Young And Sexy: The Facts Of Life

Alright kids, your favourite new band are... Young And Sexy.

Based in Vancouver and comprised of Paul Hixton Pittman on vocals and guitars, Lucy Brain on vocals, Ted Bois on keys, Andre Lagace on bass and Ron Teardrop on drums, Y&S define all that's good in dance-in-your-room-by-yourself fey rock. Their new album Stand Up For Your Mother (Mint) reaffirms this with sweet offerings like "The City You Live In Is Ugly," the Facts Of Life-copping "Bobby Baby" and swoony "Silent Filmstar."

It's all very prettily despondent, no doubt due in part to songwriter Pittman's morbid self-deprecating which comes in flashes during his conversations. Here's what he had to say:

ChartAttack: I saw on your website you've got a plea to the ladies to sign up for your bulletin board.
Pittman: Yeah, it seems like the ladies aren't signing up for that... neither are the men, really.

Young And Sexy basically got started because you were chasing after Lucy. How'd that happen?
I made a sandwich for her and then I went and sat down with her because I was on my break at work. We chatted for a bit and then she left. I'd seen her a couple times because she worked around the corner and had been there before. I think I said "Hello" a couple times.

You do realize you owe your destiny to a sandwich, right?
You gotta go with your feelings. I just said, "I gotta know her."

"The City You Live In Is Ugly" is a great song. What city are you talking about?
We reference Vancouver in it. But it's more just in general about being 20 and moving to a new city and not knowing anyone and just feeling pretty miserable. In general I think it is a pretty ugly city. It's got mountains and the ocean but the actual architecture is pretty bad. It's kinda like a kid trying to find its way in the world. It keeps on tearing down its old buildings and replacing it with new ones like a fashion-conscious teenager with the new trends. It ends up losing a lot of character.

And Hastings and Main is one of the grossest areas I've ever seen.
Hastings and Main is known across North America as one of the worst areas on the continent. Everything's all glittery and pretty, but there's a dark underside to everything.

"Chikubi" is particularly enjoyable with its use of band name as lyric. It's like a theme song of sorts.
We've got two theme songs. The other one is more folky. It'll be on our next album. Something about being young and sexy, it's so dominant in our culture. Being young and sexy. Our theme song is more about the way we feel in our head than anything else.

What about using the Facts Of Life theme in "Bobby Baby?"
I don't know how that got there. I was writing that song after listening to Jonathan Richman for awhile and I was just babbling and that sound came out. Stream of consciousness.

You should take a line from the WKRP In Cinncinati theme song next. What's your connection to that show?
Lucy's dad was in a band called Interview in the '80s and a poster for their album was on the back of Johnny Fever's door... I don't think we want to be interviewed by him.

Now, I heard that you were an elite level badminton player. I thought that was a little weird for a rock protege.
It's the truth. When I was 16, my last year, I was rated first in the nationals and came in second in doubles a couple times.

I once got in a fist-fight playing badminton in gym class. Any good badminton stories like that?
When I was 10, I was in a badminton tournament in Edmonton and everybody on our team had gotten sick over the weekend and we were in the doubles finals, me and my partner, and at the end of the first game I puked all over the court. And my coach took me off to the washroom and I came back on the court 10 minutes later — we resumed on a different court and the janitors are cleaning up my vomit on the other court. We lost... but I felt a lot better. I remember hearing someone say, "Oh my God! He puked!"