Hey guys! How does it feel to release 100% Yes, despite all of the chaos around the pandemic?
Definitely a strange time to be releasing anything but we are relieved that it’s coming out after all the work we have put in, and the fact that the songs are being so well supported on the radio. If we waited until all this is over we would have to build that support back up again. Also very glad to be able to offer this music as some kind of tonic in this time of isolation, and hope that people find it exciting and absorbing.
What has the response been like to the album so far?
So far the response has been fantastic - people seem to be enjoying the clarity and momentum of the music and pleasingly for us, people are really picking up on the messages and meanings of the songs. It’s always a delicate balance when writing an album in that you want to retain the elements of the music which represent the sound of the band, but also find ways to move it forward. It feels like we’ve got that right with this new music, judging by the response so far.
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| Melt Yourself Down's brand new album, 100% Yes: Listen Here |
How did you celebrate the album launch whilst in isolation?
I celebrated by doing a live broadcast on Facebook for Clash magazine. I got the stems of the album, removed myself from the music and then played the backing track through my PA and played along with it on the saxophone. All that went into my phone and out to the audience, who then asked me questions which I answered. My partner was in the studio with me, helping me field the questions and making sure it wasn’t too chaotic. It was the first time I’d done anything like that and it was slightly shambolic but great fun!
The album is a melting pot of influences, themes and ideas. But what was your most consistent throughout the recording process?
The main ingredient in the construction of the tracks was the saxophone – for this album I recorded myself playing over a groove or just a metronome and then went through the recordings to find little building blocks for the tracks and built from there. The main ingredient for the construction of the lyrics was that we wanted to address certain issues that were outside of us. A couple of the songs are internal but several come from a more objective viewpoint. We were also keen for the lyrics to be understandable and with a clear narrative.
How hard is it to take those influences from far reaching origins, like African music, modern jazz and post-punk, to name a few, and put it into one cohesive project that sounds as great as 100% Yes?
Thank you! It’s not so much that it’s hard, more that it requires analysis and precision. I love transcribing other peoples’ music and analysing what makes it tick so to then transpose those principles into a piece of my own is fun. Nowadays it’s also about production for me so the timbre and atmosphere of something I’m listening to can have as much influence as the rhythmic or melodic construction. This research element always combines with the musical thought that Kush and the other band members bring to the table as well, so it feels natural to let those flavours in too. But to be honest once you scratch the surface of most styles of music you are left with many common elements, no matter how disparate the geographical origins of the music is. There are Nubian rhythms in grime, Arabic elements in salsa, ancient pentatonic scales in modern pop music, the list is endless. And that’s really fun to mess around with.
How important do you think it is to use your platform to highlight issues that affect yourselves, or that you feel invested in?
It’s not a huge priority to be honest, because we are not politicians or activists per se, and we don’t necessarily feel qualified to make large or definitive statements about such issues. That said, with this album there were elements that we did feel strongly about such as the Grenfell Tragedy (Born In The Manor) , the Panama Papers ( This Is The Squeeze), the political and capitalist manipulation of social media (Every Single Day) for example but we were careful to try and avoid preaching or being too literal, because after all these are songs and we want people to find their own poetry in the music, not just our explicit meaning. It was satisfying for our writing process to discover a way for Kush and I to write lyrics together in a coherent way, and to be able to address subjects objectively but with (hopefully) enough obliqueness to maintain some element of mystery.
What's next for Melt Yourself Down?
At the moment we are in lockdown so we have had to scramble to quickly re-work our campaign. We were planning to tour in April, then play festivals and then tour again in Autumn but those live plans have obviously changed. We have rebuilt our UK tour so it’s now taking place in October and will start to plan next year soon. So until then we are finding ways to play together remotely, to chat online, to create interesting content for social media and start writing new music. Kush and I have a few songs already that we’re excited about so this summer will be about developing those as well as finding innovative ways to perform under these unprecedented restrictions!