Formula Indie Sessions – Interview with Yellow Fleet
YELLOW FLEET is the shimmering, feverish dream of three musicians who have their fingers and feelers everywhere. Christoph Kuntner, Benjamin Lampert & Max Schrott are united by an intuitive understanding, nonchalance & humor, which also flows through their music.
The three call Jazz their home in the broadest sense – starting from there, they listen together in all sorts of directions; searching and finding.
YELLOW FLEET released their debut album STRANDED on 27.12.24. The seven tracks were recorded live and unadulterated – five of them were also released as video recordings. Following release concerts throughout Austria, the three musicians will record their new album in February and go on tour in German-speaking countries in the fall and winter of this year.
In February ’25, the new, as yet unreleased album was recorded over three days. YELLOW FLEET will release this recording under the title Immersed on 18.4.2026 on the newly founded Viennese indie jazz label Hideout Records, and will play concerts in Austria, Slovenia, Italy, and Germany around the time of the release.
Christoph Kuntner | guitar
Benjamin Lampert | double bass
Max Schrott | drums
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
I can’t answer for the three of us, but mine is probably sitting in the back of our family car, my parents sitting in the front, listening to Queen’s Greatest Hits over and over again.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
We all sang children’s songs in elementary school, music always played a role in our lifes, at least to some degree. I think the urge to create something of your own comes almost naturally, when you explore music, your instrument, when you deep-dive into the matter.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
We’ve known each other for quite some time, we actually studied together and always knew what everybody was up to with their own projects and occasionally played together, never as a ‘group’ though. As it happens, we would play a random gig together and had so much fun that we decided afterwards to meet on a regular basis and just make music – thus yellow fleet came together.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
It is instrumental jazz music, it is sometimes complex, sometimes easy. We try to make music we ourselves enjoy listening to. We’ve heard someone say it is psychedelic jazz, another one called it surfer jazz. And don’t be afraid of the word jazz.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
I think it is something we’ve re-learned. How valuable it is to create music together, to also fail together, to achieve something together.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Hands and Ears.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, always worth a listen. Everything Makaya McCraven does. Shabaka’s album is great.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
I don’t think you can separate personal experience from artistic output entirely. I guess there is something of each of us in each tune. It could be a shared experience from the three of us, or a very personal one, or something in between. We don’t have lyrics to transport feelings, experiences, expectations; it is up to the audience to listen and to interpret into our music whatever they feel like.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
If our music does make our listeners feel at least something, hopefully something positive – that’s great. There is probably not one message coming from our music, but if anybody listens and feels like, woah this is great, haven’t heard that before, yes, then we did a good job. If someone is switching off the music because they’re not into it – fine, at least we made them listen and feel something. Our music is not intended to be played in the background like some curated playlist.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
It may sound cheesy, but music is a universal language. It transcends words, and when that happens between yourself and other musicians, between band and audience, it’s the best. Music has taught us that even in this scary, unrelenting, fucked up world, there’s a place for you to be and play and listen. Music taught us that it can be used as a tool to help people, to make people feel good, to speak out against injustices.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
https://www.instagram.com/yellow_fleet
https://hideoutrecordsat.bandcamp.com/album/immersed
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
We released our sophomore album IMMERSED this April and went on release tour in Austria, Germany, Slovenia & Italy. We will continue the tour in autumn/winter with new dates in Austria & Germany. And we plan to record our third album in spring next year.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
As said above, jazz is nothing to be afraid of. It is one musical art form of many, but probably the one with the most freedom to create, to surprise the listener and oneself. If the listener discovers that they don’t have to ‘expect’ or ‘feel’ a specific thing when listening to music, that it is up to their own imagination to feel whatever they feel in this moment, then that’s a good thing. And this can change, of course. One day you love a tune, the next day you don’t. However, if it is great music and strikes a chords with you, it will stay with you.
If you want here you can add a representative Youtube video to insert below the interview 🙂
We filmed a live session in early Spring this year. We were lucky, it was such a gorgeous day. But see for yourself. The tune is entitled NUKI SURFES and features our dear friend Rapha Huber on flute. It also appears on our new album IMMERSED, released on Hideout Records.
Link:
