White Doves, the first song of the set blew a circuit disabling microphones and though the crowd was happy to fill the position by singing the humbly virtuous lyrics the Canadian foursome moved the party along with Enter Through the Sun promising to revisit the interrupted introduction. The solid track Rain of Gold had the crowd dancing, Beaches seduced shouts of admiration and the boys kept their word playing White Doves in full before calling it a night. 
Wake All My Youth, the 2012 EP from Young Empires is fresh, upbeat, youthful in an un naive way and their live performance carries the same refreshing feel even when it is littered with technical hiccups.
I got a chance to catch up with Matt (keyboardist/vocalist) and Aaron (guitarist) before the show. Here's what they had to say:
Me: Thanks so much for talking with me before your show tonight, is this your first time in San Francisco?
Aaron: Yeah it is, first time.
Matt: Yeah it's my first time on the West Coast.
Me: How are you liking it? The West coast?
Matt: I mean, I think there's a lot of variation between cities, I would say that you know Portland feels worlds away from here, um Portland almost felt like the end of the world, it was a little strange.
Me: Portland felt like the end of the world? because of the difference in the weather? the vibe?
Matt: Culturally it feels very different, yeah.
Aaron: I liked Portland, I thought it was cool.
Matt: I'm not gonna say I didn't like it, it was just, it was strange. I think people in California are just so laid back and friendly to begin with that you know, it doesn't feel out of place.
Me: You guys are from Canada, correct?
Aaron & Matt: Yep.
Me: What part of Canada are you from?
Aaron: We live in Toronto now but we're all kind of from different parts.
I'm originally from Edmunson which is kind of in the west, so coming out west is nice for me because this is more like where I grew up than Toronto. Toronto is a little more like New York. Matt's from Ottawa and the other two guys are from a city close to Toronto.
Me: I read that you toured with Girl Talk last summer, is that accurate?
Matt: Not accurate.
Aaron: We did two big shows with him (Girl Talk) back in Toronto, back to back.
Matt: We've toured with Chromeo before and with Dragonette.
Me: The music video for your single, White Doves is inovatively spectacular. What was it about that track that made you choose to make this type of music video to go along with it?
Aaron: Initially, the director (Miles Jay) who did the video really liked that track, he kind of picked it out. At the time when we had the whole EP done, he was someone who we really wanted to work with cause he's a young talent and we were really excited to work with him.He said, that's the song I wanna do a video for, he had the whole idea and based it on that song. It was more like the director picked the song as oppose to us saying here's the song make a video, we almost did the reverse of what you normally do because we basically found the director we wanted to work with and said hey what song do you want to make a video for?
Me: Well that worked out! The outcome is awesome!
Any particular meaning behind the title of the EP Wake All My Youth?
Matt: Well, the lyric comes up a few times in the song Rain of Gold so it's connected lyrically to the album but also I think it is in someway symbolic for what music is all about reconnecting with your youthfulness. You don't have to grow up, you can still be young, you can still have fun it doesn't matter what age you are.
Aaron: It's an introduction of the band, it's the first release we've done so it's kind of like waking the youth to Young Empires for the first time.
Me: What bands/artists inspire your music?
Aaron: We all listen to totally different stuff. When I really got into music being a suburban kid growing up in the 90's I was into Nirvana, Pearl Jam all the grunge stuff but I was also really into gangster rap; NWA, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre all that kind of stuff so, there's a really weird mix of stuff growing up a suburban kid in Canada. We're the kind of band that's more a product of those influences and it wouldn't be as obvious. I don't think there's one band who we can all say we listen to, you'd have a real hard time finding a band that all four of us actually like, we all bring different influences and different things to the table.
Matt: I think also, as a concert goer when you walk into a room for the first time and you see a band that you've never heard of and they blow you away, that can be very influential and inspiring, the unknown of what you are going to hear that night.
Me: I bet I can name one band you guys would all agree that you like [pause] Young Empires!
Aaron: I hate that band! [laughing]
Me: The EP, Wake All My Youth is already out, when can we expect the LP?
Matt: I think we're looking at 2013, early 2013.
There you have it, something brand new to look forward to!
Be sure to check out the White Doves music video by director Miles Jay! You can enjoy it as is or choose to be a part of the vision with Young Empires!
Photos by: Nikki DeMartini
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