A Conversation With Yonny

03.29.24

By Hannah Quinton

When life gives you lemons, you would normally make lemonade. But when life gives Yonny lemons, he turns it into lemon tart, bars and lemonade to wash it all down. Despite the 23-year-old rising star growing up with little to no connection to the Seattle music scene, his presence in the city is strong and undeniable. After seriously starting his musicial journey in 2022, he would attend Fibonacci Studios, an open studio for artists in the city to work together and network, he built relationships with other artists and creators such as Oble Reed and Nash Pearson.

Luck, good friends and hard work have been a theme for Yonny, as he played venues from Neumos to Capital Hill Block Party. But one thing that really makes him stand out is his incredible stage presence. Yonny loves to include funny skits in his shows, making them unforgettable for everyone watching. One of his performances even went viral on TikTok, where he was performing at a house show and was told by a couple next door to quiet down.  

When Yonny initially got his vocals rejected for the Jersey song, “Players,” he turned it around and made his own Jersey song, “City in Motion,” released on Feb. 16, 2024. According to GQ Magazine,  “Jersey music” or “Jersey club” uses variations of fast beats per minute and triplets to create hard and bouncy rhythms. “City in Motion” doesn’t fall short, with the song being upbeat and keeping you on your toes throughout. Since the music video came out on March 15, 2024, the the fun visuals of the artist running around Seattle has over two thousand views on Youtube and the song has over ten housand Spotify streams, showing that the only motion Yonny is heading is up.

Yonny’s deep, rich voice has been able to transcend music genres that shift from jazz melodies to exciting hip-hop songs. His sound has been able to get praise from listeners not only in Seattle but throughout the country. As he continues to develop both his sound and creativity as an artist, his journey will be one filled with an impact on listeners, viewers and people attending his exciting performances. 

What are some of the things you enjoy doing on stage?

I really like to implement little skits in there. I have a bit with a phone where I use it as a transitional piece between songs but also [as] a way to get water and talk to the crowd. I  use it as a way to not have to just be, ‘Alright guys, I'm gonna drink some water real fast. So just give me a second.’ I'd rather come up with fun ways to do that.

Where’d you get inspired to do skits on stage?

Kendrick Lamar. One of the most creative live performers ever. 

How was performing at the Capitol Hill Block Party?

Two weeks before the block party, I got an email and the booker was like, ‘Hey, what's up Yonny? Do you want to play [Capitol Hill Block Party]?’ And I was like, ‘Sure.’ It wasn't that in-depth of a story, to be honest. It's funny because I had just learned about [the] block party that year. I had never heard of [Capitol Hill Block Party] before. But that was also because that was the first year that I had started dropping music. It was a lot of firsts. But it was pretty new. I had already done a couple of shows a couple months before that just leading up to it. I had gotten a little warm-up. But that was definitely my best set.

How did you start making music?

I've been making music probably since senior year of high school. I found this website called Soundtrack and it was able to record vocals. I did that for a couple months just for fun. Then I found GarageBand. Every demo I make is just on my phone on GarageBand until I bring it to my producer. I did that for like, a couple months or so I'm just for fun. And then I found GarageBand on my phone. Once I met my producer that we were like, ‘Yeah, okay, we could like, really do something here and like lock in.’ The way we met was like fate just hit each other. Iit was like divine timing. But yeah, it was I say seriously, two years ago, but I've been making songs since I was in high school.

What are some musical inspirations?

Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Michael Jackson, Kendrick Lamar, West Coast hip hop was huge for me. East Coast as well. Nirvana and Foo Fighters too, those are some of my favorite bands. 

What is something that you want to add to your live shows?

Choreographed dancers and background singers. 

How did you meet your producer?

He popped in out of nowhere. It was from a mutual friend of ours that knew and kind of messed around with in music. [My Friend] showed him a couple of things [of Yonny’s] and turned out that the producer, his name's Evan, was looking for somebody with a deep voice for a layer. I was like, ‘Well, I got a deep voice, I can help you.’ We got together, he made some songs. He kept bringing me back in every so often and wanting to do more and more. I guess he found something there. For a year he took me to everything. I never knew the Seattle scene or any Seattle rap scene. He basically just opened the whole gates for me to see everything. I had never been to a music venue out here ever, even though I've lived here my whole life.  

