Yard has today released their eponymous EP. After a breakout year and a storming start to 2025, Dublin-based electropunk trio Yard crash into the spotlight with their self-titled debut EP, Yard. A volatile fusion of post-punk intensity and pulsating techno, the four-track record doesn’t just announce the band’s arrival – it detonates it. Raw, relentless, and impossible to pin down, this debut solidifies Yard as one of the most boundary-pushing new acts to emerge from the UK and Ireland’s underground scene.
With a sound as relentless as it is immersive, Yard is known for its gripping live performances and eerie stage presence, often embodied by their unsettling mascot, Bucketman. Their sonic identity—genre-less yet grounded in intensity—draws from the DNA of acts like Death Grips, SUUNS, and Nine Inch Nails, yet lands firmly in its own dystopian universe.
The EP opens with “Trevor”, a sprawling, cinematic track that launches listeners into Yard’s volatile landscape – an electrifying mix of screeching vocals, euphoric techno, and razor-edged synths. Follow-up “Appetite” explores themes of compulsive self-destruction through a relentless groove and a haunting vocal performance by Emmet White, inspired by a chilling line from Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2024): “I am an appetite.”
“At one stage in the film Count Orlok, speaking to Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), proclaims, ‘I am an appetite”. There’s a vampiric force in Ellen’s life which she cannot escape, and it’s unending in its consumption of her.”
Emmet White
Third track “Slumber” trades bombast for pressure, beginning with claustrophobic unease before expanding into cathartic, club-ready territory. It’s a sonic metaphor for breaking out of routine – an underground rebellion shaking beneath the surface.
Closing track “Sunlight” is perhaps the EP’s most visceral moment. A live favorite finally captured in recorded form, the song burns with thundering rhythms and layered synths, invoking chaos, disconnection, and refusal to conform. Its entrancing middle section wouldn’t be out of place in a warehouse rave, yet it remains deeply emotional – a rare feat in electronic rock.
“The four tracks on this EP have existed on our live set, in one capacity or another, for quite some time now. In many ways, they represent some of the earliest iterations of our vision for Yard. It’s music for escapists – those who need a healthy distraction from the challenges of everyday life. Until now, you could only hear these tracks live at our show, which is still where they’re best experienced – but it’s great to have them out in the world for regular listening.”
Dan Malone
Yard’s Debut EP is a declaration. With their unflinching creativity, genre-defying production, and unmistakable live presence, Yard is carving a new lane in modern music. This debut marks the beginning of a long, loud, and unstoppable journey.
Check out our other features with Yard HERE.
Q&A
Your album art for YARD has these stunning quadrants of black and white line art. Do the shapes represent anything inside your debut EP? A different one for each of the four songs, perhaps?
The artwork for each song, as well as the EP cover art, was designed by Claire Schorman (@byclaireschorman). Each art piece touches on different themes explored throughout the EP while remaining stylistically consistent throughout. You’ll notice that each track has its visualizer on YouTube as well as a video canvas on Spotify that mirrors the track artwork.
The tracks and accompanying artwork explore themes of incompleteness, loss, dissociation, confinement, escapism, and vampirism, among others. However, like the musical content, the artwork is left open to interpretation by the listener.
The track “Trevor” is so intense and sonically enticing. What do the mysterious lyrics mean?
Lyrically, ‘Trevor’ explores the concept of anthropomorphism (the human tendency to attribute emotions and meaning to inanimate objects). Emmet has a habit of naming inanimate objects that have played a significant role in his life. In this case, ‘Trevor’ was the name of a bike that he had for many years, which was passed down to him by his brother.
Sadly, one night, it was stolen outside of work. The loss of Trevor hit him far harder than he had expected, as it felt like he had lost a friend or a companion.
What kind of synths did you use in the single “Slumber”?
There are a few different synths featured on Slumber. For the lead lines, we used a combination of the Novation Peak and the Arturia MiniFreak, and for bass, we used the Arturia MiniBrute and the Moog Sub 37.
You once said you liked performing away from home. What is your favorite location to tour/perform in mainland Europe?
It’d probably be the Netherlands. There’s just so much going for it. The PA systems at Dutch venues and festivals are regularly top of the line, and the organization process itself is second to none. Plus, the transportation, food, and accommodation are always great.
Last year, you mentioned leveling up your percussive elements over the course of the band. How has your percussion in these songs evolved, and how has it stayed the same?
As with any recording process, you put each element under the microscope to make sure it’s as good as it can be. For us, because we have been playing these songs live for some time now, we wanted to make sure that we struck a balance between what sounds good live and what sounds good on record. In the past, we’ve found that percussive elements, which sound great live, don’t always sound the best on headphones.
For this EP, we wanted to ensure that the studio versions of the tracks were reflective of their ‘live feel’, which ironically necessitated percussive changes away from the previous ‘live versions’ to achieve this.
How did it feel to see this EP with your one-of-a-kind sound finally come to life?
Really good – until now, you could only hear these tracks live at our show (which is still where they’re best experienced), but to have them out in the world for regular listening is great.
When did you first begin performing your EP’s closing track, “Sunlight,” live? What was the reason for its composition in the first place?
Sunlight has gone through various iterations from as far back as January 2023. It’s a song that was written during the COVID lockdown. One night whilst staying up incredibly late playing video games with friends online Emmet started to lose sense of time and space. This was pretty far into the social isolation of lockdown, and any sense of routine, structure, and/or in-person contact was completely gone.
At one stage, he turned around to look out the window and realized the sun was completely up. It looked so unfamiliar as he felt his sense of time being warped and shattered even further. The song approaches the sense of isolation but also the deep sense of loss that we all felt during lockdown. Loss of structure, loss of meaning, and the loss of loved ones. The “lost cause” is ourselves and the lives that we’ve had to leave behind in that time.
