An Interview with Yellow Shoots | New single ‘sirens’ & new album Everything

Back in July we raved about ‘magic on my pillow’, the silky new single from Yellow Shoots. Now nearly two months later new album Everything is available and we’ve had an interview! That is some saucy continuity. In this chinwag we chat about the new record, new single ‘sirens’ and possibly the nicest final thoughts we’ve had yet. BIGGEST OF THANKS to Greg for doing this with us. Enjoy.

Hey Yellow Shoots, how’s it going? Pretty good man. How are you? (I AM GREAT MY DUDE)

First of all, what got you into music? Well, it was really the saxophone. My Mom bought me an alto saxophone in third grad so I can join the band. Years later, I picked up the guitar and that’s when started to become obsessed with writing my own songs.

You’ve just released your debut album Everything after a couple years of releasing singles and EPs. How does it feel to finally get that first album out of the way? Man- it feels really great. It was definitely a big step for me personally. I learned a lot about myself through the process. A lot of inner-confrontations and newly found ownership of who I really am and how I’d like to present that to the world.

Does the record contain some songs or ideas that you had in mind for a while now? Which ones have the most impact to you as an artist? Yeah- most of these songs were a year to a year and a half old before making it on the record. The title track “everything” really started the whole sound I was working on. “magic on my pillow” got me back to my blues and jazz roots and “desert rose” was just pure feeling for me. So I’d say all of those tracks kept me refining what I was doing.

You’ve also even more recently released a bonus track to Everything in ‘Sirens’. What can you tell us about it and how come it didn’t make the record? “sirens” is a song about unrequited love and a very emotional journey I was going through a year or so back. To be honest, the song didn’t fit the album flow the way I was hoping it would. It still works aesthetically with the rest of the songs but I thought it would feel better as a standalone experience.

Your music sounds so smooth and sexy my dude. How easy is it to create that mood in the studio? HAHA Thanks man. I’m not so sure. It’s generally pretty easy. I sorta get to work and that’s what comes out.

Do you feel all of your past releases were leading up to an album like Everything? Was this the kind of record you always had in mind? Not at all. The last EPs were sorta all over the place. I mean, you can hear I’m experimenting big time. You can hear how my vocals evolve and such, but I didn’t have a clue what my sound was.

What’s next for Yellow Shoots in 2018? US East Coast Touring. Potentially West Coast as well. New music! I have a lot of singles in the holster.

What are you currently listening to? Listening to a lot of Stevie Wonder, Blonde Redhead, Travis Scott, Zapp and Talking Heads.

Finally, if you could close out this interview with one final thought, what would it be? I think it’s important to take care of one’s mental health. Take a breather. I think we live in a world of a lot of immediacy and we forget to take breaks sometimes. That’s one thing I’m trying to keep top of mind.

And of course, thanks for supporting my music!