One of the most noteworthy things about Nico Yaryan is the story behind his music, and I’ll tell you-it’s not often you get to listen to a story like his told firsthand. So when he came through to the Paste Studio for a session, it was needless to say, we were excited.
Yaryan’s been making music for some time now, just not as a singer. Judging by the singles he’s been dropping in anticipation of his upcoming full-length What A Tease, you wouldn’t exactly guess that he could originally be caught playing drums for San Francisco blues act Hanni el Khatib. Even as Yaryan emerges as a solo artist, his time playing drums in another act has proven to be the impetus for his full-length.
While on tour with Hanni el Khatib in Amsterdam, Yaryan fell madly in love with a local. Madly enough to fly back to Los Angeles and get a job trimming pot plants on a farm in Northern California. Trimming plants earned him enough money to fly back and forth between continents, though the distance strained the relationship enough to end it. Still, the endeavor seemed to inspire Yaryan’s detailed, pained and soulful project. What A Tease is an album laced with urgent pleas for understanding from his distant love and tired admissions of guilt for not trying harder to fix what they had. The story arc behind these songs is paradoxical, so naturally-even eerily-true of life. Person falls in love, strains already complicated relationship by focusing heavily on music career in another country, no one wants relationship to end, relationship ends, person makes really awesome record about it.
Hear Yaryan play “What A Tease” here, and stay tuned for “Old Gloria” and “Just Tell Me” off What A Tease, out summer 2016.
—Raz Robinson