Yamn thrives in genre collide

From staff reports

The trance-fusion rock band Yamn will take the stage in Moscow this weekend to put on a high-energy performance.

The four-man group from Denver will perform one of the final shows of the band’s tour at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at John’s Alley.

David Duart, the band’s bassist, said Yamn put eight months of work into recording its newest album, “Unity of Opposites,” a name they chose to describe the electronic and rock music fused throughout.

“Everyone in the band is big fans of Led Zeppelin, as well as acts like Daft Punk and Chromeo,” Duart said.

A mostly instrumental album, “Unity of Opposites” includes guitar solos and four-on-the-floor beats, sometimes both at the same time.

The group originally started out very “jam-bandy,” but recently began putting more thought into creating new songs, Duart said. “Unity of Opposites” is the band’s first album in five years, and all that time allowed the members to write a lot of songs for recording.

“That’s how we ended up with 14 songs and a double album,” Duart said.

The press release for Yamn’s Winter>Spring Tour described the band’s live shows as filled with “courageous beats … heart-warming peaks and head-banging rock riffs,” and Duart said the band does its best to deliver all of that.

“Performing live is really important to us,” he said. “We try to create the larger rock experience.”

Helping them with that mission is Paul Whitehouse, the band’s lighting designer.

Whitehouse said he first met the members of Yamn eight years ago when he supervised them during their jobs at a ski resort, but it wasn’t long before he found himself studying lighting design and following them on the road.

“They changed my life,” he said.

Whitehouse has worked with electronic artists like Bonobo and Rusko before, but said Yamn is always his first priority for shows.

“I’ve only missed three shows ever in my years touring with them,” he said.

Days before each show, Whitehouse said he watches the band rehearse and then figures out which lighting arrangements will best match the feel of the particular performance.

“I like a lot of changes in the lights,” he said. “It really adds to the energy of the shows.”

Last year, Yamn won Electronic Colorado’s awards for “Best Local Artist” and “Best Live/Instrumental Act.”

“Obviously we’re always excited when we receive those accolades, but the most important thing to us is being on stage, creating good energy,” Duart said. “When you get that give-and-take energy with the audience it’s pretty euphoric.”

The event is for people 21 and older, and tickets cost $5.

Reporting by Dustin VandeHoef