CC is a quintessential hidden gem of Melbourne’s creative scene, making her undoubtedly the perfect artist to kick off this series. Join me as we feature a local creative here every week - showcasing brave, innovative artists doing cool shit in a city with rapidly growing creative output.
Witchy goddess CC refuses to be shackled by the chains of any one genre of music. The musician releases her solo work under the name Yubbarii, electronic Crystal Castles-esque beats with ethereal vox, and more recently fronts beatdown band Algor Mortis. But perhaps the most charming thing about CC is her authentic approach - humble and down to earth, it’s impossible not to be intrigued by what CC has to bring to the table.
And, spoiler alert: you won’t be disappointed.
How long have you been doing your music for, and how did you get started?
I’ve always been super passionate about creating/playing music, I’ve dabbled in almost every instrument and sung since I was a kid but I started producing my own music at around 15/16 years old.
The first “mixtape” I ever made was a hardstyle/electronic/hiphop mixtape under another name (yep I know, interesting to say the least...)
“THE ASSASSIN” was the first Yubbarii release I put out and it honestly came about out from sitting at home simply just wanting to create music.
Your work as Yubbarii is super haunting and melodic - what's your creative process like, in terms of writing, creating and recording your work? How have you found it differs to your work with Algor Mortis?
My creative process is essentially just playing around with different sounds, beats and ideas until I find something that I dig. Then I’ll usually write lyrics after the instrumental is done and tweak anything that needs to be altered.
I have always been interested in spiritualism, mysticism and all things of the sort, so I also try to incorporate that and express that through music.
My Yubbarii work is insanely different in so many ways to Algor Mortis.
I’ve always loved a huge range of music, so being able to be apart of creating heavy music and fronting a death metal/beatdown band, as well as also producing my own mixed electronic music is absolutely the best of both worlds for me.
How did Algor Mortis come to be?
I’d been “seriously” trying to get a band happening for at least 5 years and Algor Mortis came about when a few friends and I decided to fuck around with the whole death metal/beatdown idea and maybe put some stuff out.
It happened pretty quickly but I’m super grateful it did and to actually have our self titled demo out there already is wild.
Biggest inspirations artistically?
I was brought up/surrounded by all kinds of music - my mum was always playing Eurythmics, Enya, Blondie, Stevie Nicks, Moby, The Cranberries (just to name a few).
To narrow it down, my biggest inspirations and musical influences for Yubbarii in particular would be Crystal Castles, Björk, Clams Casino, Moby, Dj Krush & Dj Shadow, Annie Lennox, Portishead, Zomby (but honestly, the list is endless).
Which track of your own stands out to you the most, and why?
I’d say probably, “Like A Forest” as it was one of the first tracks I ever put out and I remember being so nervous but genuinely stoked that people even checked it out- in hindsight it’s mediocre as hell, but still a cute memory.
A more recent song that really stands out for me is “Rites Of Hecate” I honestly can’t even pinpoint what exactly it is that stands out but I am just generally really happy with the song itself.
Where do you hope to take your work, both solo and with your band, in the future?
I just genuinely hope that Algor Mortis can continue to put out sick music and play shows, and that Yubbarii can get out there a bit more and hopefully find an audience of people who dig it as much as I love making it.
All in all just to be able to work with other artists and make good music.
I am currently working on a new Yubbarii release and am super excited to get it out there, it’s a really diverse and cool album- there’s the usual ethereal/witch house sound but also some darkwave, synthwave, DnB, UK garage type beats and hiphop stuff too, featuring a few other really cool independents Australian artists.
