LA Duo The Eiffels Self-Produce New Track, Inspired by a Poem the Singer Wrote at 17
Sean Ulbs and Jade Michael of The Eiffels self-produced for the first time, with the lyrics to their new single "You Make Me New" lifted almost word-for-word from a poem the singer wrote in high school.
The lyrics to "You Make Me New" come almost verbatim from a poem Sean Ulbs wrote at seventeen. "There are songs where I'll use bits of old writing, but this one is almost entirely lifted from start to finish," Ulbs tells The FADER. This isn't the first time he's dug back into his old work, but what's different this time is that the entire project was produced by him and bassist Jade Michael themselves.
The Eiffels is a duo who formed in Los Angeles and have been working together for nearly a decade, blending indie rock with a synth-tinged pop sound. "Collide" showcases their darker, heavier side, while "Spin Around" and "Body Like That" lean into pure, crowd-pleasing alt-pop. Ulbs describes growing up in the '80s and '90s absorbing all kinds of surrounding musical influences, then gravitating toward heavier genres in high school, bouncing between a few bands before "naturally landing on a more rock-leaning path." He and Michael met in the 2010s through the studio where Ulbs worked—Michael was a friend of the studio owner who used to stop by often. "He brought this great energy that reminded me to stay excited," Ulbs says. That energy became central to their creative process: starting with drums and Michael's signature bouncy bass lines, then finally layering in lyrics and heavy synth textures.
Cutting their teeth in LA's early club culture scene made balancing depth with danceability a key challenge. "Rock musicians all wanted to break into that club world, so a bunch of bands started adding electronic drums and repackaging themselves as party music," Ulbs says, though he doesn't mind the compromise. "I've always loved pop music, so coming up with something fun and danceable is something that makes me happy."
In 2018, "More," a song from their debut EP, was selected as the opening track for the Netflix film The Kissing Booth 2—three years after the song was originally released. "That taught me a lesson. For musicians sitting on older material, you never know which song might suddenly blow up," Ulbs says. "That song is still sitting on a ton of playlists on Spotify and Apple Music today." The band has also played stages like Vans Warped Tour and Firefly Music Festival, and opened for acts like X Ambassadors and Plain White T's. Ulbs credits part of their exposure to platforms like BandLab and ReverbNation. "As independent musicians, we're always looking for new tools and resources. We've been using BandLab since the very beginning," he says. "I'm not totally sure why The Eiffels resonates the way it does on these platforms, but they've genuinely helped our growth a lot over the years."
For this new track, the two produced entirely on their own for the first time—previously, Ulbs would bring a demo to producer Ethan Kaufman to finalize, but now they're calling the shots themselves. "Before, I'd send off a demo and finishing it became Ethan's problem," Ulbs says. "Now I have final say over everything, but that also makes it harder to figure out when something's actually 'done.'" Learning when to let go is something the two are still figuring out, which has led them back to digging through old material, some of it dating back to high school. Ulbs describes these as "the best bits from a pile of unfinished work," with "You Make Me New" being one of them. As for releasing something written for a high school writing assignment at seventeen, he's at peace with it. "A lot of the lyrics I wrote back then, I've always loved," he says. "Getting to go back to that different era and polish them up, letting them become what they were always meant to be, feels really good."
