Yellow Claw talks about their new EP, working as a trio, and stalking Rick Ross {Exclusive RTT Interview}

In anticipation of their Collaboration EP, ‘Legends’ they did with Cesqeaux, we had the amazing opportunity to sit down with the Amsterdam trap trio, Yellow Claw. We talked about their forthcoming EP, producing as a trio, and some unexpected dream collaborators.

The title track, Legends, is a great taste of things to come. Keep an eye out for the  rest of’Legends’ EP dropping on Tuesday, October 14th, and the release of a Yellow Claw remix premiering exclusively on Run The Trap on Monday, October 13th.

Would you like to introduce yourselves?

The three of us, we form Yellow Claw and out there, in Europe, where we have been, Running…The Trap.

Let’s kick this off with talking about your new EP you have coming out, what can you tell us about it?

It’s a four track EP coming out on Dim Mak.  It’s a collaboration EP that we did with our friend Cesqeaux. we did the Amsterdam Trap Music before this and this is the second thing were dropping. Its a different sound, man

How would you describe the ‘Legends’ EP?

I think the sounds we did on Amsterdam Trap Music are like, really really electronic. I think this one is going back to a more authentic, more organic sound. Jungle sounds, real sounding sounds, worldly shit really. And big shoutout to the songwriters who formed words to go along with our crazy sounding music.

The fun thing about this EP was that it happened over a long period and we haven’t done much collaborating over the internet sending files back and forth. It’s really like hanging out together in the studio with Cesqeaux. Every like two or three weeks, we would get together, get some food. And like half of the night we just talk and listen to music and the other half we just try to make some stuff. It really is more of like a ‘friendship EP.’  He [Cesqeaux] is such a young and talented producer and we love to work with this guy.He has his own sound that’s for some reason really working with our sound.

When you three produce a track together, how does it work? Do you guys have a routine…?

It’s rare, but sometimes we have beautiful days where all three of us are in different studios and just sending over really enthusiastic soundbites back and forth over and over again. And then we get the stems together and finally bring it all together in our main studio and work out the kinks side by side.  Sometimes one of us comes up with an idea that we run with, or two of us, or all three of us, but the main thing is that we all have to like it. You just can’t perform a track that you aren’t 100% behind. Laughs Sometimes we do have to convince each other, “Oh yeah, you don’t like it? We’re gonna play this tonight and you’ll see.” That’s actually most of the time. He’ll be screaming before the show “believe me believe me this is gonna work!”

And sometimes it works But other times we’ll leave a show saying “Never play that song again. It sucks, I told you it sucks, everyone knows it sucks” 

And that is the story of how we have trashed completely executed songs, fully mixed and mastered, because it didn’t connect with the crowd.

Years ago, Laidback Luke said the same thing. I only release tracks if they can survive in my set for over a month, then they are good. That’s some pure shit.  

So it’s a team effort of give and take, but mostly trusting each other?

We all just know what our strengths and weaknesses are. And if I don’t know shit about it, I’m not going to touch it. These guys are my brothers and I trust them 100% and we have kind of learned how to listen to each other. I can describe how I want something to sound and the other two guys will be able to create that sound on the computer perfectly. We have drops that we have created like 8 ir 9 times like that, we just keep playing them over and over again until it works.

It’s like unlocking a safe when you don’t know the combination, you just slowly turn the wheel until it clicks and that’s it. We all know it at the same exact time.  

Do you ever see yourselves straying from the ‘trap’ sound?

Most of the time we just do a ‘Yellowclaw’ show. We go in hard and bring what we have. We mostly play our songs in sets, but we definitely sprinkle in tracks that we think are absolutely banging at the time.

What are some of those other tracks?

We still play Higher Ground by TNGHT, and it bangs every time.  DJ Snake did a remix for one of Skrillex‘s tracks that I don’t think is out yet, but we have been playing it out like crazy. We have also been playing Wild by SNAILS out ALOT. He has such a crazy sound.

Yellow Claw talks about their new EP, working as a trio, and stalking Rick Ross {Exclusive RTT Interview}