In Conversation With #176 - Yenkee
Cork City-born musician Yenkee has just released his brand new EP ‘Yen’ via Soft Boy Records.
Now based in London, Yankee has been making dreamy, youthful tunes packed full of wit, insight and magnetic hooks. He took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey here Yenkee - how are you? So your EP is finally here - how does it feel to have it out there in the work?
It feels nice. Some of these songs have taken years and years to find their place in the world, so it’s good to finally have them out there.
It is called ‘Yen’ - is there a meaning behind that?
Yen is the first three letters of my artist name, and there’s not much more behind it than that. Sometimes you just think of a phrase or a word and it seems to fit, and once it starts to stick you can’t really see it being called anything else. Sometimes you come up with a joke title, and then it sticks around too long to change it. I try not to think too much about it.
How does it differ from your previous release ‘Cannibal Tree’?
I’ve hopefully become a better songwriter and gotten better at recording and. A lot of the subject matter is the same, and I still work in the same way. The songwriting is definitely more diverse. I want to be able to write loads of different types of songs, and I’ve hopefully achieved that with Yen.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
It was recorded in my parents’ house in Cork, Ireland. There’s a track on the EP that I started recording in 2016, which is insane. I like recording on my own, but the best days are always when I get a friend in to play some keys or some guitar or whatever. I started getting serious about recording again during the first lockdown. I’d record during the day and go and work in a supermarket at night. Even though the world felt like it was burning, it was a lovely, productive time and I’ll remember it with great fondness.
What are the key themes and influences on the EP?
I don’t really think of things in terms of themes. I can only come to those conclusions as a listener, not as a writer. When I listen back to the EP now, I can hear subjects like age, death, booze, identity and depression being discussed, none of which were intentionally written about. They just fall in. I’m influenced by everything and anything I listen to, wether I like it or not.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
“I know that you wanted a picture, but it’s a video.” It’s a funny lyric. It references something very modern and kind of meaningless, but I also think of it as something like “you wanted something picturesque and perfect but life is way more complicated and detailed than that”. It’s cool.
Now the EP is out there - what next for you?
I’m going to keep making music whenever I feel like it, and taking it easy when I don’t.
