Jumping Hurdles with Sitting On Stacy

Written and Photographed by Rick Perez, @goodtimerickstudios

Styled by Dylan Bellingan, @dylan_bellingan

Featuring designs from Viva La Vacay, Sanford Shapes, Sea of Seven, Misfit Shapes, and Ensea Optics

San Diego, California, USA

Sitting On StacyHoyt Yeatman wearing Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacayLeland Schenk wearing Sea of Seven, @seaofsevenKyle Hart wearing Misfit Shapes, @misfitshapes and beanie by Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacay — Sitting On Stacy
Hoyt Yeatman wearing Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacay
Leland Schenk wearing Sea of Seven, @seaofseven
Kyle Hart wearing Misfit Shapes, @misfitshapes and beanie by Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacay

The sun was shining as I was driving down Cable Street in Ocean Beach, San Diego. I was breathing in the ocean air and blasting “Over The Edge” by Sitting On Stacy as palm trees were passing me by. I felt good; it was the first time I felt like this in a few weeks.

Since Thanksgiving, Southern California has been taken over by cold, rainy weather and it was having a negative effect on me. On top of that, I’ve been working a lot and not being able to focus on my creativity, which has also made me feel down.

Today was different; today the sun was shining, I was back in San Diego, by the beach, and getting ready for an afternoon with the indie rock band Sitting On Stacy. As I pulled up to Pizza Port, our meeting place, I saw Hoyt Yeatmen, Kyle Hart, and Leland Schenck waiting for me outside. They were all wearing flannel (unplanned) and had the biggest smiles. We gave each other hugs, ordered our food, and began talking about life. I wanted to know everything: who they are as a band, their joys, struggles, and how they’ve grown since their first album, ‘Obsessed’.

Since the release of their previous album, ‘Obsessed’, Sitting On Stacy have come across a few changes and setbacks. One of the biggest changes they had was replacing their previous drummer with Leland Schenk, a San Diego native who they met while surfing.

Kyle was the one who met him first. “I was out on the water and this guy says, ‘Do you play bass?’” Kyle accounts. The guy turned out to be Leland.

“My friends and I were Sitting On Stacy fans,” Leland laughed as he told his perspective. “We’d go to all the shows and I recognized Kyle. The first thing I asked was ‘Do you play bass?’” Kyle and Leland started talking from there and jammed a few times after that encounter. Fast forward a while later, Sitting On Stacy was scheduled to play a show at the Che Cafe. Their previous drummer quit that day and the band needed a drummer at the last minute. Leland came through, killed it, and the rest is history.

Since that show at the Che Cafe, the guys released their latest album, ‘Perfectly Sane’. Most of the songs on the album are fast and hard, but it wasn’t originally going to sound like that.

As a new member of the band, Leland brought a fresh perspective and a different sound to Sitting On Stacy. They told me that ‘Perfectly Sane’ was supposed to be a soft album, filled with nice songs your mom would like. However, Leland’s drumming style influenced the change in songs. “(Leland) does beats that I’ve never seen anyone do,” Kyle said. Leland’s style is fast and has punk roots, so the songs on the album became heavier and angrier. “It works better with our live energy,” they said.

Getting a new drummer at the last minute, while seemingly a stressful adjustment, turned out to be blessing in disguise. Leland was the missing link in the evolution of Sitting On Stacy and they are better for it.

Hoyt Yeatman wearing Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacayLeland Schenk wearing Sea of Seven, @seaofsevenKyle Hart wearing Misfit Shapes, @misfitshapes and beanie by Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacay — Hoyt Yeatman wearing Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacay
Leland Schenk wearing Sea of Seven, @seaofseven
Kyle Hart wearing Misfit Shapes, @misfitshapes and beanie by Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacay

Although a banger of an album, the guys told me how much they struggled to get ‘Perfectly Sane’ out into the world.

“Recording ‘Perfectly Sane’ made us rip our hair out,” Hoyt recalls. “It was the worst experience.” In the beginning, they recorded the album with their original drummer. He ended up leaving halfway through so they had to re-record the drums. When everything was finally recorded, the hard drive with the songs somehow got damaged and they lost everything. They were devastated but didn’t give up. “After a few months, we ended up getting everything back but it was stressful.”

During this time, Sitting on Stacy got a booking agent and set a record release date and a show to go with it. After the long battle of getting their recordings back, they still needed to mix the songs and had almost no time to do it. “We had one week to mix 14 songs by ourselves,” said Hoyt.

Determined, Sitting On Stacy did what they could to make it work. “We would go to bed at 6am, wake up around 2pm, and mix until 6am the next morning,” Leland said, remembering the grueling process. “We slept during the day and lived at night. We became obsessed with it.”

After a week of crazy sleep schedules and non stop work, they listened to the final product and felt proud. “Even if no one else likes this, we don’t even care, we’re stoked on it,” they thought at the time.

When the night of their album release show at the Irenic came, their hard work paid off; the 500 person venue was sold out. “We didn’t expect that many people to come,” Hoyt said, gleefully. “We were at capacity and had to turn people away.”

Along with their fans, Hoyt, Kyle, and Leland celebrated their asses off. I was at that release show and let me tell you, Sitting On Stacy’s set was absolutely insane. 500 people of all ages packed that no air-conditioned venue with moshing and crowd surfing and mayhem. They each recalled something from that night.

Leland: “People were throwing up, sweating. We were up on stage slipping on people’s sweat.”

Kyle: “In between each song I stopped to drink some water and the crowd looked at me, thirsty. I threw the water bottles in the crowd and they all scrambled, fighting each other for the water.”

Hoyt: “I felt bad for the people in the front. The mosh pit would start and they would be like rag dolls, flying onto the stage and knocking everything over. It was like a people blob coming at you.”

As we were finishing our food and a dinosaur in a truck drove by, I asked them if they were struggling with anything, musically or personally.

“It can be discouraging not playing a show for a long time,” Leland told me. Their last show was their album release in August and their next is December 27th. “We are making all this music and it’s like ‘do people even care? What are we doing?” I can see where that could discouraging. As a photographer, if I don’t put out content for awhile, or update my social media, I wonder if people would forget about me. Once I do, will people even care anymore?

A little hesitant at first, Hoyt really opened up and talked about what he struggled with personally, “I haven’t talked about it much, but do you know what Tourettes is?” He asked me. Not expecting that, I curiously said yes and he continued. “I have Tourettes Syndrome, where you twitch a lot and people think you look crazy . A lot of people don’t know what it is. I’m able to hide it a lot but you feel self-conscious. I used to yell and screech but I have more control of it now. Music has helped as an outlet to let go of that stress. I don’t really do vocal ticks, mostly bodily. It never happens when I’m performing, which is the weird thing.”

I thanked Hoyt for telling me that. It takes a lot of courage for someone to reveal an insecurity like that and I’m glad he opened up.

Sunglasses by Ensea Optics, @enseaoptics

Before we wrapped up, I just had to know if they had any fun party stories. Hoyt told me of a night when they tried to play at 3 different house parties but the cops kept shutting them down.

“One time we played at this house show at 11 o’ clock at night. We get up on stage, with all these people freaking out and I play one chord and all of the sudden the lights cut out and people yell ‘The cops! The cops!’ So we packed up our gear and went to a second house. We unload our gear and this guy is backing out of his driveway and asks, ‘Whats going on here?’ and I say ‘Oh we are playing a show’ and he goes ‘Where?’ and I say ‘That house over there!’ and as soon as he pulls away I think ‘Oh man, I just gave it away.’ As we were doing sound check in the house, Leland hits the snare drum and the cops break the party again. I guess they found out cause of a flyer on our Instagram. So we go to another house, where there was already a party going on, and we were able to play there. The party was nuts, people were jumping off of roofs, getting wild. It was an adventure. ”

Hoyt wearing Sanford Shapes, @sanfordshapes and Ensea Optics, @enseaopticsKyle and Leland wearing Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacay and Ensea Optics, @enseaoptics — Hoyt wearing Sanford Shapes, @sanfordshapes and Ensea Optics, @enseaoptics
Kyle and Leland wearing Viva La Vacay, @vivalavacay and Ensea Optics, @enseaoptics

After lunch, Hoyt, Kyle, Leland, and I met up with the stylist for the photo shoot, my friend and creative genius Dylan Bellingan. Dylan is the co-founder for the clothing and lifestyle brand, Viva La Vacay. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the grass, climbing dunes, and shooting in the sun.

I went back Los Angeles feeling more confident and happier than I had left. Hoyt, Kyle, and Leland of Sitting On Stacy are fun, positive, and have this infectious excitement about life that motivated me again. The hurdles they had to jump over, like losing all their recordings and struggling with insecurities, proved to make their band stronger and their success sweeter. Even their party story demonstrates how they are a determined and passionate group that wont let anything get in the way of their art. It makes me look at my life and the hurdles I have right now what I need to do to get over them. I’m excited to hear more about the future challenges they face and how they overcome them. Until then, keep jumping, my friends.