[INTERVIEW] Yolanda Be Cool Talks Their New Single, 'Hip Trumpets', Life In Ibiza, Meditation, + More

Step into the underground groove with Australian duo Yolanda Be Cool as they unveil their latest sonic adventure, "Hip Trumpets". Released on their newest label, SWEATRZ, this funky house anthem is a testament to the pairs innovative style of production, which they have utilized to become a household name in dance music over the last decade.

We linked up with Yolanda Be Cool to delve deep into their musical journey, from their pivotal role in launching the careers of musical luminaries like Purple Disco Machine, RÜFÜS DÜ SOL, and more through Club Sweat and Sweat It Out!, to their current exciting ventures. With an illustrious history that includes the chart-topping anthem “We No Speak Americano,” Matt Handley (on the left above) and Andy Stanley (right) have never lost sight of their love for underground house. 

Check out iEDM's exclusive interview with Yolanda Be Cool below.

iEDM: Let's start with SWEATRZ, your new club-forward, minimal house label. Can you tell us what inspired you to create this label and what kind of music can we expect from it?

Yolanda Be Cool: It all started around this time last year. We went to Ibiza with our buddy Paluma from Australia’s sunny coast. He is one of the highest selling deep-tech minimal artists in Beatport. That subgenre is his wheel-house. We got super inspired while at a Solid Grooves party and realized there are so many great artists on the East Coast of Australia. The next morning, we conceptualized the idea for SWEATRZ to help showcase this homegrown talent on our own label. Paluma has already released on it, but “Hip Trumpets” will be our first single on SWEATRZ.

iEDM: How does “Hip Trumpets” represent the vision behind SWEATRZ? 

Yolanda Be Cool: We have two things in mind with SWEATRZ: one half is music primed for nighttime and club-play, the other half is more centered around daytime energy. Many of the tracks can strike this balance between each environment, adapting to basement club play and for day shows too. “Hip Trumpets” sits more with daytime energy yet still has elements of the club in it.

We have played it at Club Space in Miami and while opening up for FISHER in Atlanta. We had the initial thought of pool parties with the trumpets but it absolutely slams with club crowds. This is the balance we always try to achieve when we write.

iEDM: What production challenges did you face while creating “Hip Trumpets” and how did you manage to overcome them?

Yolanda Be Cool: The challenge is making music that can work on a massive stage but also sounds cool in a smaller club. We played it in a little French restaurant for 200 people the other night and it popped off.

We have been writing, testing, and doing different versions of “Hip Trumpets”. It is mainly just trial & error. We switched out the kick last minute to make it a bit harder; this complements the jazzy swings.

Another challenge was having it be DJ-friendly while being super creative. Straightening up the hi-hats made it more DJ-friendly in the intro and outro. The final arrangement of it works flawlessly on the dance floor… all killa, no filla!

A final obstacle we came across was that KVISION gave us an hour of trumpet hooks to use. We had to isolate the perfect segment for “Hip Trumpets” and weave it into the rest of the instrumental. There were so many great trumpet progressions that it was tough to narrow it down and choose just one.

iEDM: What were your favorite parts of working with KVISION on “Hip Trumpets”? What brought this collab together, and how did you balance each other’s signature styles?

Yolanda Be Cool: He’s a buddy of ours from Sydney. We go back and forth sending each other tracks. The break-downs and buildups were a pleasure to work on. It was amazing how fluid and easy it was to work with KVISION. We would call each other whenever we wanted to work on something and hash it out together.

iEDM: Can you dive into utilizing the vocal samples throughout “Hip Trumpets”? What advice would you give to house producers on effectively weaving in vocals and identifying ones that fit well with a certain instrumental?

Yolanda Be Cool: A vocal has to have a nice beat, swing to it, and should come from your heart. The sample in “Hip Trumpets” was something that we found on YouTube. It is important to find something that resonates with you. Additionally, a good strategy is to take the vocal completely out of the song and listen to both versions carefully. Then you can analyze if the track is truly better with the vocals or not. You want to make vocals stand-out while simultaneously sitting “in the pocket”. The goal is to have the vocal and instrumental feel like they are from the same family.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Yolanda Be Cool 😎 (@yolandabecooler)

iEDM: Your track "We No Speak Americano" achieved worldwide success. How has that experience influenced your music and career over the years?

Andy: Since the viral success of that song happened, we have definitely been on a roller coaster of emotions. Ultimately, we are based in LA now, talking to you, and just played at The Brooklyn Mirage so that track clearly catapulted us to help reach the place that we are at. I was hanging out the other day and a kids' movie came on with “We No Speak Americano” playing in the background.

Sometimes it is tough to hear it in that setting because it wasn’t what we imagined in our vision for the track, but we are still so gratefull for its widespread success. At the end of the day, it has had a very positive result and everyone seems to love it. We play a lot of different versions, remixes, and edits of “We No Speak Americano” in our sets, but it is not something we feel we need to play at every performance.

Matt: I thought it was really cool that we made a song that all our favorite DJs play in their sets. Fast-forward a year later, it became a song that you play a video of your cat dancing to. In the end, it clearly makes people happy and I think making a song that has this effect is always a good thing. I truly love this track.

iEDM: Matt, what sparked the initial idea for Baseline Happiness? How does meditation play a role in the music community, and how do you aim to increase happiness in this industry?

