“Yaeji is basically unstoppable at this point.” – triple j
“Yaeji’s music has always been about communion and friendship, portals into other possible time lines around the globe.” – The New Yorker
“simultaneously energetic and hypnotic.” – The Interns (Waking Up Down)
“Yaeji flexes her production abilities to craft a track that is club ready yet still contains a sense of mystery.” – Purple Sneakers (Waking Up Down)
“In trademark Yaeji fashion, the production is crisp and instantaneously infectious” – Ones To Watch
Today NYC-via-Seoul electronic producer, DJ, and vocalist Yaeji has released her mixtape WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던 via XL Recordings / Remote Control. She has also shared a new music video for the title track. Filmed in Korea with Dawnqmentary (and the DADAISM CLUB), the music video for ‘WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던‘ stars Yaeji, her grandfather and the DADAISM CLUB as Yaeji reminisces on the memories of her childhood in Korea.
‘WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던’, the title track from Yaeji’s mixtape, touches on the core sentiment of her debut, full-length project. “This song is about sharing love and gratitude with the people you call family,”Yaeji explains, “Dawn and our friends helped bring my nostalgia for Korea to life.” Drawing on the love/hate experiment on human consciousness that Yaeji did in grade school with an onion, watch as Yaeji and her friends shower her new onion with gratitude and love in the dreamlike clip.
WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던 is produced entirely by Yaeji and over the course of the past two years, she started writing the music for WHAT WE DREW with no specific narrative in mind, each track becoming a snippet of her life, a look into her diary. This total sense of freedom in her newly-built design and recording studio in Brooklyn allowed her to draw on a wide range of sounds, including the Korean indie rock and electronica that she listened to as a teenager in Seoul, and late ’90s and early 2000s hip hop and R&B she grew up listening to. The guests featured on the project represent her community in New York City and beyond, including Brooklyn-via-Oakland rapper Nappy Nina, London performance artist Victoria Sin, London producer Shy One, and Tokyo DJ and producer YonYon; tracks like ‘FREE INTERLUDE,’ featuring LilFayo, trenchcoat, and Sweet Pea, capture the open and collaborative spirit of afternoons at Yaeji headquarters. Although the mixtape is much indebted to Yaeji’s newfound laser focused creative vision and self-taught production work, it’s largely informed by her network of close-knit collaborators and friends.
Since the release of Yaeji’s 2017 EP’s (Yaeji and EP2), which broke her out as one of the most exciting new voices in dance music, she’s produced remixes for Charlie XCX and Robyn, sold out two headlining worldwide tours, and was included on the BBC’s Sound of 2018 list. In the midst of her swift rise, she has remained devoted to New York’s underground dance music scene; in 2019, Yaeji curated and organized Elancia, a massive Brooklyn warehouse rave where she gave her favorite local parties headlining slots. An artist who many pegged as the one to watch, Yaeji now aims beyond expectations, with an eye toward the worlds of music production, visual art, game design and more.
