Yard Act share video ft Katy J Pearson and David Thewlis

Yard Act have shared another banger from their anticipated second album, Where’s My Utopia? “When the Laughter Stops” features Katy J Pearson trading lines with band frontman James Smith over a slinky, hooky, disco-post-punk groove.

“The sentiment of the lyrics gets to the heart of Where’s My Utopia? almost immediately, and finds the cynicism first spawned from the same circumstance I found myself in during ‘Dream Job’ now giving way to a more genuine sliver of misery,” says Smith. “Fortunately – spoiler alert – I’ve managed to find a way out of this pit, for the time being.”

Smith continues: “Whilst the lyrics came quick, musically it went through the wringer. As is often the case when Ryan presents a bass line, harmonically it’s pretty ambiguous and we all hear things differently. I was hearing the song in a pretty bluesy, minor key, whilst Sam [guitarist] heard a very saccharine and sweet major key tune. The song pedalled back and forth, we talked about ‘Lovefool’ by The Cardigans quite a lot if I remember correctly. During a recording session in Kettering with Russ Russell at Parlour Studios in December 2022, I was fucking about on a Roland Juno with the arpeggiator whirring away over the end. Ryan flipped the rate so it went half time and all of a sudden the eeriness of the track made sense; it sounded like some John Carpenter doomsday clock countdown or something. Sam reworked the guitars to sound like ‘High Voltage; by Electric Six and we stripped away the funkier percussion and made the rhythm more aggressive, like ‘Seven Nation Army’. Katy came to meet us at Metropolis in London to dub the chorus vocals and it gave the whole track a huge lift I’ll never have the voice for. She’s fantastic. I asked David Thewlis to recite Macbeth over the end for obvious reasons. The results speak for themselves!”

The video is another chapter from the Where’s My Utopia? film by regular visual collaborator James Slater, and also stars Pearson, who is imprisoned with Yard Act, here dressed as clowns. The song and the video also feature great British thespian David Thewlis (Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter films) who fans of the band will remember starred in their “100% Endurance” video as well.

Says director Slater, “This video continues the journey of The Visitor and follows on from ‘Petroleum’, in which we saw her get dragged off by a couple of hitmen. ‘When The Laughter Stops’ reveals her fate… a prison full of old circus performers. Security is admittedly a little loose so all may not be lost. The videos we’ve made have all been part of a wider Yard Act cinematic universe and we’re in the process of turning the whole thing into a movie. Watch this space.”

Watch the video below.

Where’s My Utopia? is out March 1 via Island/Republic and Yard Act will be on tour in North America starting in May. All dates are listed below.