Young And Sexy Aren't Pink Floyd

It was six years and four albums ago that Vancouver's Young And Sexy released their buoyant, hook-filled debut, Stand Up For Your Mother. Since that endeavor, the quintet have been hard at work refining and maturing their pop sensibilities. They recently released their newest album, The Arc. ChartAttack discussed the band's musical mission with vocalist/guitarist Paul Hixon Pittman.

ChartAttack: What would you say is the biggest difference between Stand Up For Your Mother Young And Sexy and today's Young And Sexy?
Paul Hixon Pittman: Probably just the interplay between the musicians in the band. I feel like the old songs are more of a standard pop song. We would just add parts to it — put a bass line on it, put some piano parts on it... now we're trying to be more like a whole band.

Are you at a point now where you can stand back and look at yourselves and say, "Yes, this is what we've always wanted to sound like?"
I definitely think, with the last two records, we enjoyed coming up with the music and we were happy with all of the songs. At this point, I think we're just always trying to make it interesting for ourselves, make music that we like.

Would you say that lyrically, the songs on The Arc are of a different slant than anything else you've created?
I think there are a couple of songs that are maybe a bit more flowery or mysterious sounding, but it was definitely not something I was trying to do differently than on the other records.

What's the significance of the title, The Arc?
We liked the idea of it as an album name — the arc of the story, kinda.

On your website you mention that it'll be fondly remembered as "Shazzie Bazzie." What's that all about?
That was just a name that we had kicking around for a while. It was seriously considered for a month or so, but the rhythm section [drummer Alex Brain and bassist Brent McDonald] wasn't into it and that's a good portion of the band. Andre [Lagace, guitar] was indifferent, so at that point, it was just me and Lucy [Brain, vocals] that kind of liked it, so we had to drop it. We definitely didn't want a long title, because all of the other records had long titles, which I guess seems kind of perverse: to say, "OK, we don't want a long title, so we'll make sure it's short."

I've heard the music on this album described as everything from shoegaze and dream pop to baroque and prog rock. Do you think any of those apply?
There are points where, probably, it all applies.

People seem to namedrop Pink Floyd a lot when discussing Young And Sexy. Would you say that's at all warranted?
I think that's because there were a few reviews of the last record — comparing that to Floyd — but I don't get that at all.