We were lucky to catch up with Yelpy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Yelpy, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

So I’ve recently just release the official music video for my song Gravity and the reason this is such a big deal to me is because this is the biggest project I’ve ever worked on. It involved multiple people and companies working literal for years to get everything complete. And yea I couldn’t be happier with the end result.

The video was directed by award winning director Jonathan Martin and features set & costume design by renowned designer Clark Schaffer (Iron Man, Batman, Star Trek) and Troy Larson (V/H/S/99, Deadstream). We also have some great sound design in there by the legendary Patrick Hogan (Daredevil, The Punisher, Reservation Dogs, Cobra Kai, The Umbrella Academy). The amazing special effects work was done by Manchester, UK based Tempered Pixel Studios. And the whole thing was shot in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We were lucky enough to have the beautiful and talanted actress Ieva Georges (Criminal Minds, Active Shooter, Chavez Cage Of Glory) to play the main part of the ship’s captain. And the song itself was co-written and produced by the awards winning TheRealJonSmith (Jonathan Smith) at Native South Studios.

So the basic idea and story for Gravity is that of a space trucker who floats through the empty surroundings of space, orbiting a distant planet, as his thoughts linger on a lost love, a woman inside the ship the two had crewed together. The expanse is peaceful, yet lonely when she’s not around. By either ill luck, or fate, a gash rips through space and sucks Yelpy through. Tumbling him into a massive nebula of light and color. He is lost, and his love and crew mate must do all she can to rescue him while discovering her true feelings in the process.

We recently had a big red carpet launch and got to show it publicly for the first time and I couldn’t be happier with the reactions. All our hard work paid off. It was an amazing feeling. On top of all that we just won best song at the Europe Music Video Awards, my first legitimate trophy!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So I’m Yelpy, a singer/songwriter born in Dublin city, Ireland. I’ve just released my long awaited single “Gravity”, which is the follow up to my award winning singles “Heartbeats”, “Shout”, “Save Me” and “Feel It”. This marks my fifth international release and along with the song the music video is my most ambitious video yet. It stars me and the beautiful & talented actress Ieva Georges. Currently I’m working on some new tunes in Native South Studios in Los Angeles with the amazing TheRealJonSmith (Jonathan Smith).

Here’s my little story; when I just turned 15th my dad out of nowhere bought me a guitar for my birthday. I hadn’t given music a second thought up ’til that point but little would I know that gesture would change my life forever.

I played that first guitar morning, noon and night and within a year I formed my first rock band “Awakened”. I played quite a lot with that band all through my school years. In fact at the time playing music was the only thing that kept me sane, as school was never really my strong suit.

After school I started college, although it wasn’t just any old college, it was Europe’s famous Rock School in Ballyfermot, Dublin. I met a lot of like-minded people there and then formed my second band “Whover” (pronounced WHO-VER). Whover was such a great experience for me. We toured all over Ireland and played on TV and radio. It really gave me my first taste of being a “rock star” and I bloody loved it. While in Whover I worked with three of the most talented musicians I have ever know and they taught me a lot.

But sad as it was at the time Whover eventually ran its course and I began to play more and more with my two sisters Ruth and Niamh until we finally made it official and formed the band “Yellow Room”. As Yellow Room my sisters and I played all over Ireland and again on TV and radio. We got to play with some of Ireland’s greatest talent, such as John Spillane, Brian Downey, Maria Doyle Kennedy, The Revs, Mickey Joe Heart, Liam O’Maonlai and many more. We also released two studio albums “Outside” and the self-titled “Yellow Room”. After the second album though I decided it was time to pursue a solo career as a singer/songwriter and move to LA.

So Yelpy was born and the rest is history.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I would say stop taking music (and other forms of art) for granted. Music needs to be created by someone, and it’s not easy, it’s a big commitment. I think we as a society can too easily expect creative things just to be there without giving much thought to the person that has created that art, In the case of music I think people have become too accustomed to the idea of music being free and easily available. Platforms like Spotify pay next to nothing to the artist for their music whilst at the same time posting record profits year over year. It’s unsustainable. Artists need to be paid for the work they do or pretty soon music will be an impossible career path for anyone, if that isn’t actually the case already.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Touching people. The feeling you get when you witness your work actually move people. When you play that show and you can feel the crowd emotionally connect with the song(s) you’re playing and with you, the artist. It’s very hard describe but it’s like you’ve fundamentally change that person’s emotional experience for a brief moment in time. Also through recordings, when someone comes to you and has to tell you how much a song you’ve created has change, touch, or moved them. That’s an amazing feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yelpy.net
• Instagram: instagram.com/yelpy
• Facebook: facebook.com/YelpyPage
• Twitter: twitter.com/Yelpy
• Youtube: youtube.com/@Yelpy
• Other: Basically Yelpy on everything! 👍

Image Credits
Earl E. Gibson III