Music / Features
The Yips -
A chat with Kelly Dance
A chat with Kelly Dance
Released this past December, Kelly Dance’s latest album The Yips comes as an enthralling snapshot of the songwriter’s smokey brand of expansive avant-folk, and to get the know the record a little better, we got in touch with Kelly for a chat.
Written and recorded across China and the US, Australian singer-songwriter Kelly Dance’s first album in over four years is a truly transportive listen. Titled The Yips, which shares its name with the studio in Hong Kong where the bones of the album first took shape, across these eleven tracks we’re treated to an immersive journey through imaginative folk with touches of soul, indie-rock and baroque-pop, while resisting being buoyed to a specific style or location and instead basking in its captivatingly timeless atmosphere.
From the murmuring instrumentation and evocative vocal hooks of opening track ‘Great Confessor’, through to the intoxicating ‘ET’ with its hazy lilt and jazzy textures, and onto the fluid and enigmatic performances on tracks like ‘War Over Instruments’ and ‘John Fahey’ that lead the album to its close, it’s easy to find yourself lost in each alluring world that Dance has created as The Yips gracefully unravels.
Considering the album came to life over a near six-year gestation period, it’s fitting that The Yips requires a similar level of care and attentiveness from listeners as these tracks slowly but surely blossom open to us. However, this unhurried attitude gives The Yips an ever enduring quality, making it an album that compels you to return to it, time and time again.
To dig into the record a little more, we caught up with Kelly to delve into the sounds and stories behind The Yips.
From the murmuring instrumentation and evocative vocal hooks of opening track ‘Great Confessor’, through to the intoxicating ‘ET’ with its hazy lilt and jazzy textures, and onto the fluid and enigmatic performances on tracks like ‘War Over Instruments’ and ‘John Fahey’ that lead the album to its close, it’s easy to find yourself lost in each alluring world that Dance has created as The Yips gracefully unravels.
Considering the album came to life over a near six-year gestation period, it’s fitting that The Yips requires a similar level of care and attentiveness from listeners as these tracks slowly but surely blossom open to us. However, this unhurried attitude gives The Yips an ever enduring quality, making it an album that compels you to return to it, time and time again.
To dig into the record a little more, we caught up with Kelly to delve into the sounds and stories behind The Yips.
TJ: Hey Kelly, how’s it going? For the unacquainted, want to tell us a bit about yourself?
KD: Hello trouble juice. I moved to the US from Hong Kong in 2020 where I lived for almost ten years. I find China fascinating and have loved getting to know the country over the years. The last two records I've made have been about random stuff I've found interesting while living there; dead poets, Chinese mythology, Chinese science fiction and the natural world.
Last December you released your stunning new album The Yips. Could you tell us what the album means to you?
The record is a bookend to my time living in China. Located on the fifth floor of an old bubble wrap factory in the heart of Hong Kong's most industrial areas, ‘The Yips’ is the name of the studio where I wrote and recorded most of the demos for the album. The factory was also home to many other artists; on my floor, there was a leatherworker and a wedding dressmaker. I actually brought a cheap coffee machine from home to my studio to entice the other tenants to stop by for a chat in the hope of picking up a few friends here and there - it had mixed results!
You’ve worked on this album in a number of different places around the globe - what was the process of creating the record?
I’m regrettably a bit of a hermit when it comes to writing the bones of a song. I usually sit alone in my room with either an electric or acoustic guitar to get the melody and lyrics down. For this record, I was living in Hong Kong while my main collaborators, Matt and Parker, lived in New York. I was lucky that I got to do a few short stints in New York so we could record parts of it together but, overall, it was a relatively long process of layering track by track rather than playing together live.
Is there a specific location that comes to mind when you hear the The Yips? And what do you think is the best location/situation for a listener to dive into the album?
Honestly, it reminds me of traveling alone across China by train and bus. I played in around twenty cities, and it's impossible not to be moved by the enormity and strangeness of the place. I met with many incredible people who helped me on my journey, either venue owners like Little Gun or 94 or just random kids who saw that I needed help getting around and stopped to lend me a hand.
So I'd say the record is best heard alone anywhere on the open road!
It seems like collaboration was a key part of the process of this album. Who else was involved, and how valuable is collaboration in your songwriting?
So many great people were involved; my producer Matt Whyte (ex Earl Greyhound and now host of Sing For Science podcast), my drummer and guest producer Parker Kindred (Jeff Buckley, Antony and the Johnsons, Joan as Police Woman), John Chao (Misha Band), Steve Marion (aka Delicate Steve), Aidan Roberts (Maple Trail)… my favourite part of making this record was building out each song with these incredible people.
Matt and Parker were the most crucial. Matt shepherded all the songs and some of them were completely transformed like ‘Seed’ - which we share a writing credit. Similarly, Parker’s tender touch changed how I think about and hear drums on a track. In one of the songs, my guitar track wasn’t working so we removed it and Parker just played with my voice and breath, which requires some voodoo talent right there!
The Yips feels like a really great Sunday morning album, which has made me want to return to a question we used to ask regularly in Trouble Juice interviews - what’s your perfect Sunday?
Oh man. Wake up late. Pour a perfect cup of coffee. Vegemite toast. Drop Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk onto the record player. Sit down and read the paper.
KD: Hello trouble juice. I moved to the US from Hong Kong in 2020 where I lived for almost ten years. I find China fascinating and have loved getting to know the country over the years. The last two records I've made have been about random stuff I've found interesting while living there; dead poets, Chinese mythology, Chinese science fiction and the natural world.
Last December you released your stunning new album The Yips. Could you tell us what the album means to you?
The record is a bookend to my time living in China. Located on the fifth floor of an old bubble wrap factory in the heart of Hong Kong's most industrial areas, ‘The Yips’ is the name of the studio where I wrote and recorded most of the demos for the album. The factory was also home to many other artists; on my floor, there was a leatherworker and a wedding dressmaker. I actually brought a cheap coffee machine from home to my studio to entice the other tenants to stop by for a chat in the hope of picking up a few friends here and there - it had mixed results!
You’ve worked on this album in a number of different places around the globe - what was the process of creating the record?
I’m regrettably a bit of a hermit when it comes to writing the bones of a song. I usually sit alone in my room with either an electric or acoustic guitar to get the melody and lyrics down. For this record, I was living in Hong Kong while my main collaborators, Matt and Parker, lived in New York. I was lucky that I got to do a few short stints in New York so we could record parts of it together but, overall, it was a relatively long process of layering track by track rather than playing together live.
Is there a specific location that comes to mind when you hear the The Yips? And what do you think is the best location/situation for a listener to dive into the album?
Honestly, it reminds me of traveling alone across China by train and bus. I played in around twenty cities, and it's impossible not to be moved by the enormity and strangeness of the place. I met with many incredible people who helped me on my journey, either venue owners like Little Gun or 94 or just random kids who saw that I needed help getting around and stopped to lend me a hand.
So I'd say the record is best heard alone anywhere on the open road!
It seems like collaboration was a key part of the process of this album. Who else was involved, and how valuable is collaboration in your songwriting?
So many great people were involved; my producer Matt Whyte (ex Earl Greyhound and now host of Sing For Science podcast), my drummer and guest producer Parker Kindred (Jeff Buckley, Antony and the Johnsons, Joan as Police Woman), John Chao (Misha Band), Steve Marion (aka Delicate Steve), Aidan Roberts (Maple Trail)… my favourite part of making this record was building out each song with these incredible people.
Matt and Parker were the most crucial. Matt shepherded all the songs and some of them were completely transformed like ‘Seed’ - which we share a writing credit. Similarly, Parker’s tender touch changed how I think about and hear drums on a track. In one of the songs, my guitar track wasn’t working so we removed it and Parker just played with my voice and breath, which requires some voodoo talent right there!
The Yips feels like a really great Sunday morning album, which has made me want to return to a question we used to ask regularly in Trouble Juice interviews - what’s your perfect Sunday?
Oh man. Wake up late. Pour a perfect cup of coffee. Vegemite toast. Drop Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk onto the record player. Sit down and read the paper.
The Yips is out now through Broken Stone Records.
