‘Why didn’t we smash our screens?’ - YVA
I remember being so resistant to the idea of social media. In 2008, 17-year-old me had a t-shirt that said ‘Sod Facebook, I’ve got real friends’, and I really meant it. In the end, my sister signed me up to it and I warmed to the idea of sharing family photos on that platform. Then I got a smartphone and signed up to Instagram in 2013, Twitter in 2015, then Soundcloud, Tuners, Snapchat, Patreon, Twitch, Tik-Tok, Spotify…all the things that my teenage self loathed the idea of. I, like many others, have been hoodwinked into a system of digital projection bombarded by marketing, branding and being reduced down to an algorithm. And yet, this self-sabotage is addictive and nearly impossible to escape. This increasingly dehumanised experience is exactly the subject for YVA’s most recent EP, where she gives it the name of ‘Hype Machine’.
Image Credit: Katie Silvester
YVA (pronounced Eeh-vah) is the latest musical project from artist Amy Holford who has previously released music under the name of Eva Stone. As well as touring in support of James Morrison, Paolo Nutini and George Ezra, Amy Holford has been a part of songwriter and producer Nitin Sawhney’s band. Touring with Sawhney has taken Amy to Australia, India and performing at the Royal Albert Hall on more than one occasion. Holford has contributed songwriting in Sawhney’s work and appears as a featured vocalist on his latest solo album ‘Immigrants’.
Outside of her work in music, Holford has written a novel called ‘The Dreaming Room’. I found solidarity in her piece published for dear damsels entitled ‘Growing Out Of You’, an intimate look at the daily struggles of a person suffering with anxiety and depression. Her blog ‘The Quiet Days’ is an expansion of her non-fiction writing, with posts spanning 2016 to 2020. In a separate Instagram account from her musical work (@amyholfordwrites), Amy shares her own poetry and reviews literary works by other authors.
In early 2019, YVA put out her own arrangement of James Bay’s ‘Pink Lemonade’, with covers of ‘You Still Believe In Me’ by The Beach Boys and Villagers track ‘A Trick Of The Light’ following as the year progressed. These songs were collected into an EP called ‘Don’t Miss It’ along with the title track that summer. Further showing YVA’s diverse musical taste, she released a cover of Rose Royce’s ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’ in early 2020. YVA’s first original material came in the form of ‘I Won’t Wait’, a standalone single released in May that year, with an acoustic edition closing out 2020.
The first single from the ‘Hype Machine’ EP was released in February 2021, with the full five tracks made available in May. Interestingly, after listening to another artist’s album on Soundcloud, it was the power of an algorithm that queued up this EP and started playing it automatically. But it was the songs that kept me listening.
‘Bound to people I’ve never met. Bound to my compliance in a world that celebrates my power, but doesn’t really make room for my sadness.’
YVA’s ‘Hype Machine’ really could begin in no better way than its opening monologue in ‘Echo Chamber’. Broken into two verses with an atmospheric soundtrack, YVA asks the question: ‘How much will we give away to something that doesn't really exist?’
The first verse, of which the opening lines are quoted above outline the reasons why this new-age digital narrative is sucking the life out of us. Being social can now mean not leaving the house at all, especially since the start of the pandemic. How we are destined to never feel contentment in our achievements, how we must constantly strive for more and how the Hype Machine pits us against one another in a race of success.
‘Bound to your warmth and trees in the park, because we are bound to the earth, and that's all that matters.’
There is hope in the second verse, the reasons why we keep on living. The idea of feeling guilty for spending too much time staring into the Nightmare Rectangle. Love, light, the warmth of people and mother nature. ‘Why didn’t we smash our screens?’ Sometimes I feel the overwhelming need to launch my phone off a cliff and celebrate its demise.
Echo Chamber is suitably led thematically into Hype Machine’s third single, ‘Bound’. With YVA writing, performing, producing and mixing the bulk of the EP, the home recording largely made in her spare room is given assistance by Jonathan Hibbert in a similar capacity. In Bound, the drum performance was recorded remotely by Martyn Kaine.
The verses are a smooth trip-hop haze with YVA’s vocal hovering in her higher range, while the lyrics are a poetic telling of how the Hype Machine is a double-edged sword. ‘The ones with all the strength, twist arms while they kiss my neck. Got my interest in their vision, oh lord I've learned my lesson.’
