CORK duo Young Wonder is Rachel Koeman on vocals and Ian Ring on synths and instrumentation. Their electronic dream pop gathered the duo rave reviews from influential blogs Pitchfork and The Line of Best Fit for the debut EP in 2012 and this week the debut album ‘Birth’ is released. Their previous single ‘To You’ topped the Hype Machine charts and received a Single of the Week nomination in the UK from BBC Radio 1’s Phil Taggart.
by Eric FitzGerald
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Limerick Post talked to Young Wonder’s Ian Ring. Ian’s background is in producing and mixing hip hop tracks in his early days. Later he was making electronic tracks when Rachel Koeman, whose previous experience was singing in choirs, added her lyrics and voice to the project. Thus giving birth to Young Wonder.
“It’s weird because we have very different interests in music but Young Wonder is almost a collage of our influences,” observes Ian.
While Rachel writes all the lyrics, Ian composes and records the music in his home studio in Cork. He says that taking over 18 months to record the new album was deliberate choice.
“I’m happy it took this long. We would not have been able to do this album two years ago. For the first two EPs we were dipping into different sounds and experimenting. We were trying to figure out who we were sonically.”
Reaction to Young Wonder’s early EPs was good enough to get on the bill at Electric Picnic and Longtitude where they played to a full tent of 2500 people. There they were joined on stage by the UCD Choral Scholars choir, an experience that Ian describes as “amazing”. They have also had some cool support slots, notably with Alt-J at Shepherd’s Bush Theatre in London.
Ian says that he has redone the live show to reflect the new album ‘Birth’. He agrees that taking electronic music on the road takes work and time, spending all of January preparing the sound and visuals for this show.
“It’s always hard translating electronic music into a live setting. There is so many synth sounds and samples in the music. If I just jumped up on stage with an acoustic guitar, people would be going,’ what the hell is this?’ But sound quality is the main thing, people want to see something good and hear something good when they come to our live show.”
The album is released on the Feel Good Lost record label who have worked with Young Wonder for over three years. Feel Good Lost is the working name for media designer Brendan Canty, responsible for videos for Hozier’s ‘Take Me to Church’ and Gavin James recent single ‘For You’.
“They are a record label now and handle our videos and artwork. It is a very close, internal family-run thing.”
The new album will be released on vinyl, iTunes and Spotify and Ian is not bothered that his work could be downloaded for free as soon as it is released. He see the positive side of Young Wonder being available and streamed worldwide.
“Obviously people can download music for free now and there is nothing you can do about it.
The benefit of the likes of Spotify is our songs have over two million plays. It is a platform for building a fanbase and getting your music out there.”
For example the band has received emails from a US soldier in Afghanistan who wants to come see them live.
“The songs helped him get through loads of stuff and that is more important that getting 99c in iTunes for your song.”
Young Wonder play Kasbah Social Club this Saturday May 23. Debut album ‘Birth’ is out now on the Feel Good Lost record label.
