”It’s not easy having a bunch of chefs in the kitchen, but we managed” – An Interview with Yawn Mower
As they celebrate their 10th anniversary, New Jersey’s Yawn Mower are releasing their sophomore album I Just Can’t Wait to Die on Mint 400 Records. Originally formed as a duo by Mike Chick (vocals/guitar) and Biff Swenson (drums), the new LP is the first to have full creative input from the full band which is completed by Dana Yurcisin (bass), Rudy Meier (guitar), and Nicole Scorsone (violin). The result is their most complete and cohesive record to date in spite of the fact that it is a DIY affair; recorded, engineered, produced, mixed and mastered entirely by the band. “Our goal was to make our version of Pinkerton,” says Chick, “A raw, rough around the edges, noisier follow up to our debut that was entirely self-produced.”
Lead single “Rascal” nails that brief wonderfully with its narrative about the kids of their families and friends (“Here he comes now what a little asshole / Fuckin’ up my place”) and how those who grow up and leave then often return (“head and run until you get back home”). The catchy chorus of “New Years At The Airport” will stick in your head for the rest of the day while opener “Windshield Wiper” builds from an acoustic start into a wonderfall wall of noise. The rest of the album is consistently good and should see them reaching a much bigger audience.
We had a chat with Mike and Biff as they got ready for the album’;s release and their upcoming tour.
IDOV – Hi! How’s everything going right now?
Mike: It’s fine. Everything is fine.
IDOV – What classic album cover art is your current mood?
Biff: I think this one would be more fun if we picked for each other! For Mike, I’d say Joe Walsh’s But Seriously, Folks.
Mike: Ha. There are some times lately I wouldn’t mind living underwater. I’d say for Biff it’d be the original cover for The Strokes Is This It ‘cause he’s a fine piece of ass.
IDOV – Your excellent new LP I Just Can’t Wait to Die is out in a few weeks – when/where did you write and record the songs?
Mike: We started writing songs for IJCWTD in the summer of 2023. Once the structures were in place, we recorded drums in February 2024 with Evan Bernard at Jamtown in Philadelphia. From there we recorded the rest of the record on our own. Except for the drums, all the recording, mixing and mastering was done in house at Mike’s Waving Cat, Dana’s apartment and Rudy’s Yung Bull Recordings.
IDOV – It’s the first record you’ve released where all the band members have contributed to the creative process. How did this change the finished album compared to the previous LP and EPs?
Mike: When YM was a two piece, we tried to keep the records pretty close to our live sound, except for maybe a few extra instruments / guest spots here and there. A few years into the band, Biff and I started talking about making our “Pet Sounds” where we just went for it and added whatever instruments we wanted. Then the pandemic happened and we started writing To Each Their Own Coat, which was a huge leap for us sonically. That led to us expanding the band and eventually to IJCWTD, which I feel showcases all of our personalities and strengths really well. It’s not easy having a bunch of chefs in the kitchen, but we managed. I think all of us having so many other projects going on at the same time helped with that.
If you could only listen to one record, what would it be?
Biff: OOF! Tough one! Based entirely on the most spins over my lifetime? Probably Some Kind of Cadwallader by Algernon Cadwallader.
Mike: A desert island record? I’d say The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest.
IDOV – Your recent single “New Years At The Airport” came with a video that pays homage to “The Big Lebowski”. Is that a favorite movie of the band and which other movie would you like to use to soundtrack another song off the new album?
Biff: If we had some money to play with? I’d personally love to do a Ghostbuster homage. Maybe more realistically though, Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke. We love Wes Anderson, but that feels overdone at this point. Scream could be a fun, campy one for the fall though!
Mike: Scream for the Fall, Fargo for the Winter, Midsommar for the Spring and Dazed and Confused for next summer. I’d love to do a video on Miller’s planet in Interstellar, but that’d take at least 23 years of our lives to do.
