Melbourne producer/songwriter Yeo is taking his new single, Kobe, around Australia this month. He plays The Causeway Saturday, June 14; Lost Society that night (DJ set); and Indi Bar Sunday, June 15, and tells TROY MUTTON it’s good to have people around who’ll pull your head in from time to time.
“It’s the bane of my existence, I hate playing the game, but I have a really good team behind me who look after me and give me good advice.” So says Melbourne’s Yeo Choong, lamenting his inability to simply release new music as he completes it.
Don’t mistake him for some petulant young artist though, Yeo is completely aware of how the system works: “I can yell and scream about how much I don’t care about the actual industry side of music, but if I really love doing music so much, I need to be careful and not ruin everything before I’ve even gotten started.
“As soon as I finish a song I wanna share it with everyone,” he tells, on break from his day job before the tour kicks off that night in Melbourne, and it’s understandable given his two latest singles – Girl and now Kobe – have both clocked over 100,000 plays across Soundcloud/Youtube.
Not one to look backwards though, it’s Yeo’s upcoming releases he’s most excited about: “We’re happy, and we’re really excited about the stuff that’s coming as well. I feel like Girl and Kobe are…stepping-stones to some of the work I’m probably the most proud of in my life, if that makes sense.”
This excitement coincides with a slight shift in direction sonically for the young producer, who has two tracks to release to make up his four-track EP release. “A lot of my songs are different from each other and in different styles. Basically the two more tracks from the EP, kind of tie off a period in my life where I was really getting into analogue synthesizers, and trying to create something quite cinematic and lush.
“And now I’m moving slightly more towards the soul-y, get-up-and-dance style of music, that’s a little bit glitchy as well. Some would call it lo-fi, because some of the new songs are really quite rough sounding, but it’s all about the energy for me.”
Energy is a running theme for our conversation, especially when discussion turns to the live show – something Yeo holds in high regards when it comes to being a performing artist. “It’s a drummer and myself, and I switch between a couple of instruments…
“A lot of electronic acts these days, unless they’re doing really well, they don’t really bother with a drummer. But we make it a point, a drummer adds so much energy to it. My drummer Andrew, he’s so good at what he does, and we work really well together.”
And besides an energetic live show, what else can fans expect at his shows over the weekend? “For this tour we’ll be playing a lot of new stuff people haven’t heard before…
“We hope everyone enjoys it – you know that new direction I was talking about? There’s definitely a few songs that have that. But yeah whoever comes to shows on this Australian tour will be in for a bit of a premiere treat.”
