Planetary Group took some time to get to know Mike From Yony…
Planetary Group: Tell us about your latest release. How did you come to create it?
Mike: More Truth In Fiction, first of all, is our new 11-song LP. The idea originated on a camping trip. One of my friends told me that he only reads non-fiction, and I thought that was kind of sad for some reason as an avid fiction reader.
And I dug into that a little more and I thought about it and I was like, well, you know what? Nonfiction is kind of susceptible to error, because it takes these real events that were witnessed by a huge amount of people, and they’re distilling it through the mind of one writer or publisher. Whereas fiction takes a not real thing, like someone’s imagination or someone’s idea, and it broadcasts it to everyone in the world so that they can experience a genuine thing when they interact with the art.
So anyways, that’s kind of what More Truth In Fiction means. It’s a little heady and honestly it morphed a little bit as we were working on the album. The song “More Truth In Fiction” (the title track) doesn’t even have anything to do with that idea at all – it’s more about the distribution of misinformation.
PG: Share a bit about your musical journey, from when you first started making music until now.
Mike: Yony started in 2017 as kind of an outlet for me. I didn’t know what was going to happen with my songs if I didn’t make them and record them and play them out live. So that’s how Yony the album was created in 2017.
I had some friends, we played some shows together, and it was really fun. But then life got in the way as it does with bands. So we kind of took a break and over 2018, I recorded our second release, the EP Automatic Thoughts. This caught the ear of my friend Alex, who now plays keys. And he kind of forced me to get a band back together, which I was not keen on. We hit up some friends, plus my sister Meghann whose always been a part of the group.
So we had a group, played some shows. Then 2020 hit and everything went to shit. During that time, that’s when I wrote More Truth In Fiction. We recorded the songs and went on this kind of crazy journey together.
PG: Let’s talk about the music that you love. Pick one album for each category below & tell us a bit about it!
- An album you grew up listening to:
Mike: Let’s just start with the first album that really inspired me: Eve 6’s self-titled album. Max Collins’ lyrics kind of blew my mind and they still do. He’s an incredible songwriter and, among a lot of other things, it showed me how important it was to write in a conversational manner. I mean, that’s just a killer album.
- An album that inspires you as an artist (I’m sure there are many, but pick one of your choosing):
Mike: There’s a lot of female artists that are inspiring me these days, specifically Juana Molina, Cherry Glazerr, Thao from Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Jay Som… I could go on and on. That stuff is just some good music.
- The album you currently have on repeat:
Mike: I’m listening to The Overload by Yard Act a lot. I’m also listening to “Ja!” by Klaus Johann Grobe – that’s kind of always on repeat in the background at a party: some cool lo-fi disco vibes.
PG: What do you want people to take away from your music?
Mike: I think our whole vibe is just don’t take yourself too seriously, but take yourself seriously, you know? [laughs] Life is fun and you only get one, right? Maybe not.
What’s next up for you?
Mike: Time to get back to live shows! We spread the word through shows, so we’re excited to do that.
And I actually kind of have already started writing a new collection of songs that’s tentatively titled Catatonic Bliss – it’s just a collection of really sad songs. So it fits the bill.