Light jangling guitars and trebly bass join the procession, the low hum of synth remains a constant in Bound’s chorus, ‘You’re the judge and the jury…’ A brief breakdown sounds like a phone’s ringtone, almost like it’s purposely interrupting the flow, before YVA resumes as if nothing at all has happened. One of my favourite parts about this co-write with Jordan Miller is the urgency of the melody in the chorus, and how effortless YVA performs it. Martyn Kaine’s brief drum spot in Bound’s conclusion is a hint of what’s to come.
YVA’s opening harmony to the EP’s title track is at odds with the more sinister subject matter. A buzzing synth sits underneath the first verse, beginning with ‘Black mirror, show them my true face, as I post in disgrace…’ YVA’s vocal switches in a moment from calm and collected to expressing outrage, sung with such passion in the voicing of her words.
What I enjoy most about the title track is how between YVA, Jonathan Hibbert and Martyn Kaine, they build the arrangement, piece by piece. The conclusion of the second verse, and my favourite line in ‘Endorse me ‘cause I matter’, brings forth clean electric guitars, twisting and turning around the chords. Then the third verse introduces programmed drums, a hint of electronica passing over the stereo image and an extra vocal that sounds like it’s been put through a vocoder.
The fourth adds more keyboard, and YVA’s vocal layers reach their peak intensity sounding out the words ‘HYPE MACHINE’. Then Martyn Kaine, having previously hung back to keep the beat, now takes centre stage. Accented chords stab through the air to your left, a trashy drum sounds to your right, and a bass riff cycles down the middle. Kaine’s dry kit sound puts you in the room with him as he embodies the song’s coda - my first listen had me gripped with each note until the song’s close.
Hype Machine’s first single is ‘Fountain Of Youth’. The obsession with youth has long existed in show business, but the next step after beauty magazines and ’10 Ways To Look Younger’ kind-of-headlines is the direct comparison and attack on the appearance social media brings. Now you can layer filters across your appearance to smooth your skin, brighten your eyes and pull your figure in tighter, all from your phone and without taking a course in Photoshop. Fountain Of Youth is YVA’s boredom with it all.
More electronic than before, Jordan Miller’s synths tap rhythmically while Martyn Kaine’s playing is my favourite of his across this EP, going less straight with the beat without jumping to an obvious pattern. Jonathan Hibbert’s bass playing reminds me of Peter Hook’s in Joy Division and New Order, becoming another melodic instrument but holding its own. Anna Phoebe’s string layers on Fountain Of Youth make this song different in yet another way. More than just gliding over the strings, there is sweetness, then anger, the unnerving sense of uncertainty, pizzicato pinging in delay – Phoebe’s performances are tremendously exciting. Fountain Of Youth is like an action movie, and that’s even before we listen to YVA’s damning lyrical outpouring.
‘There's no fountain of youth, just a mountain of dreams, I'm bored of being sold a better me.’
Despite the gravity of the opening verse, YVA holds her position with numbness. It’s one of her abilities as a great vocalist to be able to increase the intensity of her delivery without you noticing it until it’s hitting you hard. Then you realise she actually built up to this gradually, right under your nose.
As we’re sold the idea that men become more handsome with age while women must battle the signs of aging with creams, hair-dye, fillers and more besides, ‘It's a liar’s road to agelessness’ is very fitting indeed. It’s a fight not to quote this entire lyric, but the whole fourth verse is a wake-up call: ‘Believing all their lies won’t make them real’. YVA’s exclamation of ‘There’s no Fountain Of Youth!’ in the song’s final moments is a very real artistic expression at this state of affairs.
In the same way that Echo Chamber was an ideal beginning for Hype Machine, ‘Missing Me’ is the most perfect ending. Part of the majick of Missing Me is how YVA and Hibbert, along with co-producer and keyboardist James Turner, have preserved this song mostly in the way it was written – a vocal with an acoustic guitar.
“'Cause everything's been feeling grey, like joy and pain don't wanna stay. For years it seems it's been this way, but I seem ok.”
