Hiya Guri Yeller, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
M: I was surrounded by music pretty consistently from an early age, with some of my earliest memories consisting of my dad (and older brother) playing Britpop, mid-2000s indie rock and 90s dance music on my living room speakers, while my mum provided R&B and hip-hop to go alongside it. Eventually, after having played guitar for a number of years, it was repeat viewings of televised live performances from bands that I grew up listening to that eventually made me decide that I wanted to do what they did.
H: I have always been surrounded by music as well, my dad has always been into a wide variety of music (listening to the Doors and Miles Davis on road trips) and that wide variety opened my eyes to music as a form of self expression rather than just something that sounds good. I only really properly decided that music was my main passion after I started playing in a band in high school and the feeling of being able to create music with your friends is one of the best in the world.
Introduce us to you all and your musical history.
H: I’m Harry, one half of Guri Yeller and I like guitars and synths and Peep Show and having my face very close to the television screen whilst white noise plays. I have playing various instruments for about 14 years and have been producing and mixing music for around 5 years!
M: I’m Matty, the other half of Guri Yeller. I’m the diversity hire (mixed race, disabled, bisexual), although I’ve been playing guitar for 15 years, gradually adding other instruments in that timespan as and when I’ve had access to them. I’ve been producing and writing seriously for around 5 years now, having spent the last few years doing a degree at LIPA. Two and a half years ago, I asked Harry (the best musician I know) if he wanted to work on some music together, and we ended up forming Guri Yeller.
What’s the live music scene like in Newcastle right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
H: I’m also in a band called Silk Road where I play keys and guitar, so have been gigging in and around Newcastle for around 2 and a half years. It’s really good as the community feels very tight knit and there are some very cool bands knocking about. A couple of favourites are a band called Holy Braille who do this wild industrial techno goth punk act, and we played with a band called Mother quite a few times and they are so so so awesome. They actually released a song a while ago called ‘Up The Hill’ which I love to bits.
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry?
M: We have found it difficult to establish ourselves as part of the live music scene, and I have spoken to people in other bands who are saying the same thing; that it’s challenging to get opportunities. As a band the primary thing you want to do is get your music in front of as many people as possible but in the over-saturated market that we live in, it can be frustrating.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
H: Honestly have no idea ahahaha, its really hard in a world where most of your exposure comes from the internet, to tell here you stand, so we mainly just focus on putting stuff out that we’re really proud of and hoping people will listen!
Tell us two truths and a lie about you.
Both: We live hundreds of miles away from each other, we met Nicolas Cage in Pizza Hut, Paul McCartney gave Matty a pin.
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
M: I feel like if that is a problem for you, you are probably treading in dangerous water already.
H: Also neither of us are remotely public figures so its very much less of a concern ahahaha
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not, why not?
H: Sean Combs tried to poison Jamie Foxx and he came back as a robot. (He also got Whitney Houston)
M: Epstein didn’t kill himself.
What was your best experience on stage?
H: When everyone was singing the lyrics back to us from our debut single at our first gig. It felt really special to know that so many people really like what we write 🙂
What was your worst experience on stage?
M: 30 seconds into said gig I managed to kick over my pedals, thankfully we managed to get them flipped back over without missing a beat.
Tell us something about you that you think people would be surprised about.
H: I also do the album art for all our songs and really love photography!
M: I got kicked out of 4 schools.
What are the next steps you plan to take as a band to reach the next level?
M: Contacting as many people and magazines as possible to get it out to as big an audience as we can.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
H: Seeing Double is our latest single, I actually began writing it while extremely hungover and comically unemployed. Its also sort of an amalgamation of various musical influences that I have been into recently!
What was the recording process like?
H: Fairly short, we record, mix and master all our songs from one of our bedrooms. Usually the recording and writing processes happen simultaneously, but this one took a bit longer to mix than the other as we had to do a huge amount of vocal tracks.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
M: Usually finding inspiration for themes. I usually reference and look back to artistic themes from the past, because whats going on right now is so overbearingly terrible and is presented to us in such an apathetic way, its hard to write about without being overtly political and or ‘watch out sheeple’ which is not what I want to do.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
H: NO, its out now and any imperfections are just part of its character.
M: I wanted a dubstep drop in there but hey ho.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
H: More songs eventually! we have quite a lot already recorded and ready to go. Go stream our newest single I hope it makes you happy xx
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