Matt: Meditation is helpful throughout the whole world. It is a world full of stress, which often leads to either negative effects on the body or bad behavior. In the music industry, people are on stage trying to captivate thousands of people at one time. Then they step offstage and need to focus on making music that aims to attract millions of listeners and appease their fan base. This can cause a lot of pressure, so the idea behind Baseline Happiness is to help prevent an overload of stress by spreading the benefits and knowledge of meditation across the music industry.

There is subject referral happiness, which is the happiness you can get by your set going well or you putting a clip on Instagram that gets a ton of likes. In this case, your happiness is impacted by how your next set or IG post goes. If it goes badly, it typically leads to unhappiness, which is what we are trying to combat with this program. Meditation is a tool that enables you to find happiness from within. You will become more okay with what happens on the outside.

Right now in the music industry, people are 60-70% more likely to have suicidal thoughts and two-thirds more likely to suffer from anxiety than other industries. With meditation, they are less likely to have those thoughts and anxiety. Andy and I have been doing it for 10 years. We used to argue all the time and haven’t really had an argument since we started meditating. 

iEDM: Can you break down the process and science behind Vedic Meditation a little bit for people who are unfamiliar with it?

Matt: Vedic Meditation comes from India. Up until the 1950s, you could only mainly find it in the Himalayas. Then Maharishi Mahesh Yog started traveling the world and teaching people how to use this technique. In actuality, it is a very simple and effortless technique. You are giving a mantra, which is essentially a word that has no intended meaning but it has a natural resonant vibration with your mind and thoughts.

When you think this mantra, what it enables you to do is enter a rest that is up to 5x more restful than sleep. The reason for this is that when we go to sleep we have evolved to always have our guard up. For example, back in the day maybe there was a tiger right around the corner. Our body doesn’t allow itself to go into a very deep state of rest. 

When we meditate using this technique, the mind stays completely conscious and can send a message to the body that it can dive into a deep, profound rest. What happens in this state is that our body unwinds and unload all of these thoughts, stresses, and negative memories. We still carry sadness around for years following tragedy or from other sources. Sometimes, it is no longer relevant or purposeful to be carrying that memory. The deep state achieved from Vedic Meditation has the potential to let go of any unnecessary memories and thoughts that are causing stress and sadness.

iEDM: You have been influential in launching the careers of several artists through Club Sweat and Sweat It Out!. Surrounding this, can you share some memorable moments from your journey in the music industry?

Matt: I always tell people to just say yes to every opportunity because you never know where that opportunity might take you. Purple Disco Machine’s manager messaged me one day. The manager sent us PDM’s album when it was in a very early stage and asked if I wanted to meet up with him. He wasn’t really on the map at the time but I decided to go have a coffee with him anyway.

He was one of the nicest guys ever, and the album clearly developed into something incredible. If I didn’t say yes to having a coffee with PDM, we probably never would have worked together. A quote that I live by is “if you don’t go, you will never know”.

Another great story is when we signed RÜFÜS DU SOL we were in a boardroom, with a bunch of Rubix cubes on the table. We were there so they could look over the contract before signing it. Tyrone doesn’t say a word, he just sits down at the table, picks up a rubix cube, puts it down, finished.

iEDM: Ibiza has been a significant influence on your music. Could you share some of your favorite memories and experiences from the Ibiza scene?

Andy: We absolutely love Ibiza. I was looking at photos the other day of my wife and I there in 2001, when it was all outdoors. When we first started touring Europe, we always wanted to come back to Ibiza whenever we could. We even lived there for a while in 2011. It is just one of those places that we get inspiration from every time we go. We often say let’s go there, fill up a cup of ideas, and bring it to the studio to write new tracks. iEDM: With over 15 years in the music industry, what changes have you observed in the underground dance music scene, and how do you see it evolving in the future?

Andy: The underground scene has become less serious. It used to consist of wearing all black, going to a dark club, heads down. Now there is more freedom and acceptance in the underground world. You can sample anything, whether it's hip hop or jazz. There are fewer rules, and it is a lot more fun, suiting the style that we enjoy.

Matt: Solomun has been doing his +1 for nearly 10 years, but now he is starting to book artists like Dom Dolla who is making some big crossover records. A decade ago, everyone was more in their own box or lane. You would not see this type of artist at one of the world’s biggest underground parties with Solomun. The lanes are a bit more fluid. For example, Dom playing with Solomun or Seth Troxler playing a FISHER record.

iEDM: Are there any upcoming artists or releases from Club Sweat, Sweat It Out!, or SWEATRZ that you're particularly excited about and would like to highlight?

Yolanda Be Cool: As mentioned, we started SWEATRZ with Paluma, who is constantly searching for new talent and making innovative music. We just released Caleb Jackson’s EP on SWEATRZ, who is joined by other promising local talent. Obviously pumped for “Hip Trumpets” to be out in the world too!

For our Sweat labels, we have a sick record with CID coming out and we have working with Lazywax, who is definitely a duo you should check out. They are the next wave of disco-funk and electro-80s producers, which we are super excited about.

 Photos courtesy of Yolanda Be Cool.

Read more iEDM Exclusive Interviews HERE!

Festival season is finally upon us! Shop til' you drop with iEDM's 2023 Festival Collection HERE!