Photography // Yola Recoba – press
Peachy Magazine caught up with the UK DJ, production, and songwriting duo James Tadgell and Jon Clare aka. Yola Recoba to discuss producing style, their new cover of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game, and more.
Listen to ‘Wicked Game’ by Yola Recoba while reading the interview here
How did this collaboration between the two of you come about?
Jon: James and I met in our home town of High Wycombe, when we were 16. I was DJing at an event that James was helping promote, and we were coincidentally about to start the same music production class at Reading College.
What’s your producing style like? How do you work together as a duo?
James: Jon plays keys and guitar, whereas my skills are more in writing, singing, and vocal production. Overall we both chip in on all aspects of the song making process, and as the saying goes, two heads are better than one.
You recently released a cover of Chris Isaak’s hit ‘Wicked Game’ – why did you want to work on that track?
James: Jon and I had been discussing doing a cover of a song for a while as we felt we had a lot of strong original music. We were chilling in our flat and Friends was on in the background. Wicked Game came on during one of the famous Ross and Rachel scenes, and I turned to Jon and said this is the cover. I sang a demo vocal in our flat, and Jon came out with the baseline straight away. The whole song was created in our living room.
How do you seek inspiration and evolve your sound? What are your primary sources of inspiration?
Jon: We have various tastes in music, and we are always listening to the new material, trying to find inspiration. It’s important to us that we aren’t replicating something that is already popular, and that we can have some original elements to each song that we release, to help it stand out.
What collaboration with an artist stands out to you at this point in your career? And why?
James: Our collaboration with Calvin Harris on his ‘Motion’ album is our stand out moment. Initially, we had mixed emotions about it, as we were hoping to release the original production of ‘Love Now’ for our own project.
We were at the gym when we found out that Calvin wanted to work on the song, and in hindsight, it was the right choice. We admire how he is always progressive with his releases, and how he has managed to stay relevant and successful over a long period of time.
What’s the next thing coming up for Yola Recoba that we can look forward to?
Jon: We will be releasing new music throughout the year, and we are really excited about the tracks that we are sitting on. Obviously, we are going through a difficult period of time with Covid-19, but once normality is restored we can’t wait to get out and DJ.