I see the words of Missing Me and link them to Holford’s piece written for dear damsels. It’s not about feeling good, or feeling bad, because in both of those cases, you still feel something. Missing Me is about when you get to the point of feeling nothing at all, and why that is so much worse than feeling sad. Missing Me is YVA’s most emotionally powerful vocal so far, which is intertwined with the weight of the words behind her voice.
Rain pours gently behind YVA’s acoustic guitar, ‘Just something that I’d like to feel…’ In the second verse, Turner adds keys and YVA creates a motion of vocal layers in: ‘I’m Missing Me’ which is all at once scattered in silence. The third verse contains one of my favourite lines on Hype Machine: ‘I wonder where the wonder’s gone?’ By the fourth verse, it’s the desperation in YVA’s voice that makes my heart ache. But it’s the fiercely soaring final lines that make my hair stand up every time: ‘I’m so inside my fear now, I’m scared one day I’ll never know.’ A burst of drums from Martyn Kaine and – ‘I’m Missing Me’.
In the critical moments when this EP began playing after I’d finished listening to another artist’s album, I could’ve just turned it off. I could very well have given into my attention span like so many times before, but in a work about how our connection to each other is becoming increasingly flawed – I felt understood. YVA has outlined exactly why this inner space has become damaging to so many of us, even when so many of us can’t express why it feels that way. ‘Why didn’t we smash our screens?’ That, I don’t know. We seemed to do just fine without them before.
Continue reading for our Q&A with YVA. We discuss the making of the EP and the contributions of Jonathan Hibbert, Martyn Kaine and Anna Phoebe, as well as the artwork by Jessica Lee. We ask about the writing of the tracks on Hype Machine, performing live and more below.
Image Credit: Katie Silvester
1. Your new EP 'Hype Machine' was recorded at home during the pandemic with your partner Jonathan Hibbert. Do you remember the moment when the title of the EP came to you?
Hype Machine existed as a song title first before the song was written, I had it noted in my phone, but I remember sitting outside the pub with Jonathan one afternoon and telling him I wanted to centre the whole EP around this one idea. I had a melody idea for the chorus which actually didn't survive the writing process, or rather it morphed into the final refrain you hear on the song before the drums kick in, and I sat there and sang it to him. The writing of Hype Machine came last, oddly, but I think it worked because I was able to tie together all the threads from the other songs and tie them to it. As far as the concept for the EP goes, I knew Bound was going on there, Fountain of Youth was written, and Missing Me had been haunting me for a while, but they all spoke to the issue of social media and our current state of empathy in society as a whole, so Hype Machine just dramatised everything and became the lynch-pin for the whole EP.
2. 'Echo Chamber' is a brilliant way to open this collection of songs, was there a breaking point that inspired your monologue here? Was it written in one sitting or refined over time?
We were working on Bound when I wrote the words for Echo Chamber. I sat and wrote it out in one sitting, then when it came to recording I had to change a few lines to make them more impactful and work better rhythmically; until you say it out loud it's hard to gauge! I'd initially had the idea that the spoken word would come between the songs, rather than at the beginning, but as the writing and production evolved I realised it sat so well at the beginning. The sound you hear running underneath Echo Chamber is actually the wineglass that was on the original demo of Bound that we kept from when I wrote it with Jordan Miller. I'd had that demo for years and I was determined to finish it. Jordan was fine handing over the reins to Jonathan and I, we only really had to change a few things, but the core farfisa keys and piano remained the same, and they were the elements that made the atmosphere for EC; I sat and went through the entire stem of the throbbing wineglass sound you hear and used the melodic parts of that synth that worked for the flow of the spoken word, cutting it up so it worked with the lyrics. The word 'bound' was another motif in the EP, I really wanted to start the EP with the feeling of being trapped and confined by expectations, standards, perceptions of others and yourself, you know, setting those parameters for the listening experience. This is what you're in for. I definitely wrote Echo Chamber as a response to that feeling of being so dictated to by something that didn't really exist (social media platforms/algorithms/apps). We as people make those platforms what they are, and that kind of depressed me, because it's turning into something so self-obsessed and insincere now.
3. Martyn Kaine's drum performance on the title track is certainly a climactic part of the musical journey, what was it like to work with Martyn on his drum parts across the EP?
