Yellow Red Sparks has been announced as a special guest of The New Los Angeles Folk Festival this weekend; they're playing at 4 p.m. In this interview on the festival's site, Joshua Hanson talks about where his songs come from. (Warning: there's vomit on that description.)
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Where do your songs come from?
It's really deep inside of me. I am not really familiar with it until the song comes out. It's definitely not cerebral. It's a subconscious heart thing with me. I just write from a deep part inside myself that I don't really know. It's not deliberate really. It's like an emotional vomiting.
So you emotionally vomit, and then the band cleans it up?
The basic song is usually done and the band adds the musical part of it, which I am not very good at. It's hard for me to look at music that way. They add the textures that make the song more alive. Goldy brings texture on drums and PJ brings rhythms on bass that I would not normally have heard.
The festival will be held at the Historical Monument 157, 3110 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, on Saturday, Aug 7, 2 p.m. to midnight. $15. As it will be a folk festival, there is the requisite beard contest, plus the Little Frenchie food truck. Festival proceeds support the Environmental Defense Fund's Gulf oil crisis relief efforts.
