100% Endurance

Album: The Overload (2022)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • After eight tracks of snarky finger pointing, Yard Act complete their debut album, The Overload, with three reflective songs. The last number, "100% Endurance," finds singer James Smith woken with a bang. After all the anti-capitalist sniping he'd engaged in at the previous evening's party, the new world feels the same as the old. "Everything you talked about changing last night feels impossible with a hangover," he told Consequence Of Sound. "But you get up and you make your body move, because deep down you know that something is better than nothing. Always. We move until we don't and we exist because we do. That's beautiful, and I find it humbling."
  • "100% Endurance" provides an emotional, spirit-lifting finale to The Overload. "Overall I'm an optimist," Smith told Mojo magazine, "and I quite like people. I am trying to find a bit of enlightenment and purpose. What are we doing here? What is the meaning of life? I like chasing those questions."
  • Yard Act had planned on ending The Overload with "Tall Poppies." Then, at the last-minute, bassist Ryan Needham sent the demo for what became "100% Endurance." Smith wrote all the lyrics to a WhatsApp video loop of it playing on Needham's speaker in the studio. That is the audio the band used on the recording.
  • Yard Act's longtime collaborator James Slater directed the video. Shot in Blackpool, it stars the actor David Thewlis. "I've told my agent I'm only doing Yard Act videos from now on, though next time on a tropical island or a big yacht," the Fargo and Harry Potter actor said.
  • Yard Act released a new version of "100% Endurance" featuring Elton John on July 1, 2022. The collaboration came about after the Rocket Man praised Yard Act in the press. Smith and John chatted on the phone, and a few calls later, the Yard Act frontman asked John if he'd like to come to the studio and play piano on a tune.

    "We wanted to shine a light on '100% Endurance' a bit more, now the album had been out a bit and we felt we'd established the one side of Yard Act," Smith explained to Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1. "We wanted to highlight the other side of it a bit more, which is explored on the back end of the album. It felt like there was more we could do with that track. It felt like there's ways we could accentuate and highlight the melody and the emotion of that track without over egging it, while still sling in a string section and loads of lush Elton John piano all over it. And then, obviously, because he'd been so kind about us and he'd been calling me a little bit, we thought why not ask him?"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Colbie Caillat

Colbie CaillatSongwriter Interviews

Since emerging from MySpace with her hit "Bubbly," Colbie has become a top songwriter, even crafting a hit with Taylor Swift.

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.

Rock Revenge Songs

Rock Revenge SongsMusic Quiz

John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," Kiss

Director Paul Rachman on "Hunger Strike," "Man in the Box," KissSong Writing

After cutting his teeth on hardcore punk videos, Paul defined the grunge look with his work on "Hunger Strike" and "Man in the Box."

Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World

Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat WorldSongwriter Interviews

Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.

David Gray

David GraySongwriter Interviews

David Gray explains the significance of the word "Babylon," and talks about how songs are a form of active imagination, with lyrics that reveal what's inside us.