Source of Yellow are a (mostly) Brooklyn-based trio who play a tightly focused strain of experimental music with a concentration and passion atypical of many improv units. The group consists of Nawi Avila, Nick Hasty, and Peter Kerlin. As the opening group on day two of the NY Eye & Ear Fest, they effectively roused me from my early afternoon stupor with a blistering set that barely topped 15 minutes. The group has just self-released their debut on vinyl and I got to speak with them about the challenges and rewards of putting out your own record, the pleasures of Charleton Heston’s The Omega Man, and their own personal low-end theory.

Max Burke: How long have you guys been together?

Peter Kerlin: Two years. Nawi and I had been in another band called The Holy Childhood and then I stopped playing music for a while and then I met Nick in this graduate program we were in; he was a student of mine, and we started playing. Nawi and I were fantasizing about having a band that would be all low-end — Nawi playing baritone sax, me playing bass…

Nawi Avila: …low-end in competing waves.
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