INTERVIEW: Yulan & Blaise

Interview by Rachael Skinner.

Yulan & Blaise is a remarkably gifted duo made up of Yulan Jack and Blaise Garza. Yulan Jack boasts a rich background that ranges from classical singing to screen performances, including a role in the Emmy-nominated series “Deadloch.” Blaise Garza, a versatile multi-instrumentalist, has spent two decades with the iconic band, the Violent Femmes. Together these two merged their artistic and creative forces to create a fresh take on experimental electronic pop. Their single, “God Complex,” is set to release on November 22, 2024. This track draws from the “Bristol Sound” and channels the essence of ‘90s soundtracks, providing an enticing glimpse of some of the magic that awaits us on their 2025 EP.

After having the honor of interviewing them and experiencing their artistic visions through listening to their enchanting and enigmatic single “God Complex,” I am truly excited to share with you what we discussed.

(SINGLE COVER ARTWORK: Yulan & Blaise)

RRX: What sparked your journey into music, and in what ways does it connect to your endeavors across various artistic mediums?

YULAN: Music has always been part of my artistic vocabulary, from classical vocal training when I was 13 onwards, to my ongoing interest in electronic and experimental music. This project with Blaise feels like all these different threads of my creative life finally weaving together. I’m Singaporean Chinese Australian and I’ve moved around a lot, between Australia, the UK, the US and Asia, so I’m influenced by many different places and cultures. I’m drawn to artists who refuse to be boxed in.

RRX: Who are your musical and artistic inspirations?

YULAN: Some of the artists who have had the greatest influence on me include Faye Wong, Kate Bush, Björk, Patti Smith, and more recently Caroline Polachek. I think what they all have in common is that they are all experimental and multidisciplinary in their approach, highly visual, and they are poets in their own ways – very language driven. The way Faye Wong moves between different languages really resonates, as I’m in the process of trying to write and sing more in Mandarin.

RRX: Your artistic endeavors frequently explore themes of identity and the reclamation of culture. In what ways does “God Complex” further this dialogue?

YULAN: In a literal sense, our debut single “God Complex” is about a lover en route to another galaxy, and that acts as a metaphor for bigger questions around the benefits and perils of technology. It doesn’t directly deal with our identities, but I don’t think it’s an accident that it explores themes of vastness and loneliness – Blaise and I are both multiracial and we have both moved around a lot. We know what it is to feel at home everywhere and nowhere. Some of the later songs in our EP deal with identity in more concrete ways.

RRX: What were your musical and artistic pursuits before teaming up with Blaise to produce this EP?

YULAN: My career path has been winding and full of surprises, even for me! I studied Drama at the University of Bristol in the UK, then trained as an actor at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard. I’ve worked as a stage and screen actor, including in Deadloch (Amazon Prime) and stage productions in Australia, the US, and UK. But I’ve always been drawn to finding new and innovative ways to explore my cultural identity, like when I moved to China in 2019 and made a vlog series about learning kung fu and Mandarin.

RRX: What led you to share your life and musical journey with Blaise?

YULAN: Blaise and I met while performing at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Tasmania in 2020. It’s a massive art collection owned by a multi-millionaire and focused around the themes of sex and death. Blaise was working there as a musician and I was working as a vocalist. We were performing there for almost two years, and a few months into that time we became friends and then began dating. I think we recognized in each other this shared desire to push artistic boundaries while staying grounded in something authentic. Looking back now, it’s funny to think that MONA’s owner David Walsh had that parking space labeled “GOD.” It feels somewhat prophetic since we’re releasing a song called “God Complex.”

RRX: Can you describe to me your creative process behind creating your single “God Complex” with Blaise?

YULAN: We both like a lot of different genres so we experimented a lot before finding a sound that felt truthful. We initially recorded at Frying Pan Studios at MONA, working with the legendary REDD.17 desk that the Beatles used, but we ended up re-recording parts of the track in our living room, to keep that sense of intimacy and rawness. The song emerged from conversations about long-distance relationships and tech billionaires like Elon Musk – this idea of someone on a mission to colonize space, the complicated ethics of that, and the feelings of a lover left behind. We wanted to create something that sounded both futuristic and nostalgic.

RRX: You embarked on your musical adventure at a remarkably young age, transitioning from a child actor to a member of Violent Femmes. What sparked your passion for music?

Yulan & Blaise | Photographer Kishka Jensen

BLAISE: I grew up working as a child actor, including in the US soap opera “Another World.” When I was 12, my parents took me to a pawn shop and I thought the sax “looked the coolest.” By the time I was 14, I owned a collection of instruments including a six-foot contrabass saxophone. I did a gig with the Central Coast Philharmonia, which ended up catching the attention of a roadie for the Violent Femmes, Zip Zembinski. Brian, the Violent Femmes bass player, asked me to sit in with the band. And I’m still touring with them 20 years later.

RRX: You’re very well known for your impressive 6-foot contrabass saxophone.. What inspired your shift to the realm of experimental electronic music with the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) for your debut single?

BLAISE: The transition felt natural. After collecting and performing on nearly every type of saxophone imaginable, from the tiny Soprillo to the Sub Contrabass, the EWI represents this fascinating bridge between acoustic and electronic worlds. It’s really an extension of my ongoing fascination with pushing wind instruments into new territory. Plus, my background in composition and audio engineering, which I studied at UCSD, made me curious about these electronic frontiers. But we do use sax and contrabass sax in some of the later tracks of the EP too.

RRX: You’ve have incorporated some pretty intriguing instruments into this track. What sparked your inspiration

BLAISE: My passion for collecting instruments – over 70 now – really came into play here. We’re using traditional or folk instruments but in unexpected ways and new contexts. There’s Chinese erhu, a nod to Yulan’s Chinese heritage, and the jaguar whistle, a nod to my Mexican roots.

RRX: How has your experience with the Violent Femmes helped to influence this new path on your musical journey?

BLAISE: The Violent Femmes taught me to break the rules musically. Even though this project isn’t punk in a musical sense, our approach is “punk.” This project with Yulan feels like a natural progression of the experimentation I’ve learned from the Violent Femmes.

RRX: Could you share some insights into your partnership with Yulan and the way you both collaborate to produce your music?

BLAISE: Early on when we met, I asked Yulan if she wrote any poetry because I am always coming up with chord progressions but I’ve never put lyrics to them. It turns out she does write poetry, and she’s an incredible singer. So our skill sets are very complementary. Having said that, we try to work together on everything and act as the producer for each other and try to push each other to create the best work we can. Yulan had me repeat the EWI solo about ten times until we got one she thought was right for the track!

RRX: The EP promises to be quite genre-defying. What should listeners anticipate?

BLAISE: For each song in the EP we’re creating these cinematic visual worlds, each with a slightly different musical language, but all within an experimental electronic space, and some are a little more pop-leaning. Each track and music video reimagines our relationship in different scenarios – whether that’s dystopian futures or strangely nostalgic places. It’s more than just the music – we’re excited to share these worlds we’ve crafted.

God Complex will be released on November 22 across all music streaming platforms. Be sure to mark this day on your calendar and check out Yulan & Blaise!

Be sure to show some love to this dynamic duo and follow their journey on social media.

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/yulan.and.blaise/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/yulan.and.blaise