be fun in order to last.

Perhaps that’swhy this albumfeels so settledand comfortable. They’reolder, wiser, and back in the pocket of the energy that spawnedthe band in the first place.

 Listening to thisalbum, I’m reminded of those sweethearts I met back when we were kids, excitedto be paid in beer, playing to twenty people. That special concoction of sludgeand sophistication. Two of them may have cut their hair since then,but none have lost theirhuge smiles. YukonBlonde has lived the dream of rock n’ roll aspirations, survived the perils andreality of what that actuallymeans, and are still makingmusic together for the right reasons.

On Waiting On A Call, a splendor of chunkyriffs and vocal harmonies, Younger laments the required patience of anunrequited situation. “Here I am just waiting on a chance / Like a gambler in a bad romance.” It’s a sentimentevery struggling artist can commiserate with, and there may beno greater analogy for pursuing a life in music.

If you’regoing to go it aloneout there, you may as well have company. I love that twenty years in, Yukon Blonde are still leaningon each other and tapping the well of their bond. And what better glue is thereto bond them than Friendship & Rockn’ Roll?

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by Dan Mangan

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