Conversation with The Yelins: Blending ’60s Psychedelia with Contemporary Pop
Led by Laurentz Lozano, The Yelins are a Swiss ensemble that combines psychedelic rock and pop music, inspired by the sounds and styles of the 1960s and 1970s. Their musical journey started with their independently produced debut, ‘Echoes’, in 2018. It paved the way for their 2023 release, ‘Moon On The Rocks,’ an album that features a blend of soothing psych-pop melodies and dynamic guitar riffs.
Laurentz, what first inspired you to venture into music and eventually form The Yelins?
When I was a kid, we had a summer house in France, and every time we would go there, my parents would often play great music in the car, so I was always quite “tuned in” to music. Eventually, an older friend of mine who lived there introduced me to Queen by giving me a bunch of cassette tapes, and from that day on, I became obsessed with them. I knew that all I wanted was to have my own band.
Can you describe the early music scene that influenced the sound and aesthetics of The Yelins?
In addition to the obvious bands we admired, such as Queen, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and being kids of the ’90s, we started The Yelins in the midst of the 2008 “Guitar Resurgence Movement,” influenced by Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, The Wombats, and so on.
What were the first challenges you faced when starting out as a band?
Finding people who had the same drive that I had. A band can be a very complex ecosystem, and I realized quite early on that even if I had lots of ideas and was eager to try them all, finding bandmates who suited the project and all of its requirements could be more than challenging.
How did your personal and collective musical influences converge in the creation of your debut album, Echoes?
I wrote our first album, “Echoes,” on my own. So from that standpoint, it was kind of a blessing and a curse. It allowed me to write music with a very strong sense of direction and purpose, while at the same time, the workload and self-doubt that you inevitably face while writing music were quite hard to overcome. It was only when we started to tour “Echoes” that the others’ take on it started to emerge and blend itself with my own. This is probably when I realized it would be nice to write and produce music with them for what was to become our second album, “Moon On The Rocks.”
Read the full interview with The Yelins at Retrofuturista.com