Martyn is an absolute hero of a man and drummer. Jonathan grabbed his ear at the after party of the Royal Albert Hall show I'd played with Nitin, and talked to him about recording the EP and Martyn just offered to play on it. He's so enthusiastic, and very sensitive to the concepts you give him; we only ever had to send maybe, two tracks back for edits, because for the most part he really nailed what we wanted. I wasn't good at communicating drum sounds before this EP, but he's so patient and kind with his time, I always felt comfortable. For Hype Machine we just told him to go balls to the wall, break-beat, break your face kind of drums, and he did it. He not only recorded drum parts but always gave us amazing percussive parts to play around with for atmosphere. He's the best guy. He recorded it all remotely too. I'd love to get in a room with him one day, but it's encouraging (and rare) to find someone who is as invested as you are in making the songs as cool as possible.
4. The live strings by Anna Phoebe on 'Fountain Of Youth' sound incredible, were those done remotely during the pandemic? Were they based on an arrangement by you, or did Anna have room to elaborate on the composition?
Anna recorded the strings very early on in the first lockdown. At this point we only had the laptop and the interface as we'd hightailed it to stay next door to our parents, so we could only try to gather parts for when we got back to our studio to produce and mix. I'd spoken to her about Fountain of Youth at a gig we'd played and given her the Radiohead reference and she nailed it, again, she's another musician you can just rely on to get the tone of the song right, and she'll give you a boat-load of material to work with too. She definitely had more creative freedom on the chorus parts, the same as Martyn, I just gave them both a framework or a reference to go on, and we asked for certain rhythm or parts here and there, but it was really important to me that they both had creative autonomy as they're both such emotional players. You want that to cut through in the mix and it not just be bland. They both felt each song they played on and I love them for it.
5. The artwork for the 'Hype Machine' EP and singles from Jessica Lee are perfect, was there much direction on your part of what you wanted to convey?
Jessica and I had been following each other on Instagram for a while, she reached out as a fan and then I fell in love with her illustrations so there was a lot of mutual admiration there! I showed her stuff to Jonathan as I'd had this desire to step away from pictures of myself as artwork. I just wanted something that spoke to the entire atmosphere of the EP becoming more digitalised, our community becoming more digitalised and disconnected, is the EP giving in to it or is it a warning against? Jonathan bought me a Björk poster print of Homogenic that I fucking loved and that was a big inspiration for me, so I sent that to Jess and another image my pal Andy Martin shot of me that I'd edited and mirrored, and just said to her I wanted a final HYPE MACHINE artwork, but needed three other individual single artworks, but all would be elements of the final piece. The original commission was that with each single the artwork would evolve, but she ended up going with her own better instincts and creating four separate pieces instead. You really want someone who is going to respond and take a brief and run with it, and she did more than I could have asked for and really interpreted the EP perfectly. I was blown away with the first sketch she sent me.
6. 'Missing Me' is an incredibly powerful way for the EP to conclude thematically and emotionally. What was the vocal recording session like for this song?
I put a lot of pressure on myself to get the vocal take right for this as when I wrote it I'd broken down and cried after voice-recording it on my phone. The day after I'd gone in the studio with my pal James Turner to help me record it, and when it came to re-recording and producing it with Jonathan, the only thing we kept from the original session was the piano. I hated that I had to re-record the vocals because that day it was so raw for me, but Jonathan just encouraged me that it was fine that it wasn't the raw, original, organic take, that we could spend time honing it and getting it right so it was perfect, and that's what we did. I prefer to record in one straight take with songs like this, there's a flow and momentum that you can miss by cutting it up, but there's a lot to be said for re-recording certain parts and making sure they're communicating what you need them to on record. I can be a bit of an emotional purist, but he was right in making me work on them because in the end we got a cracking take. The whole recording experience was a learning curve for the both of us, learning how each other worked, because prior to the EP we'd only done I Won't Wait together and previously I had refused to work with him because we'd always end up shouting at each other. He's very theoretical and thorough and I'm emotional. I think we just realised what each of us lacked the other had in abundance, which I guess is the perfect foundation for any relationship!
7. It was an algorithm that linked me to your music on Soundcloud after I'd finished playing another artist's music. Could algorithms be considered a good thing? It seems like they work against artists most of the time.
