In 2004 Weybridge, Surrey added a new claim to fame to their town in the form of alternative rock group You Me At Six.
Bearing the same original lineup 20 years on, You Me At Six have drummed up a storied career with eight floors of albums, topped and tailed by the 2008 skyrocket Take Off Your Colours and last year’s Truth Decay.
The latest album presented a track titled ‘No Future? Yeah Right’, which now appears seemingly ominous considering the answer to that question pertaining to You Me At Six’s lifespan has drastically changed. Following the album release, the beloved British band announced their final world tour, drawing their music project to a close on their own terms in 2025.
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“It feels very much like the right thing for our band. I was just saying in another interview that it feels like you get to a point where there has to be a level of commitment to take things to the next level or to continue pursuing something and I think all of our bellies are full. We’ve dined at this table for so long and we’ve loved it but we’re in the sort of territory where we’re all just doing it for the sake of doing it which I think would be an injustice to both our fans and us,” explains frontman Josh Franceschi.
“It’s just about not being the last people to know the punchline – making sure that we’re able to do right by the band and the audience and the fanbase. It’s never easy to say goodbye in any situation but I think if you have been afforded the luxury of being ahead of it and ending something the best way possible, you should do that which is what we’re doing.”
“Moreover it’s an opportunity to celebrate such an integral part of our lives, an all-consuming part of our lives with the people that matter most to us, which is the people that have propped us up for 20 years. It’s going to be a good tour.”
It’s a gut-feeling, knowing when something isn’t serving you any more, or you’re not serving that thing anymore. In You Me At Six’s case, it was a unanimous decision. The conversation happened in a pub before a photoshoot for a magazine in Whitechapel in East London.
“We came to the conclusion that everything that we wanted to fulfil in this, and was realistic to achieve in this, we’ve done. We were never going to break America so we took that off the table and we’re comfortable with everything we have here in the UK and Europe and Australia. We thought, ‘do we want to phone it in or do we want to, as you say, legitimise our legacy?’”
“We have fans that feel just as passionately about the band as we do but there is something really powerful about knowing when to walk away from something before it gets tired. To do that during our 20 year anniversary – I think our last ever gig at Wembley is the same date to the day as our first ever band practice. There are so many things that are coming up that it made sense to do it this way. Our hand got forced in a way,” Franceschi says.
Serendipitously, their story ends on a full circle, with Truth Decay balancing as the perfect bookend to their catalogue. An album born of reflection following a tedious body of work with SUCKAPUNCH, Truth Decay returned You Me At Six to their roots, both reigniting their reason for existence and solidifying it.
“It was the mission statement after SUCKAPUNCH. SUCKAPUNCH was so painful because we recorded it in 2019 in Thailand with the roll out meant to be October, November December but then the pandemic happened…There are some great moments but it’s basically a car crash of five people trying anything and everything and it making the record.”
He continues, “My main takeaway from SUCKAPUNCH was ‘I don’t know who that band is’ and it’s tough to digest. We landed on the fact of reclaiming our sound of the earlier records while using the knowledge and experience in the studio for Truth Decay. But I really sensed as we were making the record that, as you say, it is a bookend – it feels like a swansong record and it feels like a band that is saying ‘this is our remit’.”
It’s a remit to remember, along with the bands most iconic moments including their emo earthshaking surprise duet with Hayley Williams are Reading and Leeds for ‘Stay With Me’ and so many more. There are countless reasons to celebrate You Me At Six and now is the best time.
You can catch You Me At Six during their final Australian shows next January. Ticket can be purchased here.
