Dreadful Yawns try to stay in tune

By John Benson

After performing at the International Pop Overthrow music festival at Youngstown’s Cedars Lounge in November, Cleveland band The Dreadful Yawns booked a return to the club, which will be this Friday.

“We really liked playing Youngstown,” said Dreadful Yawns singer-keyboardist Elizabeth Kelly. “The place was packed and the sound was good. Cedars was a great experience for us and a lot of fun.”

Formed around the turn of the century, The Dreadful Yawns — Kelly (vocals, keys), Ben Gmetro (vocals, guitar), Chris Russo (drums, vocals), Clayton Heuer (keys, violin) and Eric Schulte (guitar, vocals) — have evolved from a mostly folk-inspired sounding act into more of a rocking affair. While that transformation is most evident on the group’s fourth studio album, 2008’s “Take Shape,” Kelly said the band is looking to expand even further on its next project.

“We’ve been writing and recording a lot,” Kelly said. “On the last album, we were sort of figuring each other out as musicians, and now this album we’re much more in tune with each other. It’s a little bit of a different experience this time around just because we know each other so much better. We’re just writing and recording as much as possible and trying to get the new album finished.

“In some ways, we still have the folksy, pretty melodic influences, but now we’re starting to go in the direction of a more rough-around-the-edges rock feel. Not as maybe folk influenced as it has been in the past.”

While Kelly said she’s unsure of the next album’s release date, the band is already playing some of the new material live. This includes the rocking “Flecked With Mandarin” and the driving “Parade.” One track in particular that has Kelly excited is the dynamic “Took a Chance.”

“That was the first song we wrote after ‘Take Shape,’” Kelly said. “It’s like [Radiohead’s] ‘Paranoid Android,’ where you have the rock ’n’ roll beginning core of the song, but then it slows down with this really pretty middle part. Then it kind of takes a complete turn and revisits the beginning of the song.”

Signed to Cleveland record label Exit Stencil Recordings, The Dreadful Yawns are part of a growing movement coming out of the Rock Hall city that is focused on creating an original indie rock scene.

Kelly, who describes the genre as “rust belt melancholy,” said there is something else that separates The Dreadful Yawns from its peers.

“I think what’s compelling about The Dreadful Yawns is that we sort of work collaboratively,” Kelly said. “It’s a very collaborative process where everybody’s ideas are heard and everybody gets a say in what’s happening. We all do everybody’s songs, and you don’t find that very often I don’t think, which was always kind of surprising.

“I’m not a veteran of the music scene, but when I describe it to people, they always are surprised that we can survive like that. You have to be really good friends and really be able to take each other’s [expletive] in order to be able to work like that. And I think we can.”

XThe Dreadful Yawns will headline an 11 p.m. show Friday at Cedars Lounge, 23 N. Hazel St., Youngstown; (724) 743-6560.