Yasumo have so far had releases on Silhouette Music and Jump To This, remixes for Detroit vinyl extraordinaire Arthur Baker and support on radio across England and France. It has been a great couple of years since they first started working together but they both have quite different musical histories. “I started messing with music back in high school,” says Nair. “I was being a DJ with one CD player – playing at birthday parties. It evolved into me getting into hip hop and then DJ battle competitions. I guess it kept going throughout high school. Then I was playing at Mynt and that’s how I met Simon.”
Salerno’s relates a different path: “My history is a little bit different to Yanni. My dad is a bass player and my brother is a drummer. So I have been able to express myself musically since a young age. I had a few cousins who DJed around town. Around 18 I started with a few parties around the place and tried really hard to get into it. My general musicality took on from there,” continues Salerno. “Beat matching came quickly and in terms of producing it worked out well – my brother helped me around the interface and helped me get started. I had general knowledge of Ableton when we started Yasumo but we have been learning together.”For Nair, it was all about tinkering: “I used to mess around in the game style producing programs like EJ. I’ve always been around this whole making digital music thing. I did this first bootleg on Virtual DJ – it sort of came to me quickly and then with Simon he had a bit of a grasp on things.”
But the real start for Yasumo came after their first meeting at Mynt: “Yasumo was quite different. We got introduced by mutual friends but the ‘formal meeting’ was through Facebook actually!” laughs Nair. “I posted that I was going vinyl shopping on Facebook and the only person to reply was Simon – that was 2009. And then that night was the start of our producing together. We bought some records that we wanted to sample and just started putting them into Ableton.”
For Nair and Salerno, who are studying and working, their thirst for music is massive. “Any free nights that we have are devoted to the group,” says Nair. “We even head back to the studio after gigs!” Currently playing on Thursday and Saturday nights at Mynt, Yasumo have been lucky enough to support Pete Tong and Grum amongst others, and they have received complements from international DJs like Tommie Sunshine and Pete Le Freq. They’re joining a stellar bunch for Chinese Whispers at Miss Libertine over the Easter long weekend and it’s something they’re really looking forward to. “It’s just s perfect fit for us,” says Salerno. “It’s such a privilege to play a show with this sort of line-up.”
Yasumo’s sound has this great funk feel to it and even though it’s dance music it doesn’t feel too digital. There’s a great blend of what feels like real instruments and samples. “That’s what we go for,” confirms Nair. “There are heaps of live bass and guitar recordings to bring that feeling.” It’s something that Salerno feels passionate about: “Since I grew up around live music it makes sense that I want to include it in our productions. It gives us a really unique sound I think. We just really want to show the sound that we love and take little sounds and incorporating it into our songs. We have been listening to a lot of our influences and then getting session musicians into the studio.”
I wonder if being located in Melbourne is a challenge for Yasumo to get their sound out to the world? “I guess it is,” says Nair, “as with any musician who isn’t mainstream. We are finding that our sound is getting a good response. Crowds can easily relate to our style of music, no matter what your background is. We get a lot of support from Love That Music who are organising Chinese Laundry.” Salerno believes that their style is quite universal too: “With the blending of hip hop, disco and filtered house it doesn’t matter what you’re into. Most people find that they enjoy it.”
After Silhouette Music released a remix by Yasumo they have been getting some great feedback. “A lot of big names are sending us messages of support and we have been doing some remix work for Arthur Baker, Tommy Sunshine and Smoke & Groove,” says Nair. Yasumo have an EP coming out on Lama Farm Recordings in May with three originals and two remixes from Dave Allison and Pete Le Freq: “We’re really exciting about what this year will bring for us,” says Nair. “The feedback that we are getting through our Soundcloud page and when we play shows is great! We just want to thank everyone for the support.”