How did you meet Oble Reed?

I had seen [Oble Reed] on SoundCloud back in 2020. Back then my friend [Evan] was telling me, you just got to email these people to see if they respond. So I sent an email and he hit me back. He said, ‘Yeah, man, like, we'll figure something out,’ the typical response. So fast forward a little bit later in the year, Evan takes me to open sessions. It's this thing that would happen at the studio called Fibonacci Studios and every Friday they would have open studios with videographers, photographers, artists, producers that network. I remember [Evan] took me there for the first time and we were just chatting music and then I see somebody walked through the door and it's Oble Reed. He walks in and I make eye contact with him. I think he knew who I was because I stood up like I was about to go fight him. We showed each other songs and we became hella close after that. I'd never met him before in my life and now we're best friends.

Where do you get inspiration for your music videos?

[Nash Pearson and I] main goal is to try and have the visuals match the audio as much as possible. We want to be able to paint the picture for someone. When I write a song, we want [the listener to] envision it and have an image already in their head. If we have any immediate thoughts we just write them down.

What is your favorite scene from your music video?

Honestly, that's probably gonna the “NAH” transition. That was how I convinced Nash to want to shoot the video. Whenever I listen to that part, I would always see the day-to-night transition. So I went to him, it was one of the first times we met, I was like, ‘Hey bro, I know you do videos. I've never done a video before, but I have this idea. It might be cool.’ Then he listened to me and he believed in what I was saying. We ended up making it really cool. And you know, now he believes everything I say, so it's worked out. 

What are you currently working on?

Right now we're working on a project. It’s about eight songs and we're shooting for August potentially. When anybody gives out a date for anything like this, it never actually comes out when they say, so I'm not sure. But I'm assuming it's gonna be the summertime at some point. But yeah, that's what the big plan is. We are planning on dropping our first song since I think April, [it’s] been a long time. But we're dropping our first song next month, February 16. It's gonna be “City in Motion.” I performed live for the first time at the show last Saturday. I got pretty solid reception. 

What inspired City in Motion?

Coi Leray made a remix called “Players” that blew up with the original song. I don't know how [many] Spotify streams it has now, probably like 40-50 million. But the DJ is pretty solid. At the time, there was this label that was messing with me last summer. One of the dudes that was the connect

between me and the label knew the DJ. The DJ was looking for some rapper to rap over his Jersey song. So I was like, ‘Okay, I'll try it.’  He sent over this beat and I made a song to it. They ended up wanting something more poppy and I was like, Damn, that sucks. However, then Evan said, ‘I'm just gonna make my own Jersey beat and we're gonna use the songs because it's ridiculous and we're not going to waste it because they didn't want it.’ So he made his own beat. Then Jay Crocker got involved. They both collaborated and made this ridiculous instrumental through my vocals from that song and we for sure made a better song than the DJ Smalls song, I'm not gonna lie. If he hears this, I'm sorry. I'm not gonna lie. He fumbled a little bit with that. So yeah, it was definitely by luck. It was not a plan to make that song. It kind of just happened.  It definitely, in terms of everything else I've made, is for sure the most out of the way. It’s just different. But I think it's a good thing because it shows versatility and being able to dip into hella genres and still not sound bad or corny. 

What’s the thought process for “Rich Melanin?” 

So I've always been very into jazz growing up. But recently, I definitely have been a lot more into it. I've always wanted to work on more jazzy and live instrumentation type[s] of things for music. I realized that I needed to find my sound in a sense. I'm not saying jazz is that in particular, but it's definitely something that I really enjoy doing. Especially for live stuff, like doing “Rich Melanin” live on Saturday, that was so cool. I think people really enjoyed it and it's just different. I don't think there's a lot of artists in the city [who are] doing stuff like that. I think people realize that and I think that's why it's so well received. It's just so out of the way and it's different. “Rich Melanin” for sure is one of my most favorite songs and one of my most well-written songs.

If you could describe your new project in one word, what would it be?

Free. [I] think the word ‘free’ is the best way I could describe that project. There's a theme, but it's in terms of how it's musically portrayed. They're all different. Each song is different and you don't really know what you're going to hear on every song. So that would be my best word.

Photos courtesy of Emery Lemos & Matthew Rygh