CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 073: YB. on inspiration and touring
Words by Patrick Staveley.
Brisbane-based Ghanaian artist Yb. has been establishing himself in recent years on the indie/alternative music scene in Australia, and he continues to remain very busy in 2022. He won Unearthed THIS THAT spot and is a previous Unearthed feature artist, his single Change Your Mind, was added to Triple J and Unearthed rotation while he also supported Nick Ward and San Cisco in QLD shows. He’s set to support Biig Piig in the Splendour side-shows following the release of new single Sleeping Without You, off his new EP which will come out later this year.
FMM: Can you talk me through what inspired Sleeping Without Me?
Yb: Sleeping Without Me was heavily inspired by Hether in his Sticky Thumb era. If I was to try and explain what I mean by this, it would be the perfect mix between psychedelic indie and folk music. I was listening to a lot of the loving band at the time as well, so there are definitely some acoustic and chill indie influences dispersed throughout the song as well. I owe all the production to my mate Melrose.
FMM: Your musical style has got an attractive flavour of dance and indie. Do you think you’ve found your ideal sound that suits your style best?
Yb: I don’t think so… I mean I have my preferences, but as a whole, I would say that I’m still experimenting with different styles and genres of music and I’m very okay with that.
FMM: Who are some of your musical inspirations that have influenced who you are as an artist today?
Yb: I love this question - I have so many! I’ve been influenced by Binki, Spencer., Still Woozy, Kate Bollinger, Loving, Phoebe Bridgers, Stevan, Cosmo Pyke, King Krule, Djo, Steve Lacy, Dayglow and my brothers IIIconic and KingIvy. It's hard not to feel inspired with so many amazing artists expressing themselves nowadays.
FMM: You have over 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and songs like Stay, DANCE WITH ME TODAY and Waiting have all racked up about three million streams in total. Do you look much into these statistics. What do they mean to you?
Yb: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. I’ve definitely grown to perceive numbers as active support as opposed to just the figures themselves. But, yeah - I still still look into my analytics to gauge where my audience is coming from mostly.
FMM: You’ve had the chance to tour with some top artists and you’re heading off on some Splendour sideshows with Biig Piig. What have you got out of the experience of touring and performing in front of these big, vibrant crowds? What’s it like seeing crowds respond to your music?
Yb: It will never get old! Live performances are by far my favorite part of making music and then watching people react to it and talk about how much they enjoyed it afterwards is genuinely surreal!