What a question. The trouble is that technology is a blessing and a curse, isn't it? Where it fails artists is it doesn't have a heart, or ears, or musical tastebuds. Genres become reductive and saturated, you get compared to someone whose voice tone is similar to yours but their music isn't, but then if a fan finds you and loves your stuff, it's great, so you can't really complain! I think without going in on the Spotify debate, I just believe fundamentally the music industry was better when we went out and explored the CD aisles and took a chance on something in a different genre, or because the staff knew their shit in the vinyl shit and recommended you something. The whole process of listening to music now has become transient; we spent more time clicking through songs, and the idea of a concept album is almost obsolete, because you have shuffle, or certain songs make it onto a playlist and that's the only thing you listen to because you're too bombarded with the millions of other artists trying to be heard to really go through every band’s tracklist. And it's great, everyone has a chance, but I really believe (and it's from my own experience that I listen to less music passionately than I did before when I bought more albums) that we listen more passively now than we ever have, and the algorithm serves that shortened attention span perfectly, so it's just self-perpetuating. As far as algorithms go in day to day life, I can't help but see them make us all profoundly lazy.
8. You've got a community on Patreon, what do you enjoy most about using that platform to share your art and content?
It's great opening up to those fans who really want to support you. I'm a bit terrible at it to be honest, but they get the updates that nobody else does, and little videos of recording sessions and first listens, and I really cherish them as patrons. I hate the word content, I think that's why I'm not great at the hype/social media game, because I don't like reducing what I do to mere 'content.' It's quite a reductive term for an artist, I think (although no hard feelings towards you at all for using it!). Everything I post matters and has meaning, and I think they know that. Often they don't even reply; I think they just really want to support me and that is...well. It's so, so special.
9. You previously toured as part of Nitin Sawhney's band, what was your favourite place to visit during that time?
I loved doing Australia just because it was such a long-haul adventure and we had a lot of laughs. You don't get a lot of time to explore outside of techs and performances, but when you do it's just such a privilege. I found Australia interesting because it was all so new, but the country is so old, I found that hard to make sense of. Like I was missing something. I would love to explore the outback and learn more about aboriginal culture, for sure. My other favourite was India, but we stayed in this incredible place called Vana where the performance was, so I only got to see the roads leading up to it, and an afternoon in Rishikesh. I'd love to go back and visit properly. It was the first place I'd been to where the culture was so vastly different from my own and it really excited/interested me. That's the thing working with Nitin. I've had so many experiences that I wouldn't have had if we'd never met. We're doing the UK next year (fingers crossed) and hopefully a European tour which should be fun. I can't wait to get out on the road again, but I'll have a wee baby at that point, so ask me closer to the time!!!
10. Will there be some shows for this EP? What would be the ultimate way you'd want to present this work in a live environment?
Unfortunately due to the pandemic I haven't been able to play any shows, and now I'm 27 weeks pregnant, I can't foresee doing any. I've been really anxious about getting back out there on my own again, but I'm going to tentatively start playing with some people and get something lined up for next year for the second EP, so I'll have loads more material by then. And no excuse!
11. What do you think the future holds for a world that is increasingly reliant on the Hype Machine? Could there be a crash coming? A cultural reboot? Or will it continue to get worse?
I don't think apps like TikTok or even Instagram are long for the shelf to be honest; these things never are. Was it the CEO of IG who said it was no longer the platform it once was? They're right. The 'social media' platforms we profess to adore and use to stay 'connected' are just marketing platforms for brands and individuals who want to market themselves or their lifestyles, to direct you to the brands to buy the stuff you think you need to make you a happier person, and in turn you cultivate this image of yourself to put out into the world, so essentially, turning your self, your life, into a brand. We're marketing ourselves. It's fucking weird. And I don't think everyone realises yet how fucked up it is, and how much it's ruining our empathy and perspectives on life, especially for very young people. I hope there's a crash, but there'll only be something else to take its place. I just hope it has better regulations than the ones we currently have. I pray for a cultural revolution, but whether we get one or not depends on if we're willing to give up our addictions.
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Purchase the music of YVA and ‘Hype Machine’ prints on her Bandcamp page here.
Support YVA on Patreon and get access to exclusive behind-the-scenes videos, demos and lyrical ideas.
Engage in the Hype Machine and follow YVA on Instagram @yva_music and on Twitter @yvaofficial.
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