In a sea of unique music that amplifies throughout Eugene, Mellow Yellow is able to stand out. Three roommates make up the tight-knit band: lead singer Brandon Mai, keyboardist Connor Eagleton, and guitarist Wade Martin. Their style can best be described as easy to listen to, chill, giving off a relaxing sound that reflects the personalities of the performers. The drumless band relies on digital beats and a collaborative effort to create music that puts listeners in nostalgic bliss. Their soaring melodies and airy feel take their fans on a journey through space, giving them music that is simply down to earth.
It has been a little over a year since the group formed, but one thing has remained the same since day one: Mellow Yellow’s authenticity allows them to capture the hearts of their dedicated Eugene fans.
After rooming together for the first time, the trio clicked instantly, glued by their love for music.“What was really important is that we were all listening to the same music in that time period,” explains 22-year-old Eagleton. “We were all talking about the same music, listening to the same bands. That really helped unify our creative styles when it comes to writing music.”
The living room defines the group. Recording happens in the confines of their living space, blending their professional work with their personal lives inside the yellow college house that they call home.
After reflecting on the origins of Mellow Yellow, 22-year-old Martin simply states,“The band was formed because of a living room.”
The band’s first break came as an opening gig for A Yawn Worth Yelling. For the first time, Mellow Yellow treated the audience at The Boreal to acoustic covers of 90s’ alternative rock favorites such as “High and Dry” by Radiohead. Today, cover songs remain some of the trio’s most popular performances, including a mashup of “No Diggity” by Chet Faker and Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”.
“It’s hard to write covers because you want to make them personal to your music,” says Martin. “But at the same time, you don’t want to do the song an injustice.”
Their careful attention to creating cover songs is matched only by their striking creativity in producing original music. One look at Mellow Yellow’s YouTube page and the viewer is instantly captivated by the use of an astronaut suit, as well as prevalent space imagery. The band has been working on producing music videos in collaboration with advertising student Alex Lianopoulos.
“We’ve always been drawn to the meshing of video and audio in the form of a music video,” Martin says, who explains that the creative process for every music video revolves around framing a narrative.
Eagleton adds, “It’s easy to just throw a bunch of clips together that look cool and create this aesthetic mood. But it’s hard to attach deeper meaning to it with a narrative.”
To pair with the pressure of making music at a constant rate, all three members are busy University of Oregon students working hard to graduate. “Things would have grown a lot faster if we weren’t full-time students,” confesses Eagleton. “But still, we’ve kind of had a backseat approach. We’re just kind of letting things happen.”
As the end of college nears, each senior plans to go his own separate way to pursue goals apart from music. That doesn’t mean Mellow Yellow is going away; the band will be performing in front of its biggest crowd ever on May 9th at the Willamette Valley Music Festival. The group has also starting writing and stockpiling original content to keep Mellow Yellow alive after separation. Because they have such a strong interest in producing digital content, each of them will attempt to record music together remotely.
Martin says this will be difficult without direct collaboration, but still believes it is possible. Eagleton adds, “I think if there’s at least two of us in the same place, then we can keep doing it.”