IDOV – Mike released a solo album (More Thrills, Less Hills) last year and Biff is also in a number of other bands. How do you decide what is a Yawn Mower song and what goes to other projects?
Biff: This process has surprisingly been very natural and easy to navigate. We try our damndest to have each project we are in warrant being its own band. If one band sounded too similar to another, we wouldn’t be doing our crew any favors. Mike had a song he demoed a couple years back (Igor the Exetor) that he knew was a bit too heavy for his solo material, and it immediately became the first new song we worked out for this album. I had an old demo from 2015 I had written with Yawn Mower in mind but we never got around to finishing it. That also resurfaced during the writing process and made it onto this album. It is a pretty organic process of dividing up what makes the most sense for each band. Very rarely, if ever, do we take a song intended for one band to another project because it got rejected.
Mike: I love that Igor demo and would have done my own version of it, but at the time we were a seven piece band and I was like, “damn, this song would sound so massive with seven people on it”, and it did. Sounds great with a five piece, too. I’m happy the gang liked it.
IDOV – One of your earliest releases was the “Ruins Christmas” EP. Who is the most Grinch-like in the band?
Biff: In regards to the Christmas album specifically? It’d definitely be me! It’s the bane of my existence. We recorded it at a vocational school with all high school age students who were learning to engineer. Every year this collection of songs does really well on college radio, so I’m constantly reminded of its existence. I’m not personally a fan of Christmas songs, but Yawn Mower is for the children after all. On a larger, more general scale though? Dana would definitely be the most Grinch-like. He keeps it light and casual though; A fun Grinch!
Mike: The most Grinch-like in the band is the power steering pump in Rudy’s van when it leaks fluid.
IDOV – You’re about to head out with Milk St for an album release tour and it also commemorates the 10 year anniversary of the band. What can we expect at those shows?
Mike: Who knows? Tour is wild. The short drives. The long drives. Every show is different from the last. A lot of our most memorable moments on tour have made it into lyrics on IJCWTD, which is fun for us to relive on record. We’re gonna rip these songs as hard as we can. If you have any requests, send us a DM.
IDOV – What would go on your signature pizza and what would it be called?
Biff: I’d say béchamel sauce for the base, ground beef with taco seasoning, roasted corn, black beans, sharp cheddar and 3 year aged gouda, topped with a drizzle of cilantro crème. Let’s call this guy either Freak on a Feast or Blazed & Infused.
Mike: I’d do a grandma style pie with pepperoni, roasted garlic and finely chopped broccoli rabe. I would call it Sgt. Pepperoni’s Roasted Garly Rabe? Fusaro Pizza, where you at?
IDOV – What’s next for Yawn Mower?
Biff: After our northeast summer tour, we have a couple local gigs throughout the fall, then we are doing another midwest tour before the end of the year. We’ll likely keep up with our tradition of writing the next batch of songs over the winter. The past few years we take December through February off from gigs to either write or record, which feels ideal during the colder months.
Mike: Finish a few more videos for IJCWTD. Get someone to release IJCWTD on vinyl. Make and eat those pizzas we were talking about.
The Asbury Park, NJ band formed in 2015, and over the past decade they have released a handful of EPs and their 2022 debut LP To Each Their Own Coat. Along the way they’ve made their mark on the New Jersey scene, and shared the stage with incredible bands like Mannequin Pussy, Oso Oso, The Good Life, Hot Snakes and more. Their sophomore album I Just Can’t Wait To Die propels the band forward, with a record that’s equal parts joyful, reflective and humorously absurd. Across its 10 tracks, Yawn Mower weave together various vignettes and observations on life, both profound and relatably ordinary, holding them all in place with a bath of fuzzy guitar tones and the occasional dose of strings for an added epic or frenetic flair.
You can find more about Yawn Mower by following them on Instagram and Facebook for the latest news on new releases and concerts. Also, visit their Bandcamp page to get more music and merch.
Feature Image Credit – Melissa McLaughlin
