Deloyd Elze Shares New Single “Yamaha 250”

Deloyd Elze, the Florida-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and producer, has released a new single called “Yamaha 250.” The track was highlighted by Stereogum, which described it as “extremely pretty” and noted how it combines banjo and pedal steel with synths and samplers into a softly glowing whole.

“Digital twang”

Elze, whose real name is Jacob Henry Allen, specializes in a deconstructed, electronic-tinged style of alt-country that he calls “digital twang.” Stereogum previously named him an Artist To Watch and said it was impressed by his recent EP Nellene and its later extended version. The new single follows those releases.

Typewriter notes from Hollywood

Allen explained that the song grew out of a daily writing routine he began after moving into an earlier apartment in Hollywood. He bought a typewriter at a local thrift shop and wrote either before heading to his construction job or after coming home. Each entry recorded what he saw during his drive. He described Hollywood as a liminal place with extremes at both ends of the spectrum.

Autechre-style drums meet live breaks

While gathering those observations, Allen was also experimenting with a drum technique developed by his friend Wilter. It involves building stock Ableton drum racks to approximate the fractured, non-repeating logic of an Autechre-style drum machine. He wrote what became the guitar riff for “Yamaha 250” over those programmed drums, and later added live drum breaks. He said he was drawn to the way the organic and mechanical rhythms collided.

Lyrics assembled from old writing

The lyrics started as free association. Allen pulled lines from a backlog of old poems and short stories and spliced them together until, in his words, the song assembled itself almost without his noticing. The line “you set the table, and I’ll say grace” came while he was searching for something to anchor the song. He looked up at his own empty dining table and the line simply appeared.

Allen said the lyric means more to him than its literal reading. Like the rest of the song, he said, it is several things folded into one, much like the small, strange moments that weave together into a single story.

“Yamaha 250” is available to stream now, and Stereogum has embedded the track in its original post.

Source: stereogum.com

Image: Tequilaritaville / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)