“I want to make music and do things that make me happy,” says art teacher turned shred technician Yvette Young. “I spent a year dealing with legal battles. That’s gross. It was either quit, or do something radical. I’m taking the radical position.”
Her latest single, Always, proves as much. It’s less tap-happy shred and more melody-driven washes of uber-cool sounds. There’s more to come from her following the wranglings with her former bandmates in Covet.
Despite the trauma-meets-drama of recent years, she reports: “Guitar is still so exciting. There’s so many ways you can utilize it. Once I stopped thinking, ‘I have to be able to play this live,’ a whole world opened. Who cares if I can’t do this perfect live? I’ll figure it out later.”
That positive attitude is refreshing, given her recent history. It’s probably one of the reasons she was named among Rolling Stone's 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. “I just want to write the best thing that comes to mind,” Young says. “I don't know if anyone ever leaves the studio feeling 100 percent… if they do, I envy them. If I can get it to 70 or 80 percent, I’m happy.”
Her change in direction has left people wondering if she’s shuttering Covet forever. “It’s not over,” she insists. “I just really want to put out solo music. The solo stuff doesn’t fit in