We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yaa Boateng a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Yaa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?
The kindest thing anyone has ever done for me was believe in what God has put and stick around through all of the ups and downs to keep me accountable through the process.
This could be a story about how one of my favorite people became the guy I chose to live the rest of my life with, but that’s a completely different story. I met Enoch around the time when I wasn’t sure why the Lord had asked me to make an album. I wasn’t sure where to start and I was so out of my depth. I was in my mid-20s at the time. All I knew for sure was that I loved music and that I was called to lead worship. It had been my reality at the time, for the past 8 years or so when I sensed where the Lord was leading me, I just didn’t get it. I didn’t have a repertoire of full songs ready, but for the next 2 years, I tried and stumbled through several attempts to figure out how I was going to write, market, and fund this album. I met Enoch after “going through” a couple of different producers (that sounds worse than it actually is lol). I had never heard his music, but on my first encounter with him, I knew he was really intentional about matching my style of music.
I come from a musical family and it was my father’s CD launching as one of the featured “artists” (I was having a hard time identifying with that title). I sang a few originals and Enoch was the electric guitarist. Out of every talented musician there, he was the one that paid close attention to my style of music and “matched my energy”. After that, I asked him to play guitar on a track I was working on with one of those previous producers, and after that, we began the journey of tracking and producing a full album. This was the beginning of the journey of believing that there was more. That I could dream and live and begin to see those dreams come alive. Enoch did something that I’ll never forget, he didn’t just see “potential”.. he invested in it and stuck around to make sure it became a reality. Years later he is still doing the same thing. Though life has been interesting since then, the Lord uses him to remind me that I have a purpose and that He sees to His word to make sure it never returns to Him void. To this date that is the kindest and most intentional thing anyone has ever done for me. This year I hope to release this album finally, luckily Enoch will be right by my side through all of it (might not have a choice anymore lol, but I’ll take it).
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My TikTok has this headline ” The singing baker”… I think I’d like to change that to the baking singer. Not because I like being a baker, less than before, but because singing/songwriting and music in general will always be my biggest passion and first love. This year I hope to release my very first album entitled “Wholehearted”. The first (an technically only) single from the album is on all streaming platforms called “Fear Has Lost Its Grip”. This album has three distinct movements that all paint the picture of what it looks like to weather a storm from beginning to end. From speaking truth over your heart to keeping your eyes focused when your in the toughest part of the storm to being able to see all the gems that you gained as a result of the storm to the point that you can still say that God is good, regardless of the storm.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I grew up in a musical family… my father and mother met each other in the choir back in Ghana and used to drag me and my siblings to rehearsals until we eventually started becoming active in the church. I led different worship/singing groups and led worship since I was a teenager. I wrote my first song when I was 12, but I somehow told myself that it wasn’t good enough so it wasn’t until I started consistently leading worship that I saw that I had an affinity for creating choruses. I few years later I wrote what would become the first track on the album, called “Steady, My Heart”. It’s in what I call the first “movement” of the album. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to hone my craft. I can’t say that I have a specific genre except for the fact that my music is centered around life and Jesus. I love mixing different genres and sounds so this album has a combination of sounds from jazz, rock, gospel, and singer/songwriter types of genres.
I’m very passionate about baking as well. I legally established Yaa’s Yums LLC in 2022, but it all began as a kid. My mother and grandmother both have the baking bug and when I was young, I loved making strawberry cheesecakes to take to school on days when we were asked to bring things. Back then we often had some kind of potluck situation in school and I loved that. After years went by, I started baking more consistently during college as a means of being able to give gifts for friends’ birthdays’ when I couldn’t afford what I really wanted to give as a gift. It became official with encouragement from friends and I always had that ‘side hustle’ there, that functioned primarily through word of mouth. Now Yaa’s Yums LLC has collaborated with other food industry businesses and is working on a transition from purely serviced-based industry to product-based, service-based, online content, and e-commerce. Yaa’s Yums LLC is a bespoke cake, cookie, and custom treat company based in the DMV and also focused on creating space for people to bake and not be afraid because of how calculated baking is. There are rules to baking, but once you grasp them you can easily color outside the lines.
Last year, Yaa’s Yums was contracted by The Washington Commanders during the season’s home games to create cookie/candy trays for the owner’s boxes. This opportunity expanded my horizons on what is possible when you’re able to connect with not just people, but companies and household names. I’m looking forward to more corporate opportunities like this
Have you ever had to pivot?
I think my life has plenty of pivots sprinkled throughout, but I feel like my biggest pivot would have to be the one ahead of me. It affects my baking business (Yaa’s Yums LLC) maybe a bit more than YAA the singer-songwriter/artist, but all the same I am preparing for my biggest pivot overall. I am having to pivot what my business looks like, now that I’m moving to another country. This is why I’ve been diving into setting up my business in a way that it functions irrespective of location and time zone. I’m in the midst and just like my album paints the story of a storm, my biggest concern is being wholehearted in the process of pursuing obedience to Yahweh by also stewarding my mind, purpose, and business well.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part of being am artist is al the scariest part. It requires vulnerability, enough to be able to share, but the reward is that it can inspire someone else to search within themselves and find depths that perhaps they wouldn’t have ventured without having a song that expresses exactly what they didn’t think words could on their own. When people find depth and intimacy, that’s the biggest reward for me because it also shows that I’m walking in exactly what I know I’m called to… which is to create space for intimacy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yaasyums.com
- Instagram: @yaa.creates & @yaas.yums
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yaasyums & https://www.facebook.com/YaaMusic/
- Other: Email: yaab.music@gmail.com info@yaasyums.com
Image Credits
Outdoor Photos: @sizekolie