Making it up as they go along

Yeti funerals, big-name producers and a fiercely DIY ethic: we meet Mary in the Junkyard, the band making some of the best new rock music in the UK right now

- WILL RICHARDS

WHEN ENTERING Mary in the Junkyard's headline show at south London's Corsica Studios, Rolling Stone UK is directed towards a side room where a 'yeti funeral' is promised before the main event. True to the brief, the second room of the venue - most often used for club nights - plays host to the wake of a character first introduced in the video for the band's debut single, "Tuesday'.

“Yeti not forgeti,” one fan has written in the guest book, while a specially created score on accordion by the band’s vocalist Clari Freeman-Taylor sends foreboding ambient tones through the room as plumes of smoke are pushed out and cover the lifeless creature in the centre.

From the moment they emerged with ‘Tuesday’ last year, Mary in the Junkyard have been fully committed to this type of immersion across their music, artwork and videos. Everything is created by the band themselves — they even made each other stage outfits for the Corsica gig — and feeds into the same fascinating world.

The music itself feels like the tip of the iceberg, but the trio’s early offerings comprise some of the most exciting indie music made in London this decade so far. Led by Freeman-Taylor’s alluring, unique vocals, they make noisy and rowdy guitar pop with significant depth and complexity. Through performing what they estimate as between 30 and 40 gigs at the Brixton Windmill across 2023, the band developed a reputation as a formidable live act, which is transferred onto tape brilliantly on debut EP This Old House.