Forget everything you know about the expansive collection of experimental music available today. There are things out of this world that live among us. Things that dare not be explained. These apparitions, if we can call them that, are sudden and daring. They are pinch hitters to our minds, ogling us listeners with instrumentation that bears no human touch. Who would ever think all this mystery and madness would come out of Winter Park, FL? This past weekend I had a chance to stir up a little Q&A with the ever challenging, Yip Yip.

Yip Yip is comprised of Yip 1 and Yip 2, the very Suess-like pseudonyms (say that twice as fast) of Jason Temple and Brian Esser, respectively.

CoS: Where did the initial idea for Yip-Yip come from?

Jason: The short answer is just plain boredom. We were just really bored with everything musically that we were exposed to in Orlando. It was just so much of the same sort of music; we wanted to do something more fun than all of the indie rock and more interesting than all of the computer music that was coming out of Orlando at the time.

CoS: Most importantly, who designed those fabulous costumes?

Brian: We’ve designed all of the costumes for the band, sometimes they started as drawings and others were just kind of thrown together piece by piece. The checkered costumes we thought of on our first west coast tour in 2005. We were halfway through the tour and we were getting pretty bored with the costumes that we had at the time. I drew it in my sketchbook, and when we got home we found the fabric and made them. Now we are working on a new costume idea for our next tours.

Jason: Brian tells this story wrong every time. He always leaves out the part where I said, “How about head-to-toe checkers?” and then he drew it in his sketchbook. We were listening to a lot of ska on that tour.

CoS: Explain what goes into a typical song? What’s the process behind your songwriting?

Brian: We have tried a bunch of different things throughout the years, but one thing finally started to work well for us the past year or so. We usually start on the computer with a drum beat. Then we find some intertesting tones on our gear that we think may match the beat. Then we sample the tones onto the computer and start writing out parts to the songs, going back and forth between the gear and the computer. We write the most interesting song we can, and once we have an awesome tester song, we learn how to play the melodies in real life on our synthesizers and other stuff. Then we change stuff and add more things before we record it.

CoS: With bands LCD Soundsystem and Daft Punk literally shaking the music scene, specifically the festivals, do you feel Yip-Yip is entering with open arms or is this a sound that’s challenging to listeners?

Brian: People always seem to be into what we are doing, and most of the fans we have made so far seem to be interested in watching us grow musically, which is great! I have always been surprised at how far we’ve come. I don’t know how much crazier it can get, it’s already so crazy, but we are excited to see what happens.

Jason: Brian’s answer isn’t really an answer, so I’ll give it a shot: I think Yip-Yip’s sound may be challenging to some listeners. It’s sort of by design. We tend to go through phases in which we get annoyed with getting compared to bands like those and we specifically write less poppy, more sonically abrasive songs. We’re always trying to find the perfect balance of progressive/abrasive and poppy/catchy. We sort of try to make the most beautiful music we can with the ugliest sounds we can create. As far as festivals go, we haven’t been asked to do any but we are into the idea.

CoS: Describe the music scene and your success in Central Florida.

Jason: The music scene in central Florida is pretty strange. Things happen in waves. Every year or two, when things are starting to get really interesting and there are lots of people and bands doing fun things, when it looks like Orlando is about to just blow everybody away, everything falls apart. I think people get tired of working hard to make Orlando cool and just move to an already established ‘cool’ city like Portland, Austin, New York, San Francisco, etc. I don’t really blame them. Orlando is never going to be that cool and we’re okay with that. We seem to have the most fun and success when the weird music scene on a whole is healthy.

CoS: Last year the band went on a pretty ambitious tour across America, where did you see your sound bloom? Any spoiled shows?

Brian: We toured 4 months of last year, 2 in the beginning of the year and 2 towards the end. All of our touring seems to get better and better each time we go out. The tours at the end of last year were the best ones yet, especially the tour with The Locust and Sleeping People. It was awesome to play to a big crowd every night, with a bunch of people who seemed open to different music. There was really only one spoiled show that i can think of last year, and it was the last show of the last tour, on our way home from the shows with The Locust.

CoS: Over the past years, the band has shared the scene with a variety of classic and rising indie bands, from Melt Banana to Band Marino. With having such a diverse sound (you guys), how have these shows been? How are the crowds reacting? B

Brian: I used to be nervous just about any time we played with a bigger band that sounds way different than us, but every time it’s seems to go really well. Most of the time these bands are kind of experimental and different themselves, so they usually draw open-minded people. I don’t know what it is about us, but for being such a kind of weird, un-classifiable band, we strangely fit into so many musical scenes. It’s cool to be able to play a kind of show like the ones we did with The Locust, Daughters, and Cattle Decapitation, and still somehow get a great reaction from the crowd and the bands.

CoS: Have any filmmakers approached you about scoring? Possible use in other forms of media?

Jason: Nothing serious. Somebody once asked us if he could use our music in a video game, but I’m not sure if that ever happened. I’m into the idea of music we’ve already written being used in a movie or video game or probably any other medium. Scoring anything sounds like a serious undertaking that I don’t think Brian and I would have the time to get into. We hardly have enough time right now–between working regular jobs and trying to live semi-regular lives–to work on our own new music ideas.

Brian: Scoring would be something I would love to get into maybe more in the future. Both Mark Mothersbaugh and Danny Elfman did that after their bands calmed down, and it seems like an interesting thing to get into if you get the opportunity.

CoS: As a self proclaimed Nirvana fan, I have to say, “Great cover of ‘Very Ape’.” Have you submitted it to any Nirvana compilation tapes?

Brian: Thanks!!! That is our first cover song! The track is going to be part of a 6 way split seven inch with our friends Mixel Pixel, Pataphysics, Low Red Center, The Show Is The Rainbow, and Machinedrum. It will be out in a couple months.

CoS: What’s 2008 looking like?

Brian: Awesome so far! We are making a bunch of new music for our next album. We are also working on a brand new set for our next tours, which will hopefully be in late summer and fall. We can’t wait to tour again!

This isn’t mind control, I’m not into that stuff, but let me tell you this: Yip Yip will be your next addiction.

[MySpace]

Check Out:
“High Heel to Mammal IV”
“Club Mummy”

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Categories: Features, Interview, News
Tags: Yip Yip