If You Knew Yunyu…
1. Ok, Yunyu — ‘Morbid Pop’. For newcomers to your music, would you like to elaborate a little on that category?
Well, this genre was probably made up to confuse the music industry a little less. I got this off a review by a nice broadcaster from the ABC. I kept it because there just seemed to be some logic to having the music named under Morbid Pop. Firstly,I try, with all my musical creations, to capture the attention of the listener within 5 seconds. I also assume that the listener, like me, has an attention span shorter than a bee’s needle butt. This means that my music had better get interesting fast and stay that way or face my destruction. These sentiments are, to me, the definitions of pop.
The morbid just comes from the factoid that most of my lyrics deal in the stories of life, and with it, death. I’m also told I obsess way too much over zombies.
2. Your Mum chose the name Yunyu because it means ‘beautiful rhythms’. Does musical talent run in the family?
The short answer is no. The name-giving council in the family didn’t pick my name because it meant beautiful rhythms. They picked it because my core name “Yu” promised the wearer some version of supposed awesomeness in a bureaucratic career. All very practical decisions.
Still here for the long version? Here goes:
The story is that my maternal grandmother/ uncle/ mum named me. See, traditionally, the Chinese are usually given 2 characters that make up your full name. One character is your common name, which acts like the y-axis to the x-axis of your surname on the geneology grid. Together with your surname, that allows geneologists to track not only which family you are from, but what specific generation/ branch of the family tree. The other character given is your true name, the core character which belongs to you and you alone.
This system only strictly applies to boys but my grandmother decided that it was cool that the girls in the family start this system too. It was decided that the girls have a common name of the character “Rhythm” aka “Yun”. “Yu” got picked because, according to the Chinese name dictionary, individuals who got the “Yu” character as a name would turn out to be high flying magistrates/ bureaucrats with an express ticket ride to awesomeness. Hence, in the spirit of all that was practical, it was picked.
Of course, in the course of un-translatable complicatedness between languages, the 2 characters of “Yun” and “Yu” coming together just happened to spell beautiful rhythms…which, according to the tale, was mostly an afterthought.
Do musical talents run in the blood? Not that I know of. There are a few talented visual artists in the family and my late maternal grandmother was an amazing storyteller who used to scare the crap out of me with her horror tales.
3. For those who don’t know, ‘You Are Expendable’ won Triple J’s Unearthed Competition in 2002, leading to national (and international) exposure. What was that experience like?
Great, surreal and, as an afterthought, it also felt like some sort of a massive automobile pileup… except I’m wearing this stupid smile on my face while the carnage is happening.
Don’t get me wrong. It was a good thing that happened, but it was also a very strange time for me. To put it in context, it was a year and a half after I moved from Singapore to do a commerce degree in Australia. I had no idea what Triple J was. (I think there probably is a recording in the ABC vault where I asked Caroline Tran — twice — who she was). I had only just started writing songs that year I was Unearthed and You’re Expendable was the 4th song I ever wrote in my life. And, at that time, my performing experience was limited to mostly tutorial presentations — which lead to massive bouts of fear-induced gastro regurgitation backstage from pure fear.
Unearthed brought many things into my life. Most of it wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t a bad occurrence.
4. Your video clips are incredibly creative. How much input do you have into these? How long did it take to make that amazing video for ‘Lenore’s Song’? Was the process fun?
Thanks. Very glad you like.
Lenore’s Song took us a year. I worked with Matt Carter, who produced it, and hijacked the crew talents from LOTR and Superman Returns, and the bulk of them got it all happening. Tahnee McGuire, who directed it, was the one who wrote the concept of the video clip, and Callan Green was the cinematographer who took the pretty pictures…I mostly played the human Gumby.
5. You’ve described yourself as ‘a psycho musician whose songs range from love to violent murders’ and have said that your hobbies ‘include visiting psychosis self help forums and studying murder case files’. I have 2 questions: 1. Should we be scared? 2. Do you have crazy fans? (If so, what’s the nuttiest thing that’s happened at a gig?).
1 — No don’t be. Long as you bring offerings on approach you have nothing to fear.
2 — I have lovely fans. One gave my performing stage goat a bell necklace and another gave me a teddy bear with teeth. It warmed my muses greatly and they did not bite.
6. Despite describing your classical training as a grim thing that you were glad to escape from, it’s obviously stood you in great stead technically. If we swiped your iPod, would we find that you still secretly listen to classical stuff or are you modern in your taste all the way now?
I listen to everything from Kanno Yoko to Edith Piaf to catchy Middle Eastern pop and Tibetan Chants. My iPod is my time/genre-crossing TARDIS.
7. Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis are both fans of yours. What is THAT like? (Also: We don’t envy you at *allllll*!!!).
When they were kind enough to mention my tunes on their blogs…a Major Yay just about covers it. They make me feel like a special human bean.
8. Anime: What are your faves?
Fwoah…hard to pick. I have shelves and shelves of Anime and they are all good. Mushishi, Cowboy Bebop, and Neon Genesis are the first thoughts if I had to really pick
9. ‘Writing dead people love letters is Yunyu’s idea of romance.’ What do you write for your *living* romantic interests?!
I bring them lovely offerings of dead animal carcass grilled to perfection…with a healthy serve of decapitated vegetation… I’m really not so big on the waxing lyrical. See…being into the “morbid pop” and all, making it into my songs as a subject matter is generally not perceived in most cultures to be a good thing.
10. What comes first: the words or music? How long does it typically take you to write a song once the muses have visited?
Depends. I took 3 minutes to write a song called Souls Alive and 2 years to write one of the songs in my new album. Most times these days, I write by deciding what I want the story in the song to be, and create and kill a lot of potential music in rapid succession until they suit the story, then whack the words in. That’s…sort of the gist of it I think.
11. Tell us a secret!
O.K…No secrets…But what about a revelation? I’m just discovering that all my musical compilations and work I get involved in come with repeating alphabets. (Spiked Soul, T_____T___ (new album that shall not be named), Burn Bright, Angel Arias…). See a pattern?
12. What’s the best thing about being Yunyu?
I get to have awesome minions.
[Bec Stafford]
