q & a: yellowfever
How did YellowFever get started?
It started with me and a friend of mine, Isabel, we used to make funny 30 second joke songs and weird little melody collages. And then we decided to start a real band so we started writing songs together and played a couple of shows and the drummer, Adam, came in. Isabel left the band and then we had a couple of trials with some third members and decided to keep it as a two piece, so just Adam and I, which is our line-up right now and that’s it!
Do you find Austin a very inspiring place to be – being in Texas but being not at all like the rest of Texas?
It’s the most liberal place in Texas, it’s also in the hill country so it’s pretty green. There are lots of place to play, lots and lots of venues, and there’s a festival there, South by Southwest, and yeah, there are a lot of bands. Often it has this slacker background, a lot of people doing a lot of stuff but not a lot of bands tour. It’s very very easy to live there so you have to really motivate yourself to do things. Everything is there for you to totally succeed, you just have to really push yourself.
It is known as the live music capital of the world, have you found it to be a very supportive community for your music?
I guess we have a scene there, like regular people and friends that come to our shows, it’s pretty small. It’s more of a garage rock and blues and Americana kind of thing that’s more popular there. As far as the community, people really, I think, support musicians. We’re really fortunate to live there.
Can you tell me a little bit about your process in songwriting? How does your music come together?
It’s kind of changed over the past couple of years, as we’ve been a two piece because it’s pretty different to having three people – you can bounce ideas back and forth more quickly and hear everything. But now it takes a lot longer, like I’ll come up with a melody and go and record it and then I’ll email it to Adam. We just throw things back and forth for a long time and then piece it together into a song and we’ll have a couple of those things going on at once because you can’t really jam things out.
How was Sugar Mountain Festival?
It was good, it was a neat event. We had some technical difficulties but once we got started, everything was cool. It was really beautiful, there was a dome and lights in the ceiling and there were some really nice projections they played behind all of the bands. I liked it a lot.
And how have you generally been finding your reception in Australia, have you found a fanbase here?
The last two have been really good, we’ve hit a lot of rain and things, but Sugar Mountain, the reception was really good and Wollongong was a really good show. We played Sydney, that was nice. It’s been pretty good, it’s our first time here but the crowds have been really receptive.
Do you find that the reception to you personally is different, being a female in the music industry, than it is for Adam?
People sometimes describe our music as female-fronted, or use words relating back to the fact I’m female, which doesn’t really describe the sound. People used to say that we were really, a cute band, which I didn’t really agree with, but not so much lately. I don’t know, I think I dress really conservatively…I’m trying to steer it away from that, to be about the music. Definitely sound men treat me maybe a little differently [than] if they’re talking to Adam. I guess I just try to pretend those things aren’t happening, just operate as though it weren’t an issue and then usually people follow me on that.
What’s next for YellowFever?
We just finished an album that we’re real proud of, so we’re looking for a label in the States. We want to switch our sound up a bit, just experimenting with how we make sounds as a two-piece until our album comes out at the end of the year, then hopefully we’ll do some more touring of the United States. We’d like to come back to Australia too.
YellowFever have just about completed their first Australian tour, but will be performing at The Tote in Melbourne on May 14. Click here for more information and tickets!
