Yeek seems in our Fall 2023 Issue with cowl stars Scowl, Yves Tumor, Poppy, and Good Charlotte. Head to the AP Shop to seize a replica.
Life was captured on tape far earlier than Yeek ever made music. Throughout his childhood, from ages 9-15, the left-field pop purveyor documented his personal coming of age with a Sony cassette recorder. There are tapes the place he’s pretending to be a radio broadcaster. On others, he’s parodying MTV Cribs and Pimp My Ride. It wasn’t till he began listening again to them, nevertheless, that he realized they contained fragments of who he was going to grow to be.
At 32, Yeek has his personal radio present on NTS. His music movies, then again, are sharp and eccentric, using the high-scale manufacturing of a TV present. The tapes impressed him, pointing to who he’s been all alongside. That’s why Future Reference, the most recent album from Yeek, clicks to life with his voice. “This is for you to use at a later time. Hope this helps,” he says softly earlier than the report swings into the jubilant beat of “Before I Go.” These interludes, which floor like photographs of readability as he suggests remedy and chasing happiness, even when it doesn’t work out, are odes to the notes he left himself all these years in the past.
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While Yeek might’ve used the unique tapes as skits — he nonetheless has the OG recorder, although it’s busted — the transfer felt too private. Rather, he’s useless set on establishing a boundary. “I think I’ve always seen vulnerability as a heroic thing, but then at the same time, sometimes it ends up hurting you, and you gotta look out for yourself,” Yeek shares from his house in Pasadena, the place he’s lived for the previous three years. In a way, the album is his personal reminiscence field, performing as a relic that he can glean perception from each time he performs it.
“If I could give my older self advice now, it would be, ‘This is who you are as a person. Don’t switch up or change,’” he says. “I would try to ground the older me ’cause I think as we get older, we learn more things. We become wiser, but then a lot of times that makes us more bitter. When you’re younger, you’re more impressed by things; you’re more excited; you’re more lively. I wanna still be able to give that to my older self, and my attempt is through this album.”
Across 15 tracks, Yeek explores need, unsure romance, and discovering peace of thoughts overtop smooth, nocturnal pop that pulls inspiration from early 2010s Tumblr. The period meant quite a bit to him, signaling a time when R&B shot into the long run. It’s eons away from the hardcore music he used to play as an adolescent down in South Florida, the place he moved after spending the primary decade of his life in New Jersey. Back then, he longed to really feel like he was nonetheless dwelling in a metropolis and drifted towards mischief. Often that meant working round with his buddies and tagging buildings (the moniker that he makes use of to at the present time was his signature).
He was additionally consistently at exhibits, which provided their very own torrents of brutal power. While that sense of neighborhood is baked into the report, it is usually Yeek’s try to make the kind of R&B that was recalibrated by forward-thinkers, the sort with platinum albums. He salutes Frank Ocean’s nostalgia,ULTRA. (you may think about Yeek admiring the orange BMW on the duvet, a coloration that pops up in a lot of his music) and the Weeknd’s House of Balloons, two releases that outlined the last decade. “There was a whole era of R&B that felt alternative,” Yeek says. “You’re hearing Beach House samples [and] Coldplay samples. It was such a new thing to hear and [have] art be music. A lot of the record is inspired by that era and wanting to do my own twist on it in 2023.”
“ETA2,” a sequel to the 2021 unique and the primary preview of Future Reference, appears like the kind of tune that may be reblogged hundreds of instances again within the day. It’s an unimpeachable freeway banger, conjuring recollections of muggy nights cruising round with time to kill. Besides performing as a full-circle second for Yeek — Gino Vento, the vocalist of Thick As Blood from his Floridan hardcore days, seems in one of many tune’s trailers — it additionally stars LA rap duo Paris Texas, who lend their mayhem to the woozy observe. Like every thing Yeek does, the pairing occurred organically. They first got here into one another’s worlds when Yeek’s finest buddy and collaborator Chris Cadaver confirmed him their unreleased music. After discovering that that they had different mutuals, every thing clicked into place. They skateboarded and “talked about a bunch of nerdy shit,” changing into buddies earlier than collaborators.
