Although second-year UCLA student Sara Lynn is fascinated by the human brain, she decided to change her tune, and major, from neuroscience to music history. And now she’s the upright-bass player and backup vocals for the award-winning, OC-based band, Yellow Red Sparks.
“The passion just wasn’t there,” Lynn said about her former major. “I realized that I couldn’t invest all that work and money into trying to pursue a career in something I just wasn’t passionate about.”
Yellow Red Sparks began as a project by singer-songwriter Joshua Hanson, and the group later came to include Goldy, the drummer, and Lynn. Together, this trio performed for a year and a half, and in the process, played at the New Los Angeles Folk Festival, signed with ORG Music and created a sound described by Hanson as “new” or “cinematic” folk music.
Even though the band includes instruments that many would typically associate with “folk” music, such as the upright bass, banjo, harmonica and acoustic guitar, it’s hard to pigeonhole the band’s sound into one genre, Lynn said.
“We really just want to create heartfelt, genuine music, and we hope that (this) can translate to anyone who listens to our (sound),” Lynn said.
Lynn began playing with Yellow Red Sparks at age 15, when she began to take drum lessons from Goldy, the band’s drummer. She was then asked to fill in as the band’s bassist. Now, she said she can’t imagine her life without music.
“Many of my dearest friends and many of the most joyous memories have occurred because of music,” said Lynn, who describes the other band members as “the older brothers I never had.”
For Hanson, the personal benefits of music come from the therapeutic experience lent from songwriting.
“I’m always writing,” Hanson said. “It’s not really a process; it’s more of a daily exercise and songs end up coming out of it.”
Many of the trio’s songs were written during hard times, or came about after observing the hardships of friends and families.
“It’s hard for me to write if I’m extremely happy. It definitely comes from a place of emotional despair,” Hanson said.
The band’s Facebook page has generated more than a thousand “likes” and fans, including third-year business economics student Kimberly Auton, who discovered Yellow Red Sparks after a friend “liked” the group’s page.
“Their music is beyond relaxing,” Auton said. “Every time I listen to their music, I find new meaning in their lyrics and feel calm and refreshed.”
This is the type of emotional connection that the band hopes to establish with its listeners, Lynn said.
“If we can create something that moves people, that makes them feel anything at all ““ good, bad, ugly even ““ then we’ve created something that matters.”