Artist Spotlight: An Interview with Mellow Fellow

Filipino musician Polo Reyes (alias Mellow Fellow) describes his music as being “comprised of pearlescent guitars, and a golden voice that drives distinct jazzy tunes seasoned with luster from synthesizers.” Starting out by writing music in college as a platform to channel his loneliness and frustration into warbling love songs, Reyes has gained a massive online following and toured in various countries in Asia as well as the United States.

When asked to describe his music pictorially, Reyes left me with three words: “Cigarettes, coffee, and polaroids.” Infused with a warm brew of memories, Mellow Fellow’s songs stand out with drowsy jazz melody lines, as if cigarette embers slowly wilting, leaving behind a soft, silent trail of smoke. In our coffeehouse-like conversation, Reyes and I talked about some of his most personal lyrics, the triviality of the label “bedroom pop,” and the struggles of being a musician in the Philippines.

Let’s first talk about your background, what drew you to music and how did you start out as a musician?

I always answer this question with one answer: a film I watched when I was 12 years old called, “La Bamba” starring Lou Diamond Phillips. It’s a real-life story set in the 50s about American singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens and his musical career. The same Christmas of the year I watched it, my dad bought me a guitar. I never really picked it up until my first year of high school. That’s when I started listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Daddy Rock.

When I entered college, that’s when I discovered more alternative bands that are into songwriting more than instrument proficiency, and I started writing songs when I was 17 or 18 years old. I actually took up marketing in business school, so I never had any expectations or aspirations with music. It was mostly a passion project, music for the love of music. Here in the Philippines, the culture is not to really encourage new kids to dabble into arts or music, especially if you’re not in the upper-middle class.

Though music was just something to pass my time with, I met a bunch of people in college who introduced me to alternative and newer music, which I was drawn by. I thought, “You know what, if I keep myself anonymous, I have nothing to lose if I upload some songs on SoundCloud, since nobody’s ever going to know it’s me.” Even my parents didn’t know I was making music.

Could you tell me more about your artistic process?

When I was in college, music was more of an escape and an outlet for my emotions. When I was feeling sad, angry, or tired, it was easy for me to pick up a guitar and then write a song on a notepad. I have one song aptly named “Tired,” and it’s just about me being really tired. I think I wrote that as soon as I got back from school.

With my friends, we’d share our lives through music. We would go around my subdivision near my village, bringing an acoustic guitar and a horn, and we’d write songs. People would be complaining, flashing flashlights, and we never stopped.

Nowadays, I’ve exhausted that part of myself. My process now is engaging with newer sounds in terms of sound design. Learning the more technical aspects of songwriting, sound production or engineering, is how I approach music now. The older you get, the more mature your approach is, but regardless, I think music is music and making it is the most important thing. 

I think my approach will keep progressing until my music gets crazy as if I were a mad scientist, trying to rush-discover all these newer techniques. But I feel like I’ll reach a certain age where I’ll drop it all and go back to my roots, to settle down and just pick up a guitar and sing really simple songs. I want to return to the simple stuff once I’ve experienced everything.

As well, could you tell me more about the technical aspects of producing your songs?

I recently moved into my studio last year with all the gizmos and gadgets and stuff to help record. But back then, I didn’t have anything at all. I only had a really bad Windows laptop with a bad audio interface, a badly set up guitar, and a mic that I borrowed from my friend. So I had to make do and I remember writing and producing songs here in this room. I’m not a good pianist, but I started using the synthesizer for my songs, and that’s when I started getting addicted to sound design. Most of my songs that you hear are almost always improvised on the spot—the guitar solos, the riffs, none of them prewritten. That’s the most natural way for me.

I’m thinking of maybe dropping a project where I redo all of my old songs to do them justice. If anything, I want to go back to all my songs and remaster them, remix them, and reproduce them. Back then, I didn’t have a sound engineer, a producer, or session musicians to play instruments. I had to do everything by hand on my own and I had to make do with what I had. So to younger musicians in the Philippines at least, I tell them that you don’t need the best stuff. You need decent equipment, but you don’t need the best equipment. What you need is 15 minutes of practice every day, listening and learning because learning never stops.

Your song, “How Was Your Day?” was listed by Joaquin Phoenix as one of the songs he listened to while getting his iconic Joker make-up done. How did you react to that? 

When I found out, it was by accident. I just saw my name over this article, and I was quite surprised that Joaquin Phoenix listens to bedroom pop. That was cool. It was really funny because people in the basketball court were congratulating me when he won the Oscars. It was a fun discovery but very humbling as well. You can never be too old to listen to newer music. 

Any particular songs or lyrics that have meant something personal to you?

There’s this song called “Until The Time,” which I remember writing because my ex girlfriend broke up with me for the first time and it hurt. It has pretty simple, cheesy lyrics here, “We make a living by what we get / We make a life by what we can give.” It’s from a quote by Winston Churchill. The next few lines right after that was, “I can't give you the world, but I can give you every single thing in me.” During the time I was writing the song, I was a simple guy, and I didn’t have everything. It was my way of saying—maybe I can’t give you all the money in the world, but maybe I can give you all my time, a hundred percent of me. 

Another song of mine, “Dancing,” I wrote it when someone who I loved took another boy to her prom and he did not take care of her that night. I intend for my songs to be written in a certain way, but if the listener or audience interprets in their own personal way, I honestly encourage that. Some people say that “Dancing” reminds reminds them of their own prom or reminds them of just good times. And that’s what’s liberating about interpretation.

Some people call your music “bedroom pop.” Is that a fair description of your music? 

I don’t normally classify my music with anything because I don’t know how to. On this whole bedroom pop movement, we had this small community of musicians posting songs on SoundCloud back in 2014. Clairo, Vansire, Inner Wave, Bane’s World, Michael Sayer, Temporex, Triathalon—we all started from there. We never really agreed on the term “bedroom pop.” It’s just music for us. Maybe indie or jizz jazz, but we never termed it bedroom pop. It’s just a term that the industry has created to commercialize the sound. I don’t want to box someone’s music because it feeds into a stereotype.

But it’s inevitable for people to call my music bedroom pop or indie. I’m not offended when people call it lo-fi, chord, hipster, eBoy, fake jazz, but I'll never really say those things. I'll just tell you it's just my music. 

What are some pictures or words that you associate with your music? 

Cigarettes, coffee, and polaroids. When I was in college, I smoked a lot of cigarettes. But I don’t anymore. That held for a while as a constant social tool if anything and a stress reliever. The music that I used to create is somber, good for a cup of coffee I guess. And polaroids because I used to snag a bunch of them and use them as cover art on SoundCloud.

What are some highs and lows of your career as a musician? 

Some highlights are being on stage, being tight with my bandmates, meeting my fans, and absorbing the culture of the country that I’m performing in. For instance, when I was performing in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, the crowds were very tame in a respectful way, almost as if I were in an opera performance. Finishing a song, from the production process to actually uploading it for the first time, is very rewarding and something I’m grateful for.

In terms of lows, I think I speak for both of us when I say that it’s not easy being Asian. I don't want to pull out the race card or sound like that dude on Twitter, but I’ve experienced some sort of injustice and oppression from white folk, legal firms, for instance, bullying me to accept deals and treating me differently because of my skin color. A lot of Western music is coming from Asia, but being not-white is not easy when you’re trying to penetrate an international scene. It’s a harder climb for us. I’m doing my best to get by with the cards that I’ve been dealt, and I am nevertheless very grateful for the opportunities that I have but this is just how I feel.

That said, there’s growth everywhere in many Asian countries, making international waves. There’s this really cool South Korean band, Se So Neon. I’ve also met many talented artists, to name a few, Summer Soul, Phum Viphurit from Thailand, 88rising with Rich Brian, Joji, Higher Brothers from mainland China. There’s a huge Renaissance that’s been going on, and I am honestly very excited for what we’re going to hear in the next couple of years.

Any advice you have to share with aspiring musicians? Any advice to your former self?

It’s not about what you have. It’s about what you want to say. Don’t focus on the equipment that you don’t have. Focus on what you have and focus on what message you want to get across. Focus on expanding your skills rather than purchasing gear. If you start down low, then you would know what it’s like to struggle and to work your way up.

If I were to give advice to myself, I’d tell my younger self to be patient and to make sure that what you're doing is right. Looking back, I wish I released my songs with better production and quality instead of bringing them out on SoundCloud right away. It’s not about the numbers game. It’s about you creating a piece of music that you will listen to forever. 

And drink a lot of water. It’s important to stay hydrated.