Step Inside The World of yesterdayneverhappened
Photography by Julien Carr
yesterdayneverhappened is expanding what it means to be an artist. As a musician who isn't afraid to explore where audio and visual art intertwine, it’s hard to find a single descriptor that perfectly introduces this Chicago-based creator. By pairing their viral musical production with their love for animation, yesterdayneverhappened succeeds in creating a world in which both their music and character designs can thrive in.
Via a call over Zoom, we were given a glimpse into yesterdayneverhappened’s creative space. In pulling everything from figurines to instruments to even their favorite video games off their shelves, we were given the experience of a virtual show and tell of some of the inspirations behind their debut album, twilight princess. Check out our Q&A with yesterdayneverhappened below to read more about the concepts and influences that went into the making of twilight princess.
What are some of your earliest memories of music?
I feel like music has always been around. My grandma sang for the church and my mom would put me in dance classes. But as far as making music, there’s definitely videos of me with guitars and stuff. My grandma was trying to teach me how to play the guitar. It never really caught on, but I still dabbled in it for a while. And I have very vivid memories of first grade music class and trying to play “Für Elise” on the piano.
You recently released your debut album, twilight princess. Talk me through some of the concepts behind the project.
I kind of started making it towards the beginning of 2020–like pre-pandemic. The concept was a reclamation of power essentially. [twilight princess] actually pulls from a few games. You can see it on the cover art. The character is like a mixture of Final Fantasy and Mega Man. Twilight Princess —that name—is a Zelda game. It was Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. That’s like one of my favorite games of all time. That was damn near like one of the very first games I actually sat down and tried to play to its completion. As far as concept-wise, I wanted to show everything that I could do. It started off with drum’n’bass to ambient trap to house to electro-pop. I was really trying to show all my experiences up until the point ‘cause I had never really sat down and tried to put an entire project together [or] thought of a concept for album art. On previous releases, I would just make shit within a month or damn near within three weeks and put it out. So, [twilight princess] was really something that I thought about and listened to over and over to try and get the right flow of things. Essentially, the album is me coming into myself. The album is me going through this storyline and becoming Twilight Princess at the end of it.
Though I don’t know much about things like DAWs and synthesizers, I'm still always interested in listening to artists talk about their gear and the overall technical side of their music. In making this album, I’m curious to know what your own production process looked like?
I use Studio One as a DAW. There’s not too many people that use that DAW and a lot of people don’t know what that even is. It’s annoying sometimes because I’ll be like, “Oh yeah, I use Studio One.” And people are like, “What’s that?” Like it’s a whole program, but people don’t be on it. It's really old —like damn near forty-five and up old, white engineers that use it. But, yeah, I produce off of that, and I’ve been producing off of that since I was nineteen. I have this thing that I use [pulls out a drum machine]. It is a Maschine Mikro Mk2, and it’s just a beat pad. And this is a QChord [pulls out an omnichord]. It’s supposed to emulate a harp. It has a strum plate on it, and you press the buttons, and it changes the chord of the thing that it’s in. I used that synth in one or two of the songs. I also have this piano with a bunch of pre-installed sounds. Those are really the only things that I use. There’s also some synths on Studio One that I like to use a lot. There’s this program called SynthMaster that’s really good.
Often, I hear artists talk about certain movies, video games, or music that they like to listen to as inspiration while making their own art. Was there any specific media you were consuming while working on the album that ended up influencing the project?
I was playing so much Smash Bros. That’s like my game. I also have a few emulators, so I be playing Pokémon and Final Fantasy XIII. Also, Sonic Adventure DX. I was playing that on my laptop. Of course, Mega Man too.
What was it about these games that you’ve taken influence from? Was it the characters? Storylines?
I fuck with the storylines, but I really like character design. I also like the music. Sometimes I’ll go back and listen to video game soundtracks. I have found that sometimes when people listen to my music, they’ll compare it to video game music. And I’m just like, that’s probably ‘cause that’s something I’ve consumed from very early on.
Aside from making music, you also make really sick animations! I love seeing the characters you create and how they fit within the realm of your music and for other artists you’ve animated for in the past. Do you find that pairing these visualizers alongside your music helps amplify the stories you’re looking to convey?
Yeah, that’s really it. Eventually, I’m gonna make a video game. I’ve just liked making my own characters from a very young age. I appreciate character design a lot. I like world-building. World-building is cool. I feel like another reason why I’m so drawn to video games is because the worlds that they make are so expansive.
Online I’ve seen a lot of flyers for live sets of yours! When making a mix for a show, are there any songs that you currently find are necessary to include for a good mix?
Hmm, it depends. I don’t pre-mix my stuff. I put a set-list together. But, as far as like songs, “Off tha Leash!” by ICYTWAT. That song is so raw. I really don’t like going anywhere and playing the same song twice–unless it’s my songs. But, if I didn’t put as many songs as I’d like to in a set-list, I’ll play that song. Like, I’ll play that song, but I’ll make it a house remix or something.
What’s next for yesterdayneverhappened?
Well, I’m dropping an EP with Kaizo Slumber. I’m also working on my rap project. It’s gonna be sick. I have like six songs already. I’ve been making the beats for it. I also wanna sell merch too. I sold some stickers earlier, but I think I wanna sell more prints. Sometimes I’ll be selling prints of my artwork, so I think I wanna do that with the album cover. I guess that’s it. I’m just making music, making art.
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