A Conversation With Yoshi T.
modrNation: Take me through the Yoshi T. origin story, where are you from and what was your upbringing like?
Yoshi T.: I was born in LA but I grew up in New York. My dad owns a sushi restaurant that he opened in New York so that’s when we moved out here. It’s a family business, I work there sometimes, but yeah it’s real bi-lingual vibes out here with my family.
modrNation: That’s dope, are your parent's first generation?
Yoshi T.: No they’re immigrants so I’m first generation. They’re from Japan, they moved out here right around when I was born in 2000.
modrNation: Do you think that shows in your music at all? Do you listen to or draw inspiration from Japanese music?
Yoshi T.: I listen to old city-pop shit, that’s definitely a super huge influence for me. My parents originally put me on and are now discovering its relevance in America as it starts to go crazy and pick up with vaporwave, TikTok trends, and all that.
modrNation: You said your parents put you onto Japanese music, have they been supportive of your music journey so far?
Yoshi T.: Yeah they’d always put me into music classes as a kid and they saw that I really fucked with it so they were always supportive of it. I went to LaGuardia for high school which is an art and music school, then I went to SUNY Purchase for college, so I’ve always been surrounded by music.
modrNation: That’s great that you’ve always gone to creative schools, did you end up graduating from SUNY?
Yoshi T.: Yeah I graduated a couple of years ago, I really just spent those four years honing in on the sound. Me and Elijah were locked in every day, I have very positive memories of all of my schooling which I’m grateful for.
modrNation: So SUNY is where you met Elijah Judah? Is that where you also met Cisco Swank and Jackson August?
Yoshi T.: I actually met them in high school at LaGuardia, they all ended up at different colleges except me and Elijah went to Purchase. Throughout those years we stuck together and supported each other through the music and stuff.
modrNation: Taking it back to your upbringing, I saw the F* TASTE music video with the bento box, is putting on Japanese culture and normalizing people to it something that’s important to you with your music and imagery?
Yoshi T.: Yeah definitely, I always had a hard time figuring out how to fit that narrative without it being corny or preachy, cause you’ve seen it happen, but once I started getting used to filming what I was doing every day it felt super normal and I thought it’d be fun to incorporate that into that video. For the most recent video, we went to Japan to film, me and my homie Pat went to Japan to film me with my family, my grandparents, it felt really good and natural to be out there. It’s just super real.
modrNation: That’s amazing, how often are you in Japan?
Yoshi T.: I used to go every year, but I kind of stopped and that was my first time going in like six years.
modrNation: That’s definitely one of the top spots on my travel bucket list.
Yoshi T.: Yeah I think that’s something everyone should experience, the culture is digestible and different all at the same time and it’s very special to me.
modrNation: I feel like it’s strong, and has a very strong identity and sense of self.
Yoshi T.: That’s a fact actually, I wonder why that is. There’s been Japanese artists collaborating with some big U.S. artists and it’s made some people more aware.
modrNation: Who are some artists that you feel like have done a good job of building out their narrative and story in a way that you’d like to do yourself?
Yoshi T.: Artists like MIKE, MAVI, and a lot of the ‘underground’ scene, they kind of prioritize themselves and aren’t waived by any of the outside things. But also people like Tyler, The Creator, I like people that are really into studying, I really fuck with artists that take pride in their visuals and just have that attention to detail. Kanye for a really long time too, and people like JPEGMAFIA are really cool to me.
modrNation: Who would you say are some of your influences more purely on the music side?
Yoshi T.: Mac Miller definitely was a huge early influence, I’d been getting told that I sound like him since I was much younger so I really dove into his music and realized ‘oh this is really fire.’ More recently, the soulfulness of Smino’s stuff, Monte Booker is really sick too, and of course the MIKE’s and MAVI’s. They’re not doing punchline after punchline but the emotion they're conveying is very convincing.
modrNation: What’s your favorite Mac album?
Yoshi T.: This might be a hot take because I found him a little later, but I love Swimming, that’s my favorite one. I’m not a huge fan of a lot of the stuff that came before GOOD:AM, but every album has fire songs. As whale bodies of work, GOOD:AM forward just stands out to me in a different way, he was really building something with those.
modrNation: I know you said Elijah does a lot of your production, are there any other producers you find yourself going back to?
Yoshi T.: Really just Elijah and the homie Jack, I’m a huge fan of spending a lot of time with your time to create something. I just feel like ‘let’s really take our time and do this’ and a couple of sessions can’t always do a song justice. I’m not opposed to sessions and definitely am excited to work with a bunch of people, but I love to really lock in with people.
modrNation: You’ve brought up Cisco, Elijah, and Jackson a few times, there doesn’t seem to be an official collective, but what do you see the relationship between you guys as? There definitely seems to be a synergy in New York especially amongst the four of you.
Yoshi T.: That’s sick man, we’re friends first really. We came up together and I think people are starting to see that, we don’t have a leader and we’ve seen collectives come and go so we just try to keep it natural. When the time comes maybe we’ll do something together, we don’t really know but it’s just a friend group more than anything. We’re all trying to grind on our own and in turn that’s helping all of us.
modrNation: You’ve seen a lot of new traction from the F* TASTE release, how does that feel and has it affected any of your future plans?
Yoshi T.: I’m moving the same I always have been, but I’m really just super blessed and grateful that it got picked up and people are really feeling it. It feels like we’re doing the right things and I just need to continue trusting myself, trusting the team, and making it fun. We have an EP coming out at the beginning of November and I’m really excited to work on new shit after that’s out. That’ll have three new songs on it and close the chapter of this year.
modrNation: Trying to look at you and your music 10-15 years down the line, what do you want to be remembered for?
Yoshi T.: I think for just making good music, making stuff that is super universal but also has layers of depth to it. That’s what I seek from my favorite artists, so just trying to do that on my own scale in my way is mad important to me. I want kids and adults singing and really feeling the music.
modrNation: Have you done many live shows?
Yoshi T.: Yeah I have, lately I’ve been chilling out with them but throughout high school and college I did a lot of DIY stuff and smaller venues. Now I’m trying to find an opening slot on tour to get into that game.
modrNation: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Yoshi T.: Personally and musically, just the same shit but better. Continuing to grow as a person and artist.