“I was making music completely on my own; I found it quite weird including other people in a process that felt very personal”: Rising producer Yunè Pinku on DAWs, Madonna and shaking off the cobwebs of lockdown

“I use a podcast mic and a garbage keyboard and just go to town”: Yunè Pinku studio interview - YouTube

Watch On

Irish-Malaysian producer and songwriter Yunè Pinku – aka Asha Nandy – started making music during the pandemic, but has rapidly grown beyond her bedroom origins, taking leaps forward with each new EP and an ever-growing list of collaborations. 

As she prepares to release her latest EP – Scarlet Lamb – and ahead of a US tour with Caribou, we sat down in the London studio where the EP was recorded to talk about her varied influences and stylistic approach. 

You can watch the interview in full in the video above.

When one DAW closes…

Tell us a bit more about how your music-making journey began…

“I was making sort of soundscape noise stuff for the first three years and then slowly made it into more formulated music. It was more like indie rock and poppy stuff – and then went into more garagey breaks. 

“I started out using SoundLab which is very bare bones on just like an iPad or something and then a cousin of mine sent me a link to a software called Midoka – which is all in Japanese. I had no idea what it was saying but it did very well. And now it's gone. [laughs]

“For me [the new EP] was the first time doing actual live recordings in the room and we got drummers in and guitarists. So yeah, it was pretty fun to meld more organic and electronic elements in drums. For some of it, I'd do a pretty rough job and then we might fix it up a bit or whatever. But for the most part it was free rein and we just got everyone to try whatever they wanted.” 

Layering versions

What were some of the techniques you used on new EP Scarlet Lamb?

“I did 60 or 70% of the demos at home. Very rough jobs – quite trash vocals. But then we came in here [Studio Orb] and used all the fancy gadgets and stuff to boost everything up and make all the sounds a bit more sophisticated.

“[For my home studio] you'd think it would be much more interesting than it actually is but I use a podcast mic and a really garbage little keyboard and go to town.”

“It's quite cool sometimes to put the fancy version on top of the garbage version because it makes everything a bit more sonically interesting I think. But I quite like the ways you find textures where you could literally record anything right now and then it'd be picking up the sound in the background and you could stretch it and it would be a completely different sound.”

“I mostly use Logic. [Other DAWs] just seem too analogue. A lot of people gravitate towards Logic for vocal recording and Ableton for production. I use a lot of Soundtoys plugins and Baby Audio. Baby is good for unexpected stuff that you wouldn't necessarily think of. Soundtoys are just great for making sounds better and all that jazz. So some of those bad boys were used. And a selection of core Roland plugins. It was quite a computery job of just sort of messing around on there.”

yunè pinku - Believe (Official Visualiser) - YouTube

Watch On

Collaborating with Cecile Believe

You recently released the single Believe with Canadian LA-based artist Cecile Believe. Tell us more about your work together…

“She's based in LA and she was here doing some sessions and it was either the first or second session where we wrote Believe. But it was very spontaneous. One of those ones where you don't actively write it, it just sort of happens. Which is always nice.

“We ticked away at it for a fairly long time and then me and Olly [Oliver Ocean] in here were adding guitar bits and sending it back and forth over texts. It was all very organic.”

What techniques do you think define your sound?

“I think arps are definitely a reoccurring thing which I didn't realise until I was listening back to everything recently. They’re everywhere. And then I like contrast. That is always something that I seem to gravitate towards in music. So if, like, the drums are hard then like the synths are going to be the opposite end of it [mimicks a choir sound].

“Contrast generally. Even in some of the songs on the EP, the lyrics are an opposite energy to what the song actually sounds like.”

Tell us more about your vocal processing on Midnight Oil…

“With that song it was a slower process. On one of the first demos I think we added in some of the weirder vocal stuff at the very last minute. You get kind of ear blind after a while [listening] to a song. So it's good to just throw in something a little bit different. I was listening to loads of Madonna and she does lots of weird spoken word stuff and I was just thinking about that.”

Production influences

You have cited a unique range of influences in the past – what are your current ones? 

“I think [my influences are] always changing a bit but I think probably a lot of Massive Attack for now. It's been a big influence. And more experimental but semi-mainstream artists. Madonna's Ray of Light was definitely something I was listening to a lot around making this one. And Radiohead. Different bits of different albums. Probably those three.”

How has your approach to working changed over the years?

“I think because before I was just making it completely on my own it took me a while to shake that habit a bit. I found it quite weird including other people in a process that I felt was very personal before. Now I have sort of realised that everyone can kind of pinch in different ideas. It's always a bit of a journey. In a nice way I think everyone had the same thing after the pandemic where they were shaking off the cobwebs of being insular.

“I'm curious about blending genres a bit more and even borrowing bits that traditionally belong to one genre. It would be quite cool to make an electronic rock album or something. Just sort of messing around a bit more with genres.”

Scarlet Lamb EP by Yunè Pinku is out 4 October via Method 808.