Yoome

What do you get when you combine two well-respected indie rappers with a female singer/songwriter who originates from New Zealand, but finds occasional refuge in Chicago during wintertime? The answer is Yoome, a minimalistic pop collaborative with a penchant for heavy electronic experimentation and sparse backing beats.

Their three parts carry defined roles within the group. There is one part Dave Cohn (a.k.a. Serengeti) who is the eclectic lyricist, one part Renee-Louise Carafice who is the female perspective vocalist, and one part Anthony Kim (a.k.a. Tony Trimm or Haiku) who is the DJ/producer/composer. We shot some questions out to Mr. Trimm recently to dig a little deeper into Yoome’s origin, find out how he’s adjusting to an unfamiliar role in his musical career, and discuss some of overriding themes of their emotionally dense latest effort, The Boredom of Me.

SSv: Could you talk about your background with Serengeti and how the two of you teamed up with Renee to get Yoome started?

Tony Trimm: Aww man, me and Dave are best buds. We met in Carbondale [Illinois] about four years ago. I was going to school out there and he was in love with a girl. We remained great friends and talked every day. Strangely though, as much as we were into music, we never managed to do anything in collaboration. Then last winter we were both under a lot of stress and kind of unhappy about things so we started working on Boredom of Me - just kind of out of the blue. Then he brought in this woman named Renee. She sang and from there we pretty much knew we had something.

SSv: With Renee hailing from New Zealand, we’re talking about the other side of the Atlantic and an enormous gap in time zones. How difficult has that distance proven to be?

Trimm: When we were working on the Yoome stuff, Renee was living in Chicago. It was fairly easy for all of us to meet up in Koreatown. So there really wasn’t a “distance situation.” Since Renee is currently in New Zealand, the only thing that I could see as being difficult is getting together to do live shows. But hey, things seem to work their way out.

SSv: From a production standpoint and an outsider’s perspective, it seems as if the transition from rap to what you’re doing with Yoome would be a difficult one. Was there much of a learning curve, or did your approach to this come pretty naturally?

Trimm: I’ve always been a frontman, vocalist kind of guy. Mainly I’ve relied on others to make the “beats” then I would pick the ones that moved me the most and rap on them. Of course after awhile, you get bored. You want to move on. I decided to make beats. I was blessed to work with my favorite rapper and best friend Dave. We went with our diverse taste in music and Yoome is what we came up with. I’d say that was a pretty natural transition. Change is inevitable if you don’t fear it. With rap I’ve taken a little bit of a sabbatical if you will. I think we all need a break sometimes. Change is good. We need more change.

SSv: Would you say the minimalistic style of Yoome is representative of you as an individual artist, or was your take on this kind of fitting for what you intended to accomplish with this as a project?

Trimm: Simplicity works on every level.

SSv: Some of the guitar fills used throughout The Boredom of Me work incredibly well – for example, the one used to close out “Dubai.” I know you guys collaborated with Jeff Parker from Tortoise for that. Was he allowed free reign, or did you give him some guidance in terms of how you all wanted it to sound?

Trimm: That fucking guy is amazing. He listened through the songs maybe once or twice and immediately started playing some shit. I had very little guidance for him because somehow everything he did ended up working.

SSv: Winters in Chicago can be confining and in your bio it says that The Boredom of Me was a child of such seasonal circumstances. Was it almost as if your creativity developed from it just giving something to do and do you find the opposite to be true? As in, it’s more difficult to be creative in the summer when you’ve got so many other options.

Trimm: It’s pretty much both true. I’m more active in the summer but for some reason I seem to gain a lot of weight. And you know, like in the winter if it’s cold out and you’re stuck inside and you do nothing but watch movies or play video games and that’s pretty lame.

SSv: “Amsterdam” is a song that really caught my attention because its theme of divorce isn’t an often used one. For it being just a four minute or so song, you guys delve into the subject matter fairly deeply and paint kind of an all encompassing picture in terms of triggering events, shared emotions, etc. Where did your interest in divorce as subject matter come from?

Trimm: Divorce is common. Divorce causes confusion, frustration, fear and embarrassment. Why are divorce songs uncommon?

SSv: Well, I guess you’re right if they’re generalized with “breakup songs”. I’m sure a lot of “breakup songs” are centered on divorce, but “Amsterdam” is a lot more specific than what I’m typically accustomed to. Also, with “Amsterdam”, Serengeti and Renee really take hold of their roles and it comes across as almost cinematic. It made me wonder if there are any film influences that fed into this album. Were there any particular directors or genres of film? The way the album flows lyrically also made me think of that in how Serengeti talks about his little lot of land in “Dubai” and then refers to buying land as a result of his divorce in “Amsterdam.”

Trimm: Dave writes very visually. I just made a backdrop for his thoughts. If you want to classify the theme as “cinematic”, that’s fine with me. As far as the video goes, there wasn’t really a particular film influence. I just came up with the split screen idea one day and met up with Dave and my buddy Chris at a beer promotion thing at a bar and we got drunk for free and discussed.

SSv: You also directed the video for “Amsterdam” and I liked how in it you played the neutral friend of both parties. It follows Serengeti and Renee’s characters after what looks like a day of work. Where did your concept of the video come from?

Trimm: Good ideas can come from drunken conversations. But, mostly not.

SSv: Any tour plans in support of the new album, or any shows lined up?

Trimm: I’m still waiting for Renee to return my emails.

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Tagged as: Chicago, Hip-hop, Rap

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