July 27 2016

Exposed Vocals just caught an exclusive interview with YÃ¤rdij

We are happy to announce the premiere of YÃ¤rdijâ€™s new music video for â€œSomething Along The Lines.â€ This female-fronted alternative rock band from South Florida brings an element of old soul to modern rock. Their environmentally conscious music video for the debut single on their upcoming EP draws attention to the global issues of over-fishing and aggressive agribusiness. The band hopes to inspire people to â€œlive a life of consciousness and be aware that your actions greatly affect our planet.â€ They go on to ask our youth to â€œbe a part of the movement and make a difference.â€

The video for â€œSomething Along The Linesâ€ premiersÂ tomorrow,Â July 26th, with the EP of the same name being released onÂ Friday, July 29th.

Exclusive Interview

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

YÃ¤rdij: Nick, Alex, and Drew were all born and raised in Cooper City, FL. Deja moved to Cooper from Jersey around the age of 10 and Jordan from Baltimore around 12. Drew was one of Deja’s first friends when she moved down and aboutÂ 8 years laterÂ they finally decided they wanted to start a band. During Drews senior year, he dropped his marine science class for something easier and joined Intro to Guitar- where he met Alex. Alex introduced Deja and Drew to an old friend of his named Nick who became the lead guitarist of Yardij. Jordan was introduced when our first drummer left to pursue his own career. Our manager heard Jordan tapping his pen at a studio and that was all it took. The week after he was in the rehearsal room learning our originals. We were all playing music since we were youngins. We got together by chance.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

YÃ¤rdij: Our manager used to own a spot called the Junkyard. It became an extremely popular spot out of South Florida and people from around the country shot music videos, held rehearsals, and so much more. It was such a dope spot and so much magic came out of that place, so we wanted to carry a piece of it with us.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

YÃ¤rdij: We think it’s a great platform for indie bands to get their name out there. Our first EP was completely free and our singles are all free. No one really pays for music anyways these days. The money is in tour. For now we’re just grateful we get to do what we do and have so much support

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

YÃ¤rdij: Haha oh my. Well of course, never give up. You’ll hear a lot of no’s before you hear any yes’s. But also one big thing we learned at a conference in Orlando was to make friends with other bands! Make friends with promoters, bar owners, anyone. Support other people’s art as well. Not only is it good karma, but the more you show face, the more relevant you’ll be in your city.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

YÃ¤rdij: Of course! We are so far from perfect. We rehearse more than most bands our age/level. We average about 18-20 hours a week together and we still mess up like crazy. But they’re not always bad! Sometimes we’ll hear something dope in a mistake. And even if it sounds odd, we laugh and learn. It happens.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

YÃ¤rdij: We do small tours around Florida. It’s always a mission finding a place to eat that the five of us can agree on. We usually end up at Pita Pit. It’s the ONLY place we can agree on…..

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

YÃ¤rdij: We usually gather songwriting inspiration from some of our favorite bands. Sometimes we’ll jam out and then someone will think of a line that could help trigger the rest of the song.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

YÃ¤rdij: Our website is Yardij.com…go figure lol….we also use Soundcloud and Reverbnation. Our music will also be on ITunes and Spotify.

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

Yardij: Piss Test by A-Trak…that song is for special occasions

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

YÃ¤rdij: Save half of it, use a quarter of it on visiting various parts of the world, and then use the other quarter for touring expenses/merchandise.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

YÃ¤rdij: We tell our friends, and we promote through the social media platforms. We feel like face to face interaction is often times the best way to connect with people so that’s why we also try to manually promote ourselves.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

YÃ¤rdij: With Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop music festival. Jimi Hendrix is a guitar god and there is no one who inspires me more.

Exposed Vocals: So, whatâ€™s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

YÃ¤rdij: Well we just added a new pianist to our group that is super talented and down to earth. Our new music video for our song “Something Along the Lines” along with our new EP, is set to drop onÂ July 29th.

Exposed Vocals: If you werenâ€™t making music, what would you be doing?

YÃ¤rdij: That’s a hard question, honestly if we weren’t doing music we would all still be great friends but I’m pretty sure we’d all get desk jobs… nahh we’d definitely get paid to cruise A1A in a caddie. Tbh, not a single one of us could see a career other than music, it’s our passion and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

YÃ¤rdij: Alex’s first album was Avenged Sevenfold’s self-titled album- it made him extremely curious and he immediately wanted to find more music like that at the time. Nick’s first album was Hybrid Theory- he says his thoughts were “oh my God they’re so fuc**** good.” Deja’s was Evanescence’s “Fallen” album. She instantly fell in love with her voice and learned the words to every song within a week. Drews was D12 World by D12. He loved hip hop at the time. He says he remembers having fun listening to their music with his friends. Jordans was Radio Activity by Kraftwerk. He remembers how different the music sounded and it made him want to become more experimental as an artist.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

YÃ¤rdij: We dont, we swim around in the river called reality and just pray that we don’t drown

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

Yardij: You can expect tons of shows coming up in the fall, maybe even try to go on tour for winter break. We are definitely composing new music so it’s best to come out to every show you can because you can always hear something new from us.