Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Yawn, who discusses her new single, Wasting Time and more.
Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?
Yawn: I started writing songs when I was a kid and fell in love with the process. I made my first EP when I was about sixteen, as teens we would rent out halls and host shows for musicians from neighbouring towns. Over the years I played more shows, met more people and I haven’t ever really stopped playing.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Yawn: I often have an idea for a song before I start writing anything. I sit with thoughts and ideas for a long time before they become something. I’ll have a line or two in my mind that I’ll start setting to music and the song usually starts to take shape from there. It’s usually really closely connected to the original idea or feeling I had when I first thought about it.
Review Fix: What inspires you?
Yawn: Big question. I’m inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement and the BIPOC communities who have shown so much strength and resiliency in the face of inherent and structural racism. There isn’t really anything bigger than that. But I’m also inspired by nature, I go running in the woods, I love looking at art and hearing new and interesting music. I love weird, intelligent female artists like Laura Mvula, Cate Le Bon and Aldous Harding. I’m inspired by the people I love most, especially the ones who have opted to live their lives the way they’ve always wanted to.
Review Fix: What does music mean to you?
Yawn: Hmm. Music is how I connect to a deeper part of myself that is only available on occasion. It’s a connection to space and time and the infinite that operates outside of my earthly body in another realm. Music is also hard though, it’s also this weight that I carry. A kind of beautiful burden I know I’ll always bear. Wow this question is intense! I think that’s the best way I can answer it.
Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?
Yawn: I usually describe Yawn as a synth dream-pop project. A bit ethereal, dreamy, hopefully it takes you somewhere else.
Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?
Yawn: My live shows include a lot of jokes. Like maybe too many jokes, but that’s part of who I am I can’t really help it.
Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?
Yawn: This single is about persevering in the face of adversity. It’s about holding onto your dreams and not giving up, in spite of the many challenges that arise.
Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2020?
Yawn: I’m really hoping to record an album this year.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Yawn: Currently about to start working with an LA based director who is making a video for this single. It involves a flower monster.
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