17-year-old Yellow Days is the latest signee to Good Years, the London label that has introduced us to artists like Banks, Lil Silva, and Mick Jenkins. As ever, the label remains unbounded by genre, with Yellow Days bringing a slow-moving, jazz-flecked brand of indie rock, which revolves around his gruff, scratchy vocals and languorous guitar playing.
Inspired by Ray Charles, Howlin' Wolf, jazz guitarists, and Mac Demarco, Yellow Days is creating his own sound, one that sounds mature beyond his years on "Your Hand Holding Mine." It may be about his first love, age 14, but the themes are universal.
"Your Hand Holding Mine" comes from Yellow Days' debut EP for Good Years, coming soon. Get to know the artist with a short interview below.
Who is Yellow Days? What should we know about the person behind the music?
Yellow Days itself is like a way of looking at things or a certain time when everything is odd or confusing and emotionally potent. In a literal sense I am Yellow Days. I think what people should know is that I only ever write what's real to me, every song that I ever do will come from a real feeling and a real time
When did you start making music and who or what inspired you to start?
I started properly making music when I was about 13 or 14. I sang in a rock band with my brother and a 30 year-old Spanish guy called Xavier and we played together for about six months or so. When I was doing that got used to having to sing super loud over heavy guitar and drums and then I started writing softer sort of ballads by myself but using the same kind of singing.
I've always been a huge fan of Ray Charles and I think vocally him and the likes of Howlin' Wolf really inspired me. In terms of instrumentation I've got a huge soft spot for a sort of detuned jazz feeling. I'm really into jazz guitarists like Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery, I also stumbled across Mac Demarco when I was around 14, who definitely made a huge impact on how I play guitar.
I think what inspired me to start was that I found music as a way of dealing with things that have happened to me, whether they're good or bad I saw writing as a cathartic thing to do.
Tell us about "Your Hand Holding Mine."
It's a song about that first love ending and how you used to tell each other you'd stay together until you're old and grey but it hasn't worked out like that. Now you're dealing with the fact you always thought it would be their hand holding yours, but it isn't going to be. When I was around 14 I found that first love and the tune is like an account of me dealing with that odd feeling.
How did you get connected with Good Years?
What's mad about all this stuff is I think it was after I put my second song on Soundcloud I came home to an inbox full of industry people wanting to meet me and stuff and that was only at the beginning of this year. My manager actually first contacted me when I'd only put one song up and we've been sort of planning this first piece of work since then. Good Years we're keen to work together and they understood the sort of vision. It came together nicely.
What else can we look forward to from Yellow Days in the near future?
What people can expect next is a lot more songs, I've been writing for this project for three years or so now- so yeah a lot of songs to come.