Accompanying “ETA2” is an equally thrilling music video helmed by Christian Long that brings the tune full tilt. The avenue lights are flashing by rapidly. The automotive is packed, and the laughter is immense. Someone breaks out a joint. There’s a pair locking lips within the backseat. As the video whirls from passenger to passenger — courtesy of Jeremy Belack and Long, who devised a rig that may spin the digital camera from a distant — you get the sensation that this could possibly be anybody proper now. Rowdy nights together with your finest buddies are a timeless custom, irrespective of the place you’re.
While Yeek’s music has largely been DIY, Future Reference wouldn’t exist in its present state with out his neighborhood. It’s a change-up that calls again to these hardcore days, when everybody would assist, although it wasn’t all the time that approach. Before his 2021 report, Valencia, Yeek dealt with every thing. From the manufacturing and recording to the blending and mastering, the work clearly elated and consumed him. On that album, although, he widened the door to collaboration, pulling in individuals like Jeff Ellis (Frank Ocean, Omar Apollo) to assist him obtain a sound that captured the orange haze of the Florida coast. Now, Yeek is taking it a step additional by inviting much more individuals into his world.
The report’s thick checklist of contributors is not like every other launch, marking the primary time that he’s used instrumentalists. It’s the sound of evolution — a newfound sense of freedom. “That was the goal,” he laughs. “I didn’t realize how much pressure I was putting on myself by trying to do a lot of things on my own.” In reality, the additional fingers fortify the venture. There are strings, pianos, trumpets — the checklist goes on. Encouraging others to share their imaginative and prescient and providing them area to shine gave Yeek the breath that he wanted. Cadaver helped, too, exhibiting him the significance of artistic directing and urging him to sit down again whereas their buddies helped enact their imaginative and prescient. “A lot of the ways I was used to doing things, I’m letting go of more and more,” Yeek admits. “When it comes to execution, there’s so many hands-on different parts of it now. I think that’s what’s gonna allow this album to reach its next level.”
“Searching For Yourself,” for one, is totally produced by Erik Bodin of Little Dragon. After making a bunch of tough concepts collectively, Bodin confirmed him a beat that he was understanding. Yeek favored it a lot that they constructed the tune from that. Once Raveena recorded her verse, he knew the reduce would make it onto the report. “That was probably the first song I’ve ever used that’s not produced by me at all in an album,” he says. “It’s a special track, and it’s one of my favorite songs on the album.” Elsewhere, Bakar sounds simply as fed up with a lover on “Care,” whose strategy to skirting conference makes them kindred spirits.
“Last Night In Town” ends the album on the most effective be aware attainable with a stirring piano comedown. You’d assume it was just one individual laying down these notes, however that’s the mirage. Yeek requested each George Moore and Zach Ezzy (who’s taking part in trumpet, by the way in which) to freestyle over the tune whereas they have been within the studio. Then, in a stroke of mad-scientist genius, he mixed their elements. “I don’t think they knew that I was gonna mix it together,” he laughs. But that’s simply Yeek — his ingenuity shines by in delicate, profound methods.
It’ll be an excellent day when his tender songs discover their approach onto daytime radio. Yeek has been paving a new path ahead for pop music all alongside. In dialog, you may really feel the breezy cool and thoughtfulness that drives his music as he needs pop would sound “more wide-ranging than it is now.” It could be something; the algorithm simply must evolve. In the meantime, Yeek’s catalog stays a solace to those that let themselves discover it and be soothed by it. These imaginative cuts are reminders of what’s attainable when artists blur the strains, dare to sit back within the intersection, and let chance roam. “When you’re able to do your own thing and have your own mind and freely express yourself, that shows people who look up to you what they might want for themselves, or you might inspire ’em,” he says. There’s all the time one thing — an thought to chase, a buddy to name, a better stage to unlock. Whatever occurs, the long run belongs to Yeek.
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