How hard is it to maintain a given musical ‘identity’ AND also evolve and develop?
It’s only hard if you spend your energy thinking about that. It’s only natural to evolve and develop your tastes and try new things so I don’t spend time worrying about those sorts of things. Music is a diary of each part of your life, all my favourite artists have changed and done radical things throughout their generally long careers.
Do you appreciate being compared to the likes of Toyo y Moi and Tame Impala or prefer no classification?
I don’t mind at all. We share the same workflows, we’re all self-producing, self-mixing reclusive hermits who intensely make music alone.
Do you keep up to date with music from the Grand Duchy, who floats your boat in particular?
I’m afraid I don’t know.
Where are you most at ‘home’, on stage or in the studio?
I am most at home at home. Home is where the studio is, although I am about to endeavor the live world and try more and more to melt my feet into the stage floor and be comfortable in both worlds.
How important is your heritage in your writing?
Not anything I think about.
Your music has plenty of psych influence, are there, moods or themes that resonate with you more than others – such as listening to music in a certain head space?
I’m a headphone person, so I consume music intensely and then rarely listen to music at other periods. I like music with atmosphere and emotion, just like in movies, the two go together. I’m very much a visual music person and it has to coexist in someway. Different styles of music resonate with me depending on where I’m at in life.Your bio says ‘if Yehan Jehan didn’t exist, someone would have to invent him’ does this hint at a ‘persona’ behind the craft, or is your craft a way of displaying your ‘true’ self?
It’s very much my truest form of expression. I’m brutally honest with music. I have to be. I have to respect it.
What follows ‘Earth Arrangements Vol. 1' – are there specific themes involved in your writing and how has your outlook changed since ‘Expansions’?
Volume 2 follows. The themes of Earth Arrangements is the idea of sociological tectonic plates of the planet. My outlook is very much the same. Its to embody as much as I can. The intention behind “Expansions” very much remains. It’s still expanding.
The Gudde Wëllen is a really intimate venue, is this the best type of place to see you play?
Its a great venue which I’m excited to play at again. As far as the best places to see me play, I haven’t played bigger so for now it’s what there is!
You seem in thrall to analogue, maybe lo-fi music styles, how do you merge this with modern methods?
I wouldn’t call my self lo-fi, I’m very much hi-fi. I’m modern with my methods and technology, although the tools I use tend to be replicating and emulating older methods. Be that vintage outboard gear, chamber reverbs from the 50’s, drums recorded to tape etc.
I would very much still record in a real studio if I could afford the opportunity although I never have. My goals of the bedroom studio were to break every boundary and make it sound as hi-fi studio as possible.
I love ‘Invisible Friends’- tell me more about how this track came about?
Invisible Friends was a Time Machine song. So it captured a specific period growing up in London. It was about school, it was about certain struggles and thoughts I had at the time. In a way its my current self speaking to my younger self.
Beck will play Luxembourg later this year, are you hoping for the phone to ring?
Definitely.
Tour Dates
Feb 28 Luxembourg LUX
Mar14 Prague, Meetfactory CZ
Mar17 London, Waiting Room UK
Mar 19 Cologne, Acephale DE
Mar 20 Rotterdam, V11 NE
Apr 30 Paris, Boule Noire FR
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