YellowFever Interview: SXSW 2010

YellowFever, from Austin, Texas, qualify as "art pop." The Indie duo consists of Jennifer Moore (vocals, guitar, keys) and Adam Jones (vocals, drums and bass synth). One would expect their sound to be thin , but with their combined compositional and melodic powers (and some extra gadgets, pedals, etc.), they produce well-balanced songs on record and onstage alike. They consider their focus to be on writing "concentrated pop songs" -- and pride themselves on their skill at crafting strong melodies into these sweetly short tunes. They tour the country, and, admittedly in hippy fashion, bring a cooler and fresh veggies with them on their travels! They plan to tour the States throughout the year and Europe more toward summer, camping and cooking out along the way. As if they weren't cute enough already, they even hand-make the T-shirts they sell. Spinner recently caught up with Jennifer Moore to discuss their latest release, their touring lifestyle and their expectations of SXSW.

Describe your sound in your own words.

We play, like, indie rock music, but it's like pop music that's kind of off, like slightly weird. All of the songs are pretty short and sweet. We like them to have a memorable melody and chorus. Our goal for this band is concentrated pop songs.

How did the band form?

We formed in 2006. It started with a friend of mine, Isabel [Martin, who] was moving from New York to Austin. We'd played music before and wanted to do a real serious band and play shows. We played about two shows and the drummer, Adam, offered his services and we needed a drummer -- and he's really good. We played with Isabel for about a year, then she moved back to New York. We've had a couple of third members kind of come and go. But the whole time it's been just kind of me and Adam playing different instruments, just because of the lineup changes and the way is now, it's just a two-piece.

What are your musical influences?

Me personally, I listen to a lot of '60s groups, folk music , indie pop and indie rock. Adam listens to alot of free jazz; he comes from the noiser side of things and I'm more poppy, vocal oriented.

Do you write most of the music or do you both collectively write?

We both do. I do most of the lyrics and melodies, and I give him pieces of things and then he'll come up with the guitar part or bass parts. It's very collaborative. But we just kind of have our different departments that we're better at. He's a much better instumentalist, and my thing is more like singing and melodies.

How did you come up with the band name?

It was actually Isabel that picked the name YellowFever, and I didn't know what it meant -- ust thought it was kind of an abstract thing. It sounded psychedelic to me. But, um, It turns out it's malaria. So I guess our idea was like, you know, you name sports teams after intimidating things, like large animals or warriers or something. It doesn't mean anything to me at this point -- It's just like my own name.

What inspires some of the lyrics in your songs?

We have a lot of songs about cats. We're not even big cat people, we have a bunch of cats that live on Adam's porch. They're all kind of feral, but they all eat at his house, they're like roommates or something.

What can you tell me about the newest record?

It's a compilation of everything that we've done so far, just to have it released so that people would be able to hear it. The Vivian Girls liked our EPs and our music, so they offered to to put them all together onto one big thing, offered to distribute it and promote it. We have a new EP that has come out since the record, that has some new recordings that we've worked on for our next album and some weird covers. The new EP is kind of an unofficial thing. We've been selling it on tour and online. It's not really available in stores. If somebody saw us at SXSW, they could purchase it in person.

Did you have a first celeb crush?

As a little kid, I liked Michael Jackson [laughs]. I guess that's kind of a weird one.

What are your musical guilty pleasures?

I guess Top 40 stuff, but I don't know if i should feel guilty about that. I mean, everybody likes Beyoncé; she's a really good singer, and a lot of her songs are real concentrated and catchy. I don't think one should feel guilty. It's Top 40 music, but I'm not ashamed.

What 's your biggest vice?

Probably sugar and getting distracted. I'm really bad at multitasking. I have 10 million unfinished things. Like five half-full glasses or something, but nothing is a product yet.

Whats a typical day like for you on tour?

A lot of driving and waiting. I think we have a unique way of touring -- like right now we have a pickup truck with a camper and we take a camping stove and a cooler. We make full meals when we roll into town; we save a lot of money that way. So we drive and get somewhere and we'll find somewhere to cook dinner, and we'll eat and then play, and then stay awake forever, waiting to get paid. Then we'll go to sleep, then the next day we'll do it again. It's really boring, but we like it. We'll listen to music and we'll go camping sometimes. We went on a tour, about two years ago and we took Adam's son with us, he was seven at the time. We went camping a lot, went to Disneyland and the redwoods and all these fun places, and all of our drives were really short. It was really fun, more like a road trip instead of work.

I read that you bring carrots and a lot of vegetables with you in the cooler?

Yea, we bring lots of vegetables and canned beans. We've made sushi and catfish, Indian food. Sometimes gross things happen, though -- like the butter gets mixed in the water. Winter is a better time for the cooler. One time we ran out of water while driving through an Indian reservation and we pulled over and grabbed snow from the side of the mountain, melted the snow and made coffee out of it. It seemed really mystical and hippie.

What's in your festival survival kit?

My bicycle, so that I don't have to deal with traffic , and water. The knowledge of not to overdo it. In past years I've tried to overdo it and see everything, and it's stressful, so just try to keep laid back and remember to eat, drink and sleep at the right times.

Is there anything that you would like people to know that I haven't asked you?

Please tell them to come to our show. We have nice handmade T-shirts.


Samantha Shrader is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.