Heard It Here First

Yoko is one of the many talented producers who are gracing our Cabin Fever Festival event this evening. She is being joined by DMVU, Benji Robot, Senza, Mad Pritch, Opalyte, Gardella, Evalution, and Chef Boyarbeatz and we will be raising money for The Innocence Project, an organization that helps free wrongfully convicted peoples through the use of DNA exonerations.

The young artist has opened for huge names in the past like Trampa and The Crystal Method and has recently unleashed bangers on underground bass hubs like The Gradient Perspective and Headbang Society. Yoko has been on a roll recently and we had the pleasure of chatting with her before her CFF performance later tonight, at 8pm ET.  We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. See you in the chat!

RSVP to Cabin Fever Fest here

Support Yoko on socials: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud

H: Who are some of your biggest musical inspirations, inside and outside of electronic music?

Y: Great Dane, KOAN Sound, CharlestheFirst, and VCTRE to name a few. I think my biggest inspiration comes from showing versatility as an artist, and these guys have stretched their sound to so many genres. In terms of performance inspiration, artists like GWN, CloZee, REZZ, and The Widdler are at the top for me. Whenever I get the opportunity to see them live, I feel that I’ve stepped into another universe entirely, and that’s what I strive to create for my project.

H: Who did you grow up listening to?

Y: I grew up listening to just about every genre and started collecting vinyls at an early age, and was heavily influenced by my grandfather’s music taste which ranged from 1940s jazz to 1960-80s rock and country. Some of my favorites are Fleetwood, Billie Holiday, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

H: If you could go back to when you started producing and give yourself one piece of advice what would it be?

Y: Don’t take everything so seriously. If you can have fun with what you’re doing, then you’ve already won. If you make someone else happy by doing so, that’s an added bonus, but don’t work for the reaction of others; create without expectations!

H: What other instruments do you play and how do you incorporate them into your production?

Y: I started learning guitar at an early age, but I didn’t keep up with it as much as I should have; so I’ve been trying to reteach myself and have been slowly implementing it into my tracks through audio manipulation! Most of the atmospheres in my newer tracks are actually just heavily manipulated recordings of my guitar.

H: What are some of your favorite ways to get inspired to create music?

Y: I get my inspiration from going to other live shows. There are a lot of artists out there who are insanely talented at creating an entire environment/ realm with their sets and to be able to escape in their reality is so inspiring to me to keep working on how to do so myself. Being able to experience live musical performances is probably the most motivating factor for my project.

H: Favorite Broadway musical soundtrack and why?

Y: Oh wow, this is tough. If I had to narrow it down, I’d say “Wicked” because of Kristin Chenoweth & Idina Menzel, but “Hamilton” or “Fiddler on the Roof” tie for a close second. My mother used to take me to the theatre all the time as a kid, so I’ve been captivated by live shows my entire life because of the production and talent it takes to pull off the entirety of the show, let alone the vocal talent that’s required, is on a whole other level of live performance.

H: In a few sentences or less, tell us why those who haven’t watched Rupaul’s Drag Race yet need to.

Y: There’s just something enamoring about watching an artist have the full freedom of expression to bring their own realized concept to life! Drag brings forth creativity, love, and acceptance for an entire community that otherwise may not receive the same from the rest of the world, and it reminds us that we can enjoy this life abundantly just by allowing our souls to freely express themselves. Oh, and my favorite thing, it’s an insanely funny show!

H: Tell us one of the most interesting things you learned while obtaining your anthropology degree!

Y: When I studied cultural anthropology, I learned a lot about the kinship relations and kinship networks between all organisms on our planet and within ourselves. I think one of the most interesting topics was the notion that we tend to look at environments and biomes on a large scale when we could be shifting our perspective to microbiomes like the ones that exist within ourselves! The concepts of symbiotic life and sympoietic systems are very interesting, in that relationships between every living thing can be positive, negative, or even detrimental, however, they are all necessary to keep the cycle of life turning, and that’s what makes up this weird, crazy life we have here on Earth.

H: What is one thing fans wouldn’t know about you if you didn’t tell them? Maybe a fun hobby or interest.

Y: When it’s winter season, I basically spend all of my free time on the mountains skiing with my friends. I have the Ikon pass out here in Colorado and ride as much as I can so if any of you ever want to link up and shred then just say the word! My goal for next season is to break 60mph on my skis, I was sadly only 3 mph off of breaking it this year but I’ll be back at it again soon enough!

Thanks so much to Yoko for chatting with us!

Follow the HIHF team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to keep up with fresh tunes, giveaways, exclusive mixes interviews, and so much more!