These Swansea boys weren’t even a twinkle in the milkman’s eye when Madchester was popping off, but their youthful take on that early 90s sound has reserved them a seat on the hype train. Support slots for Liam Gallagher at Knebworth and in Cardiff Bay, anyone? Carl Marsh spoke to Jack and James Yates, cousins and two-fifths of the band Pastel.

You’ve already supported Liam Gallagher twice this year, in Knebworth and Cardiff. How did it feel being on such a massive stage whilst still at an early part of Pastel’s career as a band? You didn’t look nervous either!

Jack Yates [vocals]: People said, “oh, you must have been shitting yourself…” If you see a video [of Knebworth] – I don’t know if it’s up on Instagram, but the way we walked on, James just fucking skipped on the stage. It’s like we were waiting for it. It’s not like we were scared. It was like, finally! As soon as we got off [the stage], I said, “This is my place to be. Fuck anywhere else.”

James Yates [rhythm guitar]: When you start out in a band, you think you’re going to be massive in your head. You don’t set out and think: “We can’t wait to play the pub again. I want to play the Dog & Duck… let’s do a cover song!” Instead, you set out thinking that you’re going to take the world over. I’m not saying we’ve done that – we’ve still got to do it – but when people say that we must have been nervous… well, no, this is what we set out to do.

Jack: You’d be nervous If you didn’t expect it. And if you’re nervous, then I don’t think you’re ready for it. 

James: I’d be nervous if we were still playing shit pubs now.

Jack: Yeah, that’d be a bit annoying. “We must be shit”… “can’t wait for my 9 to 5” – packing this in after two months gigging the same venues. Fuck that! [Laughter]

The first Pastel EP was released in 2021; the next one will be released next month. I know you started writing a lot of your music during lockdown; was it a case of having all of this material in situ last year that you could sit on for EP number one and then for this new one? 

James: The first EP, Deeper Than Holy, had probably the first four songs that the band ever wrote. J, our manager – because he writes music [as Afflecks Palace] – said to us after the band’s original songwriter had left the band: “Look, don’t worry, I know you’ve got no songs, but we’re in lockdown – there’s no rush.”

And he said, “if you want, I can help you write songs?” We were like, yeah – you know, that’s what the plan was. So we wrote Deeper Than Holy and sent it to him as a phone recording version. And he was like: “Fuck, I don’t need to help you write songs then, do I? If you’re doing that with your first record, there’s no point me wasting my time getting involved!”

What’s Pastel’s story about your pathway into music? I can’t see too much out there about that at the moment – give it another couple of years, and it’ll be a very different story I’m sure.

James: So, we’re in Manchester [at the time of speaking], but we live in Wales – Cross Hands. When me and Jack were kids in Manchester, we grew up around there, but our parents were drug addicts and stuff. Both of our dads are brothers, and they moved to Wales to go to rehab. Then when they’d finished, I moved down to Wales with my dad, but Jack stayed here, and then a few years later Jack came down to live with me and my parents.

And that’s why when Jack moved down, we thought, “fuck it. We’ll just start a band.” Why not?

Pastel and Afflecks Palace play the Bunkhouse, Swansea on Thurs 22 Sept. Tickets: £15. Info: here

Pastel’s Isaiah EP is released on Fri 21 Oct via Spirit Of Spike Island. Info: here

words CARL MARSH