In 2013 YellowStraps & Le Motel unveiled their first track ‘Pollen’ which lead to an invitation by Belgian tastemaker Lefto to perform the single live on national radio. After they put out their second single ‘Valium’ things got a bit quiet around their collaboration and it looked like it was going to be a one-off thing but fortunately they found some time to complete their collaborative EP ‘Mellow’ which was released on October 21. I asked them some questions about the EP and their plans for the future.

Read the Dutch version of this interview here. 

Two years ago you guys put out ‘Pollen’ & ‘Valium’. Is this the sound we’ll be hearing on ‘Mellow’?

Definitely. Just like on ‘Pollen’ & ‘Vallium’ we’ll keep we’ll keep mixing guitars with electronic sounds and smooth drums. We started our collaboration with ‘Pollen’ and ‘Valium’ but on the album you can also find other tracks we wrote two years ago like ‘Moa Fling’ or ‘Parcae Square we wrote one year ago.

How do you think your sound has evolved since then?

It has evolved in an more openminded way. We’re more into other styles of music and we think that all styles are possible to match together. We try to work in an more creative way but without losing our unique YellowStraps touch.

How long has this EP been in the works?

We started this collaboration two years ago with ‘Pollen’ and a few months later Fabien aka Le Motel went on a little trip around the world visiting Canada, South America, etc. Then we decided to focus on YellowStraps for the time being. When he came back we immediately started working together again to deliver this new ‘Mellow’ project. We think it took about just under two years to finish the project.

Fabien, you recorded some exotic sounds during your trip. Will we hear any of those sounds on the EP?

Yes definitely. It was a real nice trip and I recorded some ambient nature sounds I put on some tracks to fit with the mellow vibes we worked on. It gives another atmosphere to the tracks and it truly makes for a better soundscape.

You’ve been friends for a very long time. How come it took so before you dropped a collaborative EP?

We’ve been friends for about fifteen years now but the reason why it took so long is because we really wanted to have the perfect sounds and the perfect mellow vibes for this project. A bit perfectionist in a good way but we think it’s the only way we can be proud of our music.

Does being such close friends make it easier to work together?

Yeah definitely! We all know what the other one likes or want. That way making music together is much more easier than working with other artists you may not know. Especially when you want to work on a very particular sound as we do.

How would you describe that sound?

Jazzy, mellow and smooth with some natural sounds.

What can we expect from YellowStraps and Le Motel in the near future?

We really don’t know what to expect in the future but we’re pretty sure that we’ll work together again and there’s a very big possibility that we’ll dropping another collaborative project in the future.