I’m not really the type of girl to take a moment to ponder and smell the roses. (I’ve got chronic hayfever, so that could be potentially fatal.) That said, I did find myself zoning out courtesy of Yujen’s debut EP ‘No Aware’ and a couple of muscle relaxants.
Yujen is the love project of Sam, William and Mitch – a trio of Melbourne musicians who recently released their debut EP ‘No Aware’ via Detail Co., the imprint of Melbourne renaissance men Chet Faker and Thrupence. Just last week, Yujen premiered the video for their track ‘Try It Over’ featuring guest vocals from Father Faker himself, which you can watch below.
EAVESDROPPING ON YUJEN
Who are you?
Sam is a sound engineer. William is an Architect, and Mitch is a scientist. We started making music together a few years ago, releasing under the name of Yujen.
Where are you from?
We all come from and live around Melbourne.
What is unique about your local music scene?
I guess you could say that there are lots of acts coming out of Melbourne and they are really pushing the creativity. So much new music coming from these musicians every week and it makes you work to create something different.
Describe your sound in three words. Go!
Ambient, down-tempo, psychedelic
What makes you unique as artists?
Not sure if it makes us unique, but the way in which we write and produce seems to alter what the original idea or concept for the song was. Most of the time a song will start as a simple melody that is then passed from session to session with everyone inputting there instrument and style onto the track and they often come out very different from the original idea.
Have you heard any new music lately? Got any recommendations?
We all have some similar and some different music tastes that encompass our sound. If we were all to say one track each, William has been listening to Khruangbin’s ‘A Calf Born in Winter’. Sam has been listening to The Myrrors’ ‘Warpainting’ (not so new), and Mitch has been listening to Yellowstraps’ ‘Landscapes’.
What inspired the artwork for this EP?
It can be difficult to get a visual match with music that you create, so we sent the EP to Jack Vanzet (Thrupence) and he listened through and painted the picture for the cover. It works so well with the liquid feel to the sounds present on the EP.
What’s the story behind the ‘Try It Over’ video?
We didn’t really want a storyline in the video as it wouldn’t work with our music, so it is much more visual based with the sounds in the song effecting the environment that is filmed.
What else are you working on at the moment?
We are currently working on producing a track for St. South for her upcoming EP, and remixing a track for Northeast Party House, which should be out very soon.
Do you have any shows coming up?
Our EP launch is set for July 12 at Boney in Melbourne with Japanese Wallpaper and Wush.
More Yujen
Soundcloud
Facebook
Detail Co.
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