BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition May 2018

YOB
RESURECTED AFTER A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE
JAMILA POMEROY
Photo by Orion Landau
Yob return with bleeding conscious and crushing doom.
After receiving what he referred to as a “courtesy call from [his]
eventual death”, Mike Scheidt, vocalist and guitarist of Yob, returns
with a new lease and dedication to life and music.
While grocery shopping not to far from his home, in Eugene,
Oregon, Scheidt was struck with a violent pain down the left side
of his face. This pain lead him to discovering a severe case of acute
diverticulitis, a disease that attacks the intestines. Scheidt endured
multiple surgeries, near death experiences and a grueling recovery
period, which put life on hold not only for himself, but for the whole
band.
While often barely mobile, Scheidt continued to write and play
music with the help of a custom Monson guitar; the lighter guitar
allowed him to play, and write, within the bounds of his weight
restrictions following his surgery. He went six months without singing
and had to rebuild from the beginning with a vocal coach, a delicate
process, as he could herniate any of his incisions if he pushed too
hard. He began experimenting with the new tricks taught by his
vocal coach, to rebuild his technical range and power. “In some ways
actually, my vocals are better than they have ever been,” says Scheidt.
While the band approaches each album from the point in which
they are at in life — lyrically, and thematically — Scheidt’s health
struggles have deeply impacted the new album. “I had no guarantee
any of the music I was making was going to ever see the light of day,”
he says. With the potential complications of his surgeries and recovery
process, Scheidt had this underlying feeling that his compositions
had to be “good enough.” He explains there was an extra level of
love, gratitude and dedication to intention, superimposed by his
illness, both in regards to music processes and his relationships with
his bandmates and family. Thematically, the feeling of losing control
played a heavy roll in inspiration of the new album.
Yob released “The Screen”, earlier this year, and while the song is a
preview of their upcoming album, Our Raw Heart, it features some of
the oldest sets of riffs on the album. The song is sonically in line with
their previous heavy doom metal brutality, but on the heavier side of
their sonic spectrum, which spans from meditative ambience, to skull
crushing riffage. “It’s a song we’ve had around for five or six years. It
just never found a place and there was no album that it seemed like it
fit. Post illness, as I was writing, all of a sudden everything came into
focus, and it became part of this new album” he explains. Scheidt says
he is still writing about the same things, persona and sincere lyrics,
driven by the pursuit of positive influence. Thematically, the band
takes inspiration from eastern mysticism, shamanic practices, poetry
and meditative mindfulness.
Scheidt has been described previously as the zen or Yogi Master
type and in speaking with him, there’s a strong imprint of that. He
is calm, collected and deeply humble. While the music Yob makes is
often brutal and heavy, there have always been conscious tones and a
meditative quality.
“I’ve spent a lot of years sitting and doing meditation. I don’t
pretend to be a great practitioner, but I’m consistent,” Scheidt says.
His conscious and humble attitude carries into all aspects of his life;
and while always present, there is a new level of gratitude his near
death experience has brought him.
Yob perform as part of the Modified Ghost Festival on May 25 at the
Rickshaw Theatre.
22
May 2018