We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful [yaku]. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with [yaku] below.

[yaku], thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Honestly, the most important thing when it comes to learning the craft of producing and DJing is consistency and feedback. When first starting out, I used to get caught up thinking I’d need to get “the best DAW” to start making music or I’d need the “perfect synth” to make that song that I envisioned in my head, but the reality is that the thing you need the most is practice and feedback from others who are further along than you.

I’m working 1:1 with an incredible production teacher right now and that’s been such a massive help too, especially since he always reminds me to focus on what’s most important (i.e. interesting musical ideas) and not get too caught up in the world of new / fancy plugins.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi! For those who don’t know me, I’m [yaku] and I’m a SoCal-based producer and DJ. I’ve previously supported acts like Said the Sky, Habstrakt, and SLANDER and I’m currently working on my EP.

I got into producing and DJing for the sheer love of music (some of my earliest musical memories were listening to 8-bit Pokémon music on my gameboy color…)

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

That you can’t make a living doing creative work. Honestly, I think that’s one of the most pernicious and patently false beliefs that pervades the industry, and while it’s true that you probably won’t be able to retire from <1K Spotify streams alone (or if you figure out how to do that, DM me!), there are tons of avenues from playing live to building a community on Youtube and more that enable creatives to do this work full-time.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I had a dream a while back of playing a set at EDC (one of the biggest music festivals in the world for electronic artists) and could see everything in clear view in front of me. It was kind of surreal especially because I could hear the exact song I was playing and could feel the EQ knobs and volume faders in my hands…I have a ways to go before we get there, but that vision felt like it was handed down from a higher source and not pursuing it feels like a waste.

There’s also a club in Tokyo that I’ve dreamed of playing at called MOGRA (it’s not as popular of a club as some other famous spots, but if you know, you know), so hopefully we can make that happen soon :)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/yaku.vibes
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yaku.vibes/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/yakumaku

Image Credits

Deanna Nguyen: https://www.instagram.com/moments.apart/