Interviews: YAWN

This is a new interview with the Jazz Metal/Progressive Metal/Experimental Metal band YAWN from Norway. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you plan it or came out just like that?

Oskar came up with YAWN - the idea was to have a short catchy word as a name, that has several associations. "Yawn" is a bit of a joke as this music is far from making an audience tired. Yawning is also a reaction to mainstream music that has become boring and unstimulating…

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

This genre is responsible for pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible on instruments and exploring the extremes of musical expression - sounds pretty good to us!

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Some of us knew each other from studying at the same time, but Oskar was the only one that knew all of us and brought the group together - good thing he did!

4. Each band member's favorite band?

Torfinn - Meshuggah

Oskar - Meshuggah

Mike - Car Bomb

Simen - Converge

Tarjei - The Beatles

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

We’re often inspired by other music and other bands - like, “let’s see if we can do something like this Gojira riff, but let’s find our own way of doing it”

6. Where was your last gig?

We played at Vaterland in Oslo, Norway at the beginning of December 2021!

7. Where would you like to act?

We look forward to playing Euroblast one day!!

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

It would be a dream to share an evening with Meshuggah and/or Car Bomb!!

9. Whom not?

Hehe….it might be a bad fit for us to open for Michael Bublé?

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

I had a teacher who once said about stage fright: “If you play the worst gig of your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll wake up and practice. But if you play the best gig of your life tonight, you’ll also wake up tomorrow and practice.” When I started to focus more on the long-term process of getting better instead of the short-term outcome (concerts, for example) I started to stress less about playing bad shows.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

This probably won’t surprise anyone based on the earlier answers, but bands like Meshuggah and Car Bomb have been really important for us - these are bands that have challenged conventions in the genre and defined their own sound.

12. What do you think of your fans?

To like our music, our fans have to be as weird as us - so we love ‘em!

14. What do you think of our site?

It’s great! Tons of great bands and music from around the world!