Background
Yes! was recorded at a number of studios, including Vancouver's The Warehouse Studio, Mushroom Studios, and k-os' home studio. A working title for the album was called Souls on Ice, after a line from "Zambony".
Before recording Yes!, k-os relocated from his hometown of Toronto to Vancouver and changed record labels from EMI to Universal Music Group-Nettwerk. k-os has said of the album, "this album to me is taking those passionate feelings I have and transmuting them into something that's fun -- because I'm having so much fun right now."
On the album cover, k-os is shown painting a wall red with a paint roller, while holding an Ensoniq ASR-X Pro sampler in the other hand. Also, a black acoustic guitar is leaning against the wall, and the word "Yes!" is displayed, similar to k-os' debut album Exit.
The album was included on the longlist for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.
Speaking on "I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman", k-os said, "this song started because I went over to Saukrates’ house. He invited me over and he was playing a bunch of music because we were trying to get together on a track. And as the story goes, after playing me five or six tracks he was like, ‘oh yeah, and I got this thing’. And I was like, ‘God, dude I have to rap on that.’ And he’s like, ‘that?’ I was like, ‘that’s Phantom Planet’. I didn’t even know it was an OC thing. And he sliced and diced it on his computer, left his verse on it and left a whole second verse for me to write my verse to. And I had that song for a year, no, six months. I was rolling on tour and then by accident we were playing Whistler, DJ-ing and we were running out of songs and we played that song. The crowd was just like, ‘I’m on the run!’ and they’d never heard it before. And I was like, ‘this is going to be on my next album,’ and it was actually the last song that I added to the record. And so his verse is on it, and by default Nelly Furtado is on it. She’s the one singing, ‘can’t really make you love me.’"
About the title; "The title came because I wanted to call it — I couldn't call it "On the Run," because Soxx wanted to use that on his record and I couldn't call it "I Can't Make You Love Me," because there's a Bonnie Raitt song called that and everyone thought it was like blasphemy for me to call it that. So I kept on putting off the title and one morning I was in my bed hungover and my publisher was like 'You've got to tell me a name right now.' I'm like 'I don't know, I wish I knew Natalie Portman.' It was like 'Are you serious right now?' I'm like 'Yeah, I wish I knew Natalie Portman.' And that was it. It wasn't even something I thought about."
Read more about this topic: Yes! (k-os Album)
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