In an interview last year with Pitchfork, New York singer, producer, and DJ Yaeji explained that her creative process involves “a lot of thinking less and making a mess.” It’s a reasonable starting point, considering the type of music she creates: Yaeji’s catalog is almost entirely made up of club tracks, banging blends of hip hop, future R&B, and house that’s the perfect soundtrack to those endless nights when your id is in the driver’s seat and “regret” has been removed from your vocabulary.
Her music works just as well in the daylight hours, where the depth and nuance of her lyrics can be better appreciated. Sung in a breathy, quietly quavering voice, Yaeji’s words delve into unusual topics for dance music, like the benefits of therapy and struggling with Western beauty standards. In the video for the teetering, glitchy house track “Last Breath,” she holds an almost ironic makeup tutorial as she lip-syncs lines (sung in Korean) like, “Put the unexpected tomorrow on the back of your hands and spread it in a circular motion/This product is called depression/And it stays on for 24 hours.”
Yaeji’s voice is one that the dance music community has clearly been longing for; her videos have racked up millions of YouTube views, and last September she was filmed performing at a party for the taste-making underground music website Boiler Room. And almost all of the dates on her upcoming tour—including her Portland stop at the Star Theater—sold out fast. Sometimes making a mess can get you a lot of attention.