A Moment With Yawn

TWIAPC: Ok so, what’s your story? How’d Yawn come to be?

Y: YAWN essentially grew out of our friendship throughout high school and our mutual love for music. We started playing punk/rock music together a few years before we became YAWN and through natural expansion of musical influences and desire to experiment, we slowly progressed into what we are now.

TWIAPC: Your music has an undeniable tropical feel, something one doesn’t immediately associate with a band from Chicago, where did that influence come from?

Y:It’s really a combination of a lot of things. The music we were listening to when we made the E.P. had a large influence on the overall sound. Tropical sounds from bands like AC, El Guincho, Ali Farka Toure, Brian Eno…lots of african and bollywood records too. You can hear them in the samples we use. Summer time in Chicago can feel pretty tropical as well, and recording our music during that particular season had an influence on the sound as well. I don’t think it was something that was done intentionally, or discussed as a band that we wanted to sound like that. Hopefully we can sound completely different on the next set of songs.

TWIAPC: Your video for “Kind Of Guy” is one of my favorites this year. How’d you decide on such a random but AMAZING concept?

Y: Thanks, really glad you like the video! The concept of the video was completely the idea of the director,  The Druid Beat. He lives in LA, and we randomly met by chance. He heard our music, and sent us this ridiculous description of a neon-space nativity scene with full of colors and sexual imagery. After seeing his other work, we knew it was gonna be awesome. During the shoot, we sort of bonded with him over an appreciation for public access tv, and he just sort of added the beginning and ending parts, which took the whole thing to an even weirder place. He’s the man in the blue snuggie, and he’s amazing.

TWIAPC: I understand you guys identify strongly with the DIY music scene. How does this effect your music and approach to “making it.”

Y: I’d say for us it specifically applies to the way we make music. We’ve been in studios before, and worked with others. We wound up with a rushed product that didn’t sound the way we wanted due to outside input from producers, not to mention the complete waste of time and money involved. Luckily, we learned from those mistakes and picked up general knowledge on recording. We sort of then decided it would be best to just record ourselves so that we could take unlimited time to tinker away as we wanted, and spend our  money on buying recording equipment for ourselves instead. This also helped contribute to our sound, since we could write and record at the same time without outside constraints and opinions. I think it effects our approach to “making it” in a strong way, since we are completely satisfied with the finished product and feel good about others hearing it and getting exactly what we intended them to.

TWIAPC: You have a second EP due later this summer. Can we expect an expansion on what you included in the first EP or will you be toying with some new sounds?

Y: A little of both i think. There are songs that have a tropical feel to them still, but there are others which sort of stray away from the feel of the first E.P. It’s still all very up in the air, and we’re deciding which set of songs to finish and put together for people to listen to.

[MP3] Kind Of Guy