Anime fan Yung Bae draws music inspiration from Japanese city pop
No, he is not South Korean or of Asian descent. Dallas Cotton, also known as Yung Bae, is a future funk artist and Internet sensation who hails from Portland, Oregon.
“I get that all the time,” said the 27-year-old music artist and producer when someone commented about his name sounding like a K-pop artist during a virtual media conference.
Asked if there is an interesting story behind Yung Bae, well, he said not really. “I swear everyone’s always like there’s gonna be something cool. And I think it was one of those things like when I first started. I was just a teenager, I’m like ‘Huh, Yung Bae, yeah that sounds pretty cool...’ I just kinda run with it,” he told The STAR.
Yung Bae, now based in Los Angeles, is into the city pop genre which he discovered through YouTube. “I stumbled on it pretty early on…. It was around that time when city pop was kinda starting on a hinge and everyone was discovering it. It was right (around in) 2014 or 2015. It was just something recommended to me on YouTube on the side bar. And it turns out to be one of my favorite music genres,” he further told The STAR.
According to a Rolling Stone article by Jon Blistein, city pop is a music “style that was booming in Japan during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s – an opulent amalgamation of pop, disco, funk, R&B, boogie, jazz fusion, Latin, Caribbean and Polynesian music.”
“I really love the different elements of it (city pop) ‘coz it’s very much like the classic disco but it felt like it’s a little more kinda jazzy, warmer and happier. The jazz, some of the instruments they use and just the way they write. I find it so interesting and fun,” said Yung Bae.
His musical influences include chillwave acts like Neon Indian, rock bands like The Doobie Brothers, DJs like Madlib, ‘90s hip-hop, or really “anybody who’s touched funk.”
He is also a Japanese anime fan, he revealed. “I always love kinda pairing of anime with great upbeat music, like the disco and the funk. I love Sailor Moon. I love the pairing of the colors. They’re all like great, happy, very carefree, fun and just wholesome.”
Aside from this, he would also love to collaborate with any K-pop artists someday, especially BTS. He finds the K-pop genre as “fun and bubbly.” “I love hearing it, I love seeing it and I love to be part of it. Awesome, too.”
Yung Bae has recently released his Summer’s Olympics-themed-feel-good anthem Silver & Gold with Australian singer-songwriter Sam Fischer and R&B artist Pink Sweat$ under Sony Music.
“We made the sample from scratch,” he said of the track. “It was kinda like this line, ‘You have to want it/More than silver and gold,’ once we heard that line and kinda put it back in and we’re really like, ‘Ah, this is actually really cool. We love this.’”
Since Silver & Gold is an Olympic-inspired song, he was asked if he is into any particular sport, he answered swimming. “I’m not that good but it’s pretty cool.”
Yung Bae is also behind the viral track Bad Boy featuring bbno$ and Billy Marchiafava which amassed over two billion impressions across one million videos on TikTok.
“It was crazy for me at first (when the track went viral) ‘coz it was a song I made on my couch. I remember making the track itself like very quick. I remember having FaceTime with bbno$. He wrote it in like 30 minutes or an hour. I remember him calling me back and (said), ‘Yo, I’m done. My grandma is dancing in the background. Check it out.’”
They never expected it to become an online hit. “It’s been the craziest, coolest thing ever…I’m just happy and thankful,” said Yung Bae.
He likewise believes that social media plays a huge role in his career to promote his music and for other artists as well. “It’s really cool ‘coz you can communicate with some people, especially that we’re in lockdown. (There is also an) opportunity to have a huge spike in their careers. Everything you need to know (you can get it) from home… It was like, ‘Oh, I could have done this before.’ I love watching that kind of progression.”
His previous released tracks also include Revolving featuring Marc E Bassy and Disco Body Parts featuring AWOLNATION, alongside collaborations with Mike Posner, kenzie and others.
Yung Bae also hopes to travel to Manila (post-pandemic) and would love to collaborate with one of his close friends from the music scene who has Filipino roots.
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