Interview with YOY

by Ariana Pleasure

SXSW is such a great time for people to gather from all around the world to our city of Austin Texas for a festival to celebrate music, film and more. We get the pleasure of welcoming in several Italian musicians and bands this year to the festival. YOY is one of the incredible bands that came to the states to share their passion of music with all of us.

YOY (pronounced why-oh-why) is made up of musicians Lorenzo Borgatti, Filippo Volpin and Massimo Borghi. They are fairly new to the music game as a group, but have stunned the scene with incredible music and lyrics that remind you.

I was fortunate enough to chat with the band and get a glimpse into their work. Check it out:

Ariana: Infinite is such a relaxing and moving song, what inspired you to write it?

YOY: It all started with that guitar riff, then the vocal line came right after like if it was already there. I’ve always wanted to write a single riff song like “The Look” from Metronomy and at that time I needed to say some things and the idea of repeating them through the whole length of the song was really a natural choice, like a mantra that you keep on repeating just to fix a concept in your mind. At that time YOY was still a work-in-progress project, so we (Lorenzo, Massimo, and Alice aka Birthh) played that song all along during the first Birthh tour and when we had been given the chance to rearrange and record it with YOY, we decided to keep the relationship between the song and the two projects by doing a featuring and finally giving life to Infinite.

Ariana: Your sound is so creative and unique, it is hard to classify it in a single genre, how would you all describe it?

YOY: I wouldn’t define our genre with a few words. Our goal is to pursue research through our music, meaning that you have to bring something new out of a world that seems standing still.

We want to transform our emotions into sounds, as our motto sings: "An ocean of thoughts and feelings expressed by waveforms"; therefore, it is hard for us to give a name to our genre. Do you have any suggestions?

Ariana: What is your favorite part about playing and writing music?

YOY: Our favorite part in writing is when we finally see the picture we had conceived becoming concrete in front of us, played out loud by the speakers. This is magic, isn’t it?

With regard to playing, we find it extremely beneficial to our well-being as it cures any sort of anxiety or negative thoughts that we all have in our daily life. For us the stage is the place where we can find our own peace and also a lot of fun at the same time.

Ariana: What got you all involved in music in the first place?

Lorenzo: I started playing guitar when I was fourteen and after some months I was already messing around with my first band called “Level Up”. It was wild, haha.

Filippo: I had my first connection with music production during the same period thanks to my father, who has always served as a great source of musical inspiration to me. However, I didn't start with any conventional instrument, but instead I got involved with digital audio workstations and everything else related to this wonderful realm.

Massimo: Everything began with the first drum kit that I received as a gift when I was only 4 years old. This passion has endured for almost 20 years so far, and I am sure it will continue for a very long time!

Ariana: How do you all feel about performing at SXSW this year, what are you most excited to do when you arrive in Austin?

YOY: We all feel very excited for this huge event! I and Massimo have already been at SXSW twice, playing with Birthh. For Filippo this is the first time, but we are going to introduce him to this amazing experience and the incredible Austin's food. In the end, this is the first time as YOY, so we are willing to make the best out of it; currently, our main focus is to deliver our best performance to all the participants of this event, who will come to visit and listen to us.

YOY performing acoustic performance for Italian Boat Party

Ariana: Can you tell us what to expect from your album coming out this year?

Lorenzo: I always love to find myself thinking "This is my story: it's like it is written for me," when listening to those songs that have the biggest impact on me. There are some moods and situations inside the album which I hope you will feel like yours (if not all, at least someone). We, all, are the people who live in this world and share the same emotions and feelings, so I hope you will find something that makes you feel better, even for a short amount of time, when listening to our piece of work.

As you can see YOY is insanely passionate and it shows in their music. This past week the group released their second single “Evil”! Go check it out!