Industry Insight | ASTER YVS Interview
July 14 | Written By Kirsten Moreton
ASTER YVS are an up and coming Glasgow base duo, creating dreamy hyper-pop tracks unlike any other. This week The Music Mag had the opportunity to interview this incredible two piece band and discover more about the origins, the present and what is to come for ASTER YVS.
What is the story behind ASTER YVS and the name, how did it begin?
ASTER YVS started off as a solo project of Alyssa’s from college, very much in the dream-pop sphere. It became a collaborative endeavour with the addition of Kyle, who elevated the ambient focus by bringing slightly harsher and sporadic elements from his music making style. I think we both tend to lean towards dissonant and chaotic styles of writing, so that comes through often in our work. We were known as just ASTER for a while, after the flower, but felt like it had evolved a bit after working together. That’s where the YVS comes from, pronounced like ‘Eves’ but we’ll take Y-V-S as well.
What are the current aims for your music?
Right now we’re getting ready for a couple of releases and getting back into live performance after taking a break. We hope to find our fit within the Scottish music scene, get connected with like-minded bands/musicians in a community sense. We’re pretty happy for our music to live in a niche market too, so doing the work to really pinpoint the people receptive to our stuff is the main goal right now.
What would you like to bring to your music?
For our live setup we’re wanting to bring more samples into the performance to match the recordings, which are heavier in the electronic elements. We reckon our music is heading further in that direction and hope to bring more experimentation into our music using the tools we have at our disposal. We like our hardware synths, drum machines and samplers. Kyle is always adding to his setup. Alyssa is into field recording as well so that’s another thing that will probably continue to be involved and explored.
What were some of your inspirations when starting out?
Alyssa’s early influence lyrically was the storytelling style of folk artists, such as Leonard Cohen. When the project started, Alyssa took influence from Cocteau Twins, Japanese Breakfast, Weyes Blood and such. Some of Kyle’s early influences are similarly folky in style and he appreciates those elements forming a strong core in our music. However, he has long been more interested in the role of electronic elements than acoustic instruments. He likes music that feels immersive and finds synths, effects and manipulated samples are best at achieving this. He felt this immersion at age 12 listening to Massive Attack’s album Mezzanine and it remains a big influence.
We shared an interest in the hype-rpop genre during our recent recordings that inspired us to push our sound to new extremes, although we’ve been quite measured around this. Put Your Head Above The Parakeets by HAAi was also something that we drew some inspiration from.
What was the inspiration around your latest release ‘As We Were’?
It was inspired partially by the idea of romanticising the past to the point of daydream and obsession. Music wise it kind of reflects this idea with the cyclical feeling in the verse and then the chorus which breaks it up. Alyssa remembers listening to Patience by KUČKA’s at the time we recorded it and that became a good reference for the synth elements.
What are your thoughts on the Scottish music scene and community?
We feel like the Scottish music scene is pretty welcoming to new artists, or at least there’s decent opportunity to gig and an atmosphere of grassroots operations focusing on new music. We’re still trying to find our specific niche in the scene, there’s a lot out there for the indie and alt side of things in Glasgow, which is great, but we’d love to connect with an ambient/electronic community! And further afield?
What is the main goal for ASTER YVS where would you like to be in ten years?
Our highest, highest goal is to get to KEXP haha, I think we could both die happy at that point. But even to still be making music in a somewhat sufficient way where we’re not debilitating the bank account in ten years would be success in itself. So getting the business side of things more secure, organising touring and merchandise whether that be ourselves or outside help.
Your sound is incredibly unique, What techniques do you use to get that ambient sound like the reverse effect in ‘As We Were’?
Thank you. I believe that was an arpeggiated synth line that we reversed throughout the verse. The higher synth part was made by sampling the reversed synth and manipulating it with Kyle’s Octatrack. The synth was one of the first instrumental bits we added over the rhythm guitar and vocals so it informed the tone for the rest.
What music/artists are you listening to right now?
Alyssa has been revisiting a lot of Cat Stevens recently and started listening to Stina Nordenstam who seems to share some similarities with ASTER YVS stylistically. Her production style is really interesting, it can be pretty minimal at times but achieves this jarring and unsettling space. We’ve both been listening to Navy Blue. Kyle has been listening to Blood Orange’s Freetown Sound, Wiki’s Half God and the early Wu Tang solo efforts from Raekwon, ODB and GZA.
Are there any bands or artists in the UK scene you think deserves some more recognition?
We recently played alongside Anoraq who are doing really cool things with their music. They put on an ambient music and spoken word night which was very special to be a part of. We really admire their focus on bringing these two art forms together in collaborative and improvised ways. Another artist we both like is Limo Cunningham who is a multi instrumentalist, songwriter and producer from Fife who makes these wonderfully inventive and experimental songs that have such a tangible quality to them.
What are some of the challenges in starting out as a musician?
Just making a name for yourself in the sea of music social media accounts and keeping people’s interest is very exhausting at times. Everything is stacked against independent artists, so there’s a ton of self-motivation and business savvy involved. You’re doing everything yourself as well, which in some ways is nice to have more control but also just a lot to deal with.
What has been your proudest moment so far?
We’re super proud of the music video for As We Were, which Kyle directed. The music video was very much a visual experiment between Kyle, Alyssa and bassist Lewis. We filmed it one night in Alyssa’s flat with just a torchlight, a lamp, some wool, and a disco ball. Having a limit of budget and materials worked to our strength as we were able to really hone in on conveying a visual translation of the song as well as translating our collaborative relationship in a different media than music. It was a rewarding experience which now really brings the song to life.
What is next for ASTER YVS?
We’ve got some releases ready in the bank which we’re excited to share, plus some extra bits to go along with them as well. More live shows to come too.
A special thank you for Alyssa and Kyle for taking the time to answer our questions! Make sure to follow ASTER YVS here for updates on new music and live dates.
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