Thomas Murphy, or indecisively known as YaNo Maybe hails from the Centennial State of Colorado. To be a reputable producer from this area you have to be well-grounded yet keep your head in the clouds. Make sense? Yea? No? Maybe? Regardless it takes exactly what he is giving and that is what counts. Grab your neck brace and or hold on for dear life…
Please welcome YaNo Maybe to the storm!
Q1: Welcome YaNo Maybe! Where did this project derive from? Take us back to the beginning in regards to your decision to make music.
A1: Hey yo! Just want to start this by saying thank you for reaching out to me and the opportunity to do this with Monsoon Season! YaNo Maybe came about in January of 2020. It began as a project focused on just house music at the end of 2018/early 2019 and around August of 2019, I went through some life experiences that pushed me to pursue other genres of music. I made it a goal to re-brand for 2020 with removing limitations of specific genres and creating what I was feeling or just into at the time with learning being the guider of this decision! In regards to my decision to make music, that actually falls back so far back I can’t even recall when it was started. I know I got my first guitar in like 2005 or so and have been chasing music ever since in one way or another. I got my first DJ controller in 2016 and that started the push to learn about electronic music and production. I never really got too into production until 2018 and extremely thankful for that because it is now my outlet to escape the stressors life can bring while also providing a way to express myself through those very stressors!
Q2: Who has been the biggest inspiration in your journey thus far? Inside and outside the worlds of music.
A2: This is a GREAT question here. Inside of the music world in relation to production, REZZ, CloZee, Mr. Bill, Disclosure, and T.E.E.D have been a huge influence on my production styles. They all have such a diverse variety of their music while their foundation stays fairly consistent. Outside of the music world, it gets a bit harder to answer for me because music takes up so much of my life these days. I would say that people that I look up to are mainly local artists. It can be hard these days to navigate through the positive and negative energies carried through the music scene but I greatly look up to those who stay humble, respectful, and try to be a good human being in the simplest form. When I see other local artists doing the right thing, it’s a huge inspiration and motivator because as chaotic as things can be, it lets me watch these artists grow and radiate good, beneficial things back to the scene to allow it to continue in the right direction.
Q3: What has been your favorite track to make so far? Why this track?
A3: My favorite track I have produced so far that is released is probably “Shit’s Weak” or “Cellar Door.” I really enjoy weird music and weird/funny movies and the idea behind both of these tracks came from two of my favorite movies, “Grandma’s Boy” and “Donnie Darko.”
Shits Weak is stemmed from a comedy movie so I wanted to work towards capturing a fun/funny vibe while bringing in some weird bass sounds to create a flow.
Cellar Door was majorly influenced by my favorite movie of all time, Donne Darko. I really enjoy this track because my goal was to capture the actual vibe from the movie within a track. It pushed me to really try to fit those vibes with my sound design which was something completely new to me, when compared to what I usually produce. I used many samples from the actual movie for the vocals and used some backing FX samples from dialogue scenes to create the feel of the track. It was a super fun experience!
Q4: What do you have in store for the rest of 2020 and or into 2021? Let your fans know what is next in the realm of YaNo Maybe!
A4: For 2020, I have a release coming out on Household Records in December which I am really looking forward to! I have been playing with some more weird bass music, but also some weird tech house tunes lately and am really looking forward to showing people these tracks. As for 2021, my main goal is to finish a dark mid-tempo EP I have been working on for a few months called “Pretty Things Die Too.” I am aiming to have this EP finished by summer of 2021. Outside of that, my focus is on learning, learning, and learning! I still feel extremely new to this whole production thing and the more I learn, the more I realize I need to learn more. That’s one thing that pushes me to continue with music! I am really big about finding passions that have no end result for a goal due to always having something new to learn about.
Q5: Your musical arsenal is definitely stacked. Although out of curiosity, who are you trying to collaborate with in the near future?
A5: Thank you! Appreciate the kind words. As for collaborations, I have a few that are currently being worked on with Rage-Bot, Hexa, and Murlock Holmes. Outside of that and going into 2021, my goal is to find newer producers to collaborate with since I still feel so new at this. I’m working on two remixes for Household Records that are due in November and with the current collabs and these remixes, I don’t see many more collabs coming up through the end of the year. 2021 will be a new, fresh year of production though for me!
Q6: Walk us through your creative process behind Bang? What went into that track that differs from the rest? In addition, you also released Bodies. Walk us through both tracks.
A6: Bang was also a fun track to make. It falls within the same setting as Cellar Door and Shit’s Weak. There was like a whole month of me going through all my favorite skits, shows, movies, and more and just trying to sample things or parts into a song. BANG started from watching a UFC scene where two contenders almost got into a fight in their house and the words exchanged through that sounded great to sample for me. The name comes from the samples of “let me bang bro” and “I just wanna bang bro.” That scene will forever crack me up. Highly recommend finding it on YouTube if you haven’t seen it yet.
As for Bodies, it was kind of an experimental song to just try new things and see what works. I wanted something new with music, but wasn’t sure what that was. All of these tracks fall into the same creative process of just focusing on making something that sounded different to me. I started the projects with the idea of “let’s make something wonky,” and from there I believe four or five tracks emerged. All of these tracks showed me my style of sound design though which is still very new to me. I was on a mission to find my sound within bass music. I wanted weird, wonky, and fluid and I really enjoy the outcome and look forward to getting even more comfortable with sound design in 2021 for these types of tracks.
Q7: Who do you see killing it these days? Give them some love and a shout-out below!
A7: Ohhhh man.. I love this question. I’ll start with you and Monsoon Season! It’s exciting to watch you chase your passions and watch you grow and connect with so many artists!
These artists all leave me with pure excitement, awe, and motivation to keep doing this music thing.
Rage-Bot, Murlock Holmes, Liquid Pizza, Hexa, Haunt, They Invade, Private Domicile, LER, Nick Irvin, Kayyspray, OMSTRB, and so many more! This list can continue onward for so long but off the top of my mind, these ones are coming up to me! Highly recommend checking out all of their tunes. Thanks for these questions and I really look forward to watching Monsoon Season continue to not only progress, but take artists with it on its journey upwards.
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