Yellow Shoots shares deeply personal new EP ‘Will You Bring The Rain? Pt. 2’ and NYC-set video for viral hit ‘Soft One’

Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Yellow Shoots has released Will You Bring The Rain? Pt. 2, The second instalment in a three-part EP series that’s been quietly unfolding since late 2024.

Alongside the release comes a brand new video for his breakout track ‘Soft One’, a fan-requested visual love letter to New York, filmed guerrilla-style and oozing with dreamlike soul.

Recorded straight to tape, the four-track EP explores identity, self-worth, and the hidden power in vulnerability. “I wanted this music to have multiple identities, multiple layers,” says Yellow Shoots, real name Gregory Matthews. “Unapologetic main character energy with a little bit of mystery. Self-acceptance and self-worth to the front.”

‘Soft One’, a retro-soul slow-burn that Matthews first wrote live on Instagram in 2021, has since gone viral across short-form platforms and received praise from Timaland, Jermaine White and former members of Jamiroquai. In the new video, shot across the streets of NYC, he channels everyday energy with a self-made, cinematic intimacy. “We’re all dreamers in NYC and I think we did a good job presenting that idea,” he said of the video, co-directed by Tex Ritter and Moe LaRena.

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The EP sees Matthews lean into heavier moods and textures, keeping his analogue, tape-driven production style front and centre. Tracks like ‘Crewella’ and ‘Wanted To Feel’ brim with dusty grooves, self-produced grit and atmospheric depth. The entire project plays like a faded photograph flickering back to life.

It’s the latest chapter in an ambitious project that began with Will You Bring The Rain? Pt. 1 in late 2024. Part 3 will follow later this year, with all three EPs culminating in a full-length album. The trilogy traces the artist’s journey from private exploration to shared release, combining layered sonic palettes with vulnerable lyrics and a distinctly DIY ethos.

Yellow Shoots plays every instrument himself, recording in a makeshift couch studio in Brooklyn. A synesthete who sees music in colours, Matthews combines soul, funk, psychedelia and R&B into a genre-fluid sound that’s won over both indie and hip-hop audiences.

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