Neu Le Youth: ‘I Was Flipping Out’

The Cassie-sampling bubblegum dance of Le Youth’s ‘C O O L’ was released 10 months back; a whim upload on Soundcloud from LA producer Wes James. But it’s since turned into the de-facto song of the summer. Just about every UK radio station is loaded to the brim with ‘C O O L’ plays. But the song itself nearly failed to see the light of day.

James had one sole conversation with a close friend, who eventually convinced him to keep running with ‘C O O L’ instead of scrapping it. Wes would be living a different existence right now had he turned the other cheek. Scrap the 300k plays on Soundcloud, the radio royalties, the DJ digs in Los Angeles. Le Youth is just starting out as a project, building on experience from previous bands and latching onto a 90s nostalgia with ease. All the same, ‘C O O L’’s one of the most crucial first steps in an age, and it’s anything but a one-hit-wonder. All-embracing, hands in the air, it’s a rejoicing dance triumph, one of the most inclusive of its kind. Never settling, it keeps to one pristine pace and takes enlivened, sweetly-delivered pop to headier heights.

Speaking from home state Ohio - detached from the fame obsession of current location LA - a slightly jet-lagged James detailed his heady early days to DIY.



How long have you been doing DJ’ing and production?
I was mainly playing in bands, singing and touring in a van. There are some similarities. DJ’ing is new to me. And just now I’ve started enjoying it and finding what I like about it. You’re showing up to the same type of venue. I remember the first show when I got booked, I emailed the promoter and asked ‘what time is load in’, and he was like ‘what do you mean, load in? You play at 11’. You’re still travelling, you still have to deal with the promoter, getting paid, and the crowd. But it’s way more intricate than I would’ve thought. In a band the crowd came to hear your music. But when you’re DJ’ing it’s in different types of clubs. Some people are here to listen to certain types of music.

Did you fall back on your experience in bands when starting this project?
The writing process is the same. In the band I was writing songs exactly the same way I’m doing now. It’s obviously a different style of music though.

What’s LA like as a place to launch the project?
I feel like… I don’t know, I could probably talk about this for hours. I guess the bar is way higher here. You don’t really realise it but after having lived here for a few years you don’t really waste a single day, you hustle, you’re making music all the time. I moved there for a reason. And music became the ultimate goal. My life is completely devoted to it. Before it was music, and skateboarding, and hanging out with friends. Now it’s like ‘fuck, I’m not going to a bar unless there’s someone to meet’.

What’s it like to be surrounded by people with that same perspective, then?
It’s amazing. The people are totally different here. Everybody’s motivated. I live a few blocks out of Hollywood proper. My neighbours are aspiring actors and writers. You’re just with people that have this same goal, and they’re all trying to get to it. Some people wouldn’t like that but I just feed off this energy.

Is fame the focus in LA?
I would say they’re all aspiring to be famous. We’re all at different levels. I live on the foothills of the Hollywood hills, which is kind of unique. You walk out of your apartment and there are these hills of beautiful homes, looking down on you. I go to the same grocery stores as Angelina Jolie, which is kind of weird.

The song ‘C O O L’ is still gaining a momentum of its own. Was it a local phenomenon or was it something that solely took off online.
I hadn’t even played ‘C O O L’ before it came out on the internet. I was checking the Soundcloud every two hours and I was flipping out. That was a fun week. It’s still getting momentum. I’m still not getting recognised in the grocery stores!

How did you end up landing on the Cassie sample for the track?
I was working on like ten songs at the same time. They all had this 90s feel, all based on tracks I grew up listening to. ‘C O O L’ was literally the one that got done first. I have no explanation for why it came out when it did. I was working on the tracks months before I released it, and I was talking to people, sending demos to friends, but they’d always sing the vocal sample back to me with ‘C O O L’. They convinced me to finish it. I scrap things all the time. Daily. It’s fucked up my head a little bit. I scrapped ‘C O O L’. I wonder if I’d never had that conversation with a specific friend, things might be completely different.

Are there any running themes in your music - is it a general nostalgia for the 90s?
What I grew up listening to… For some reason that music speaks to me more than the stuff I listen today. There’s a ton of these 90s samples floating around that haven’t been used in a long time, so it just happened naturally.