The Mexican/Armenian, LA-based producer and recording artist Matty Bedrosian opens up about the personal experiences, complicated emotions, and musical influences behind Yummm’s forthcoming album Sillyputty, arriving November 13.
Growing up means constantly meeting new versions of ourselves. Sometimes those changes happen through relationships, sometimes through the places we call home, and other times through experiences that force us to confront parts of ourselves we would rather leave untouched. It’s a complicated process, and one that rarely comes with clear answers. For Yummm, those contradictions provide an interesting foundation for the forthcoming LP Sillyputty.
Ahead of the November 13 release, we caught up with Matty Bedrosian, the Mexican/Armenian, Los Angeles-based producer and recording artist behind the project, for a conversation that goes beyond the music itself. From the unpredictable nature of romantic relationships to the emotional baggage attached to childhood memories, our discussion explored how experiences shape our identities and how sometimes the things we’re running toward are also the things we’re running away from.
One of the tracks that sparked a particularly interesting conversation was “Yarrow,” a song that explores the unpredictable power of a romantic fling, especially when someone is already feeling uncertain about themselves or where their life is heading. There’s something fascinating about the idea that we can become attached not necessarily to another person, but to the version of ourselves that exists when we’re around them. Sometimes a new connection makes us feel exciting, desirable, and different, even if those feelings are only temporary.
We asked Matty whether romance can become a way of temporarily escaping parts of ourselves we’re struggling to confront. His response acknowledged the appeal of that initial excitement while recognizing what can happen when the novelty disappears.
“Who doesn’t want to feel fun and sexy and novel?” he explains. “But at some point that novelty will wear off, and what’s left is something that’s been festering under the surface. Which I have to assume is why there are so many abusive relationships. At some point, the perpetually neglected demons tend to find a way out.“
It’s an observation that adds another layer to the emotional landscape of “Yarrow.” What initially feels like an escape can eventually become an opportunity to confront the things we’ve been avoiding. The symbolism behind the song’s title also caught our attention. Yarrow is traditionally associated with stopping bleeding rather than replacing lost blood, creating an interesting distinction between treating a wound and actually restoring what has been lost. We asked whether that idea of relief versus genuine healing played a role in the song’s inspiration.
Matty agrees that people can sometimes mistake relief for healing, although the title itself came much later in the creative process. He initially had an instrumental he enjoyed but struggled to find the right vocals for. As life continued to unfold, new experiences provided the emotions and perspective he needed to finish the track.
“‘Everything you spoke, you soothed my sorrow’ was an ad-libbed line I drunkenly tracked one night,” he shares, describing it as “a sort of romantic parallel to the religious affectations from songs that I grew up on.” The connection eventually came together through the simple realization that “yarrow” rhymes with “sorrow.”
Beyond the individual songs, Sillyputty also invites a larger conversation about identity, adaptability, and the experiences that make us who we are. The album’s title immediately brings to mind something that can constantly change shape depending on the pressure applied to it, yet still maintains its original material. Considering Matty’s experiences moving around throughout his childhood, we wanted to know whether adapting to different environments had become second nature or whether it ever made him question which parts of his identity were genuinely his. Looking back, Matty describes childhood as a period filled with both ups and downs, but one that gave him a sense of fluidity and adventure.
“Life felt fluid and adventurous. I took it all in stride, because I had to,” he explains. However, he also recognizes that being genuine doesn’t always mean being comfortable or confident. Sometimes authenticity means being scared, closed off, or reacting in ways we might not expect from ourselves.
His perspective on identity is particularly interesting because he doesn’t necessarily view those different versions of himself as something that needs to be separated or discarded. Instead, he sees them as equally important parts of his development.
“My hunch is that we go through life trying to navigate back to our inner child, but bolstered with wisdom that can only come from experience,” Matty says. “And so I no longer hold precious what is ‘mine,’ because it all helped me become me.”
That idea of constantly evolving connects naturally to another subject we explored: reinvention. For Matty, starting over has been an appealing part of life, whether through moving somewhere new, taking on different jobs, or exploring unfamiliar environments. But there’s an interesting contradiction in constantly seeking a fresh start. Sometimes the desire for something new comes from genuine curiosity, while other times it can be an attempt to avoid staying somewhere long enough to confront uncomfortable feelings. When asked whether he had ever questioned his own motivations for reinvention, Matty explains that moving around as an adult was largely a continuation of the life he experienced growing up.
“At the simplest level, moving around as an adult was just a continuation of moving around as a kid. It was my way of being,” he says.
Growing up in slower environments eventually created a natural pull toward somewhere more dynamic, which led him to San Francisco as a young adult. Still, he recognizes that physical movement and personal growth don’t necessarily happen independently of one another.
“Of course there’s an underlying psychological journey that’s (hopefully) running parallel to my physical journey, so I’m sure there was some avoiding confrontation.”
One of his most memorable observations from our conversation comes when he describes personal growth as something that requires patience rather than immediate answers. “Sometimes there are locked doors whose keys might only be found through exploration, and over time.” It’s a reminder that understanding ourselves isn’t always about forcing answers to appear. Sometimes we have to experience more of life before we’re ready to understand what we’ve already been through.
We also wanted to explore how Matty’s musical upbringing influenced his relationship with the music he creates today. Growing up, his musical world included everything from nu-metal and Christian rock to screamo, but he mentioned that it took years to make peace with some of those influences because of the personal baggage attached to them. There’s an interesting part of growing up where the things we once loved become connected to specific memories, people, or periods of our lives. Sometimes revisiting those influences means revisiting parts of ourselves we thought we had outgrown. We asked Matty how much of growing up involves learning to separate the things we genuinely love from the circumstances we associate with them.
His answer was perhaps the most unexpectedly lighthearted moment of the entire conversation.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a super important part of growing up. Just a bonus. Because now I get to listen to He is Legend again 🙂“
It’s a small but fitting reminder that not every part of growing up needs to become an elaborate emotional discovery. Sometimes making peace with the past simply means being able to enjoy something again. What makes our conversation with Matty particularly interesting is how naturally these different subjects connect. Romance, identity, childhood, reinvention, and musical nostalgia might initially seem like separate experiences, but they all circle back to the same underlying idea: we’re constantly being shaped by the things we encounter, the people we meet, and the decisions we make along the way.
With Sillyputty arriving November 13, Yummm offers an opportunity to explore those experiences through a collection of music that reflects the complexities of being human. And as Matty’s answers reveal, sometimes the most meaningful part of figuring ourselves out isn’t finding a completely different version of who we are, but learning to embrace everything that brought us here.
Official Website:Sounds Like Matty
Linktree:Yummm Linktree
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