INTERVIEW
Your Favorite Color
Oscar Nathwani-Hall | 04/04/2025
With their highly anticipated release of ‘Forever’, South California’s finest Your Favorite Color take a moment to join me in discussing everything from creativity to mental health and their personal journey in music. The alt-indie band have taken inspiration from the oceans of Orange County, with their music fused with melancholy and 80s nostalgia. After performing around the coast of California for years, the band released their debut studio album, in September of 2024. With one single already released in 2025 and new music just around the corner, it’s safe that the band and their fans are in for a monumental year.
How did you come to be Your Favorite Color?
Matt: It started with us being friends in high school in Southern California. We all connected through our love of music, surfing, and high school parties. Around 2016, I put out some demos on SoundCloud that I was working on. It created a little bit of a fun buzz. After that, a few of my friends suggested we should start a band. So that was kind of it, once we played our first show, we never stopped playing shows, never stopped writing music and we kept introducing more friends into the band and eventually changed our name to Your Favorite Color.
When becoming Your Favorite Color, what was the identity you found as a band and the music you wanted and started to create? What themes often run through the music you create?
Cam: We always create based on the music that we love. We write what we listen to in a sense. We're constantly getting more inspired, so it's kind of hard to pinpoint it to specific things or super-specific artists, But I will say that for the latest bit of music that we've been putting out, we have been drawing a lot from our inspiration from 80s music, modern pop music, and even some hip-hop elements.
Matt: I think that some of the themes that are on our singles “Bleach” and “Forever” have been created as Your Favorite Color so far. We touch on young love, especially leading up to our first album with our first experiences with heartbreak, first love, and lots of internal thoughts and conflicts that you naturally have as a teenager. Just trying to figure out what your life is and dealing with daily experiences. Romance is 100 % a prominent theme on our first record, and I'd say those themes still bleed into our new music. I feel like those themes will always stick with us as we navigate life.
How as a band do you draw from musical inspirations important to you?
Matt: I think we draw a lot from tonalities used within bars or vocals and synthesizers, we're always trying to capture those perfect vibes that give you a sense of 80s-style music. That's what we're always trying to draw from, and then as far as vocals, I have found a lot of fun in singing technically in a way that was very popular in the 80s. I don't think I go full-on in that direction, but there's a lot of fun inspiration to take from that. It’s also helped save my voice a little bit because a lot of those guys used super good techniques back then, especially in the pop world. Tears for Fears are a big inspiration for us, as well as Depeche Mode and Duran Duran.
Cam: I agree, and I also think that finding tones and just deep-diving instruments that were used in the 80s and emulating that as best as we can.
How has the release of your latest music and following releases delved into personal moments and experiences including finding calm in moments of chaos?
Matt: With this new release “Bleach”, there were a ton of conflicts during the creation of this song. Sometimes you must push yourself to try this do it better or admit that part of the song just isn't good enough. Being able to constantly be your own worst enemy but also your best friend at the same time, simply trust the process.
I’m a firm believer that although elements of our identities remain, we see huge amounts of change as we grow. What has been your experience with self-discovery that’s fed into your recent single ‘Bleach’? And why was that important to important?
Cam: A big change in the music style for us was approaching these new songs like it was the first time and discovering a new sound. I feel like making music is always a journey of self-discovery. To stay satisfied, you must always discover and try new things and surprise yourself. I think we've all experienced and had to accept that music is constantly changing and just find ways to love it and find ways to make it sound how we want it.
Matt: Yeah, like Cam said, I think we have a bug in ourselves that whenever we write something it does need to feel like a discovery. As soon as it sounds too much like a band that we like, or as soon as it sounds like something we've done before, it almost immediately becomes not interesting anymore. When you let your mind go that’s when you create something magical.
What were your initial creative thoughts when creating the music video for ‘Bleach’ and transporting the viewers into your world and the search for authenticity and emotional depth?
Cam: I think that video was another moment of self-discovery. We knew we wanted to make something within the visual arts for that song, and we kept bouncing ideas off each other. We just executed it, took a shot in the dark and did our best to translate the feelings that “Bleach” has. I think it turned out great and it's more of a visualizer than a music video, but it still acts as such a great music video.
‘Bleach’ resembles moments of nostalgia for a generation who looking for relief from anxiety, how have your experiences with mental health encouraged you to write Bleach and reach out to another generation coping with theirs?
Matt: I think that it is a very real subject, and anxiety is something that a lot of people deal with in so many ways. Ultimately, I think it's good to talk about how you're feeling. I think sometimes people have so much on their mind that they wish to express but they don't know how to. I know that there have been times in my life when I've been going through it and a song has shown me how to feel and process what I'm feeling. I think for coping with anxiety, music has always been a very great resource for that. I think for everyone in this band it has. So yeah, this song talks a lot about internal conflict, not being able to make the changes in your life that you know you need to make for whatever reason.
Tell us about your brand new single ‘Forever’. What inspired you when writing the song?
Matt: I am so excited to have this song come out. We were just rehearsing and David and Cam started playing this insane progression, our drummer started playing this great beat, and the music just kind of ignited something in me tenfold. I immediately grabbed my phone and started voice-memoing some melodies and ultimately turned it into a song about not thinking about tomorrow, just being right here right now. I think we just kind of harnessed our whole experience of being on tour and put it into that one song.
Music is an important way to be transported, with the power to feel and understand emotions we may not have been able to before. How do you hope ‘Forever’ will be received by fans when they listen to it for the first time and connect with it?
Cam: Just to kind of reiterate what Matt said, it's just those messages of living your life to the fullest. I believe music can make you understand more things about yourself, the same way as going for a walk makes you think a lot and realize new things. If you're in a certain mindset, things around you can shape how you understand those moods and music is a catalyst for that. This song is just meant to make you feel good and have a different perspective on some things, which could be good or bad.
You had an incredible year with the release of your debut album, your music reaching even more people. As you grow what is something that is a non-negotiable when writing, releasing music and evolving?
Matt: I think a non-negotiable as we're growing is to just stay true to ourselves and make sure we're putting out music that we would die for, also we want to continue to nurture and harness the wonderful relationships we're making with new listeners we’re getting along the way. They're the ones who keep us going and we just want to be doing everything we can to constantly connect with them and give them the best music we possibly can.
How has your musical journey pushed boundaries?
Matt: With every song we write and release and with every show we play, we are always learning. So, we're just constantly pushing the boundaries of ourselves. It would be great to discover something that pushes the boundaries of modern music. Who knows if that will ever happen, but you know, we're going to be trying our best to discover what's the most new and fresh and most exciting for us. We do pay attention to the music that people are enjoying, and what type of inspiration we can take from those artists. Sometimes that requires us to go outside of our comfort zone. To the point where it's like, what the heck kind of band are we right now, this doesn't make any sense. But then bringing that back home and finding a way for us to call it our own is kind of how we are pushing our boundaries the most. It's also going to be another boundary for us to push when we bring that to the live stage and figure out, okay how are we going to make this the most amazing live experience for the people attending that we can? A lot of times we're introducing new electronic instruments we have not used before, different types of drum styles. It's gonna be a different evolution for the live show that we're gonna need to figure out, and we are just kind of getting started now.
How does being with one another through these experiences help each other, I imagine you often feel like brothers as you have so many shared experiences and memories.
Cam: I think having so many shared experiences with your best friends is something we're super grateful to have. All of us have been playing music together for years and years and just thinking back on times Matt and I have been together writing and then to think of where we’re at now. It just feels like a dream. If we were to go back and tell each other “Hey we're gonna be able to be in the studio like every day of the week and be creative and write music” that's just so insane. It's so normal for us now, and it's like nothing's changed, but everything's changed at the same time. It's cool and it only brings us together more and we're just excited to share more of these experiences. Very, very, very lucky to be with these guys pretty much every day.
What brings you those all-important moments of joy?
Matt: I think the stuff that brings us the most joy is when we discover that new part of the song that makes us want to rip our hair out and scream and go crazy. Also, when we're able to then take that moment, we felt in the studio and perform it live and feel that people also interpreted it the same, on the same energy that we did, everyone receives it with the same fire and love that we have.
What have you got to look forward to in 2025 personally and with the band?
Matt: What we have to look forward to in 2025 is loads of new music, we have “Forever” coming out on April 3rd. All of these songs that we've been experimenting with and pushing ourselves to create. Hopefully, all that music is going to be out right away; We just want to get it out there so everyone can start listening to it. As soon as we get those songs out, you better believe we're going to be playing some shows.
Cam: I agree with Matt and I'm just excited to see what this music journey has in store for us this year. We have a lot of cool stuff and a lot of great opportunities, so we can't wait to announce them and get out there. There you have it folks, Your Favorite Color. Make sure to tune in to their new release on the 3rd of April; these guys are seriously talented.
Find them on Spotify as Your Favorite Color and Instagram as Yourfavoritecolor.
Words: Oscar Nathwani-Hall