Stream Years & Years' "Traps" remixed by Armeria + Olly Alexander exclusive interview!
Years & Years continue on the road to the success: after the launching of their EP “Traps“, they’re now featured on the upcoming Kitsuné Maison 15 with their eponym hit track! But today, back to the EP with the stream of Armeria‘s remix exclusively on Earmilk! While listening to the track which “relies on pulsating rhythms to revamp the atmospheric record into a fun, shifty, house jam” you can read the exclusive interview of Years & Years‘ frontman-and-actor Olly Alexander for Kitsuné Journal below talking about beer, his hair, Enter the Void, Kitsuné, Hannah Murray and his character in Skins!
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How did you become frontman of a band and actor so young? Does art run in your family?
I wrote my first song when I was 10 years old and performed it with a dance routine for my school assembly. So I guess I’ve always had an embarrassing need to perform. We’re a pretty creative family, my gran was an opera singer and my mum sometimes makes models of castles.
How do you reconcile your time between all your activities? Are you able to find a balance or do you favour one of them?
I’m always writing music but it can be hard to find the time for us all to be in the studio especially if I’m doing a shoot abroad. I’ve been acting pretty solidly for the last couple years but I think it’s time to prioritise music now. I’m kind of a workaholic so I like being stretched but sometimes I do feel like my brain might explode.
You play a young disturbed yet very kind photographer in the last season of Skins. How do you connect to this character?
Im not quite as deranged as Jacob, but I always identify with the loser in any story because that’s basically how I felt for the first 18 years of my life.
We have to ask, how is Hannah Murray (Skins, Game of Thrones) in real life?
She’s like a magical elf. We’ve been friends for a few years and we first worked together on God Help The Girl and then Skins, I’m trying to make it so we do everything together. Im kind of obsessed with her.
About Years & Years, how did the 5 of you meet?
We spend a lot of time in a small sweaty room making loud noises so sometimes we go a bit mad. Whenever things get tense we drink beer and eat pasta, that normally sorts things out
What’s your best and worst memory with the band?
Most of our gigs have gone pretty well. In the earlier days I used to get really stressed out, we played Notting Hill Arts Club and things were going really badly and I kind of had a panic attack on stage. That sucked. I think the best memory is probably when we heard Kitsune were going to release our stuff, it felt like we were finally a real band.
What’s your favourite previous opus of the Kitsuné Maison collection? Or your favourite track on this one?
Chela’s Romanticise is incredible, but Bicycle by Memory Tapes (compilation 8) is one of my all time favourite songs, there’s a remix by a guy called Little Loud which I must have listened to a million times.
You’ll be playing in London for the Kitsuné Maison 15 party and at our Kitsuné Maison En Vrai! in Paris, where would you go if you could play live anywhere on Earth?
Finally, what question would you like to answer to but no one ever asked you?
Why is your hair so big and crazy? Answer: to distract attention from my ears.