FEATURE: Scottish Indie Producer Cyrano Shares Latest Single “Collateral”

James Vettese, who performs as Cyrano, has shared his latest instalment from his upcoming EP Consolations. Following his triumphant single “Tundra“, the Scottish producer sets his sights on a late-night conversation between lovers for his new single, continuing his striking blend of percussive and rhythmic indie pop.

Co-produced with Foals’ percussionist Kit Monteith, fuses the sounds of Japanese taiko drums, lo-fi guitar, and floating synthesizers, lead by Cyrano’s haunting vocal performance. The track began in response to hearing Jai Paul’s Str8 Outta Mumbai while lyrically, Cyrano takes inspiration from Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.

About the single, he shares: “Collateral has always felt like one big epiphany to me. Like Fight Club, the lyrics are meant to be a shared conversation with both a lover and with myself. It’s about those feelings of reliance and dependency on someone else, while striving for independence and autonomy over oneself. I wanted to personify those parallels in the structure, moving from verse – chorus to chorus – verse, and ending with a moment of self-actualisation“.

Read the latest Q&A with James below and hear “Collateral” at the end.

How does “Collateral” fit within the rest of your upcoming EP Consolations?

Collateral is the third track on my EP and was actually the track that started my whole project as Cyrano. I wrote the first demo during the summer of 2013, after hearing Jai Paul’s Straight Outta Mumbai and reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. To me, this track epitomises my music for the late night overthinkers – I went through an insane amount of demos of this one to realise it in its final form, and I’m so proud to have finally shared it with the world.

How has working with Kit Monteith (of Foals) influenced your work?

Kit brings an amazing energy and positivity to every session we do and is as much a mentor to me as a producer. We spent several long nights at Safehouse studio in Oxford working on the tracks which form my EP, and they’re some of my favourite times ever making music. I’d say one of Kit’s biggest influences on me was to move me away from writing on guitar and put me onto the Rhodes piano – it’s really shaped the whole sound of my EP.

You’ve described your music as “late night ballads”, including Collateral – do you identify as a night-owl? How has that influenced your music?

I think my natural temperament is pretty chilled and as such it’s those late night hours that I feel most inspired to make my music. There’s just something about those kind of dusky evening hours that I really connect with creatively, and I feel like my music has more weight to it when I write at that time.
I try to write honestly and openly, and a lot of the lyrical content that I tend to write about is the kind of stuff that you might be more open to sharing in a late night conversation with someone close to you.

Where did you find the idea for using Japanese taiko drums on this track?

When I first started writing Collateral I was listening to Jai Paul’s leaked album a lot, and think the track was kind of written in response to that really. I’d discovered a Japanese Taiko drum group called Kodo at the time too, and became obsessed with their sound and the whole performance. I started flipping some samples on my MPC and once I had that break down the whole track felt like it had a real identity suddenly.

You’re set to head out on tour; what are you most looking forward to?

I absolutely can’t wait for this tour! Having been postponed three times now, it’s gonna be so exciting to play some live shows again after so long. London is sold out which will be awesome and Glasgow is at King Tuts which is one of the best venues in the world in my opinion, so it’ll be such a bucket list to tick that one off. I’m also really looking forward to playing the shows in some of the places I haven’t spent too much time in before like Huddersfield and Cardiff. It’ll be great to be back on the road with the Leif Erikson guys too, though that van has definitely seen better days!

How do you think your new music will translate to the live stage?

I can’t wait to bring these tracks to life soon, I want to make sure that the songs aren’t just as they are on record, so I’ve been crafting out moments for jams/something unexpected in each one that are just for live. I love going to a gig and hearing a riff that isn’t on record and only in that moment, as to me, that’s the bit that makes people want to come back and see the show again.

While my music on record is fairly chilled I hope that the live shows can be a bit more dance-y and fun, and have a really good energy about them. I’m gonna be moving around various instruments from the Rhodes piano to the drums and guitar, and I’ve also got a pretty fun cover planned for the set!