Yukon Blonde’s Friendship & Rock ’N’ Roll Is Exactly What It Sounds Like
After two decades of friendship, the Vancouver indie-rock vets strip things back, share the mic, and write their most collaborative record yet.
By Hannah Harlacher
Photos by Zachary Vague
- Published on
After a dizzying race through Koopa Beach, RANGE slides into a booth with bandmates Jeff Innes (vocals/guitar), Brandon Wolfe Scott (lead guitar/vocals), and Graham Jones (drums/vocals) to chat over a spread of chipotle wings, truffle fries, corn ribs, and tofu lettuce wraps. Bassist/vocalist James Younger is at home sick, saving himself for tour, but the rest of the band is out celebrating on home soil before heading across Canada.
The Rec Room’s arcade lights capture the spirit of Yukon Blonde’s story: rooted in camaraderie and fun. Innes, Scott, Jones, and Younger have played together for years, but their ties stretch back even further.
“We are all Yukon Blonde,” Innes quips, before laughing at himself. “No, I’m kidding…Yukon Blonde started 15 years ago. We write songs and play whatever kind of music we want at that time. It’s generally indie rock and falls within that zone, but this last record is a straight-up rock and roll record.”
On Friendship & Rock ’N’ Roll — out now via Dine Alone Records — the band wanted the production to feel as live-off-the-floor as possible, stripped back to acoustics. This time the songs were built in the jam space together, something they hadn’t done since they were teenagers. The result feels like both a reset and a homecoming.
“Usually we’re studio rats,” Innes admits. “We like to spend a lot of time writing in the studio. On this one, though, we abandoned that. We had more or less a mandate to start with acoustic songs, bring them to the jam space, build them up from the ground together…It was really fun and liberating.”
Scott nods, Raspberry Lemonade in hand: “It’s the most collaborative record we’ve ever done.”
With Friendship & Rock ’N’ Roll, every member took a turn at lead vocals while contributing harmonies and songwriting.
“The record encompasses the friendship that we’ve had for so long,” Scott continues. “We’ve been friends for 20 years. We play music all the time together. A lot of the lyrical content is about playing in bands. You kind of have to be insane to be in a band.”
Jones agrees: “It’s about friendship and the process of taking things back to how we used to do them when we first started out.”
Their bond runs deeper than music. Innes laughs that he’s spent more of his life with these guys than anyone else. “These guys are like my family at this point.”
Jones chimes in: “In a van, mostly. We’ve all been roommates at one point. And homeless together. The ups and downs.”
Even their downtime revolves around each other. A recent trip to Galiano Island was less about music and more about simply being together. “We got hammered,” Innes laughs.
Now the band is back on the road. They kicked things off in Kelowna, where the group was born, and are crossing Canada this fall.
“I like when the set just starts ripping and you don’t have to think about anything,” Scott says. “After a couple shows in a row, it starts to feel like a well-oiled machine. I love it.”
“I’m just excited to wake up really early and drive for 12 hours,” Jones deadpans.
Tour life brings its own rituals. Silly van games, stacks of records, and a shared appreciation for life’s small comforts — coffee for Jones, a hot meal for Scott. This time around their rider includes a rotisserie chicken, a modest upgrade from the days when it was “48 beers, two bottles of wine, and a bottle of tequila” — all gone by the end of the night.
The conversation spirals into stories: Stars treating them to oysters and champagne; Jones accidentally breaking years of vegetarianism on foie gras he mistook for pudding; chaotic shows with heads in buckets or bottles flying through the crowd.
“The show must go on,” Jones shrugs.
It’s these stories — absurd, tender, and deeply human — that underline what Friendship & Rock ’N’ Roll is really about. The endless van rides, the inside jokes, the near disasters and quiet triumphs.
“I don’t really remember life without these two,” Innes says. “I don’t really know the difference at this point. It just is.”
Scott adds, “We were recently asked what our pre-show rituals were, and I didn’t even know how to answer. We’re just around each other a lot.”
Jones sums it up best: “We know how to push each other’s buttons — and how to un-push them.”
After all the games, late nights, and two decades of shared history, Yukon Blonde’s Friendship & Rock ’N’ Roll lands as more than just an album title. It’s a celebration of a life lived in music together: messy, loud, tender, and unapologetically theirs.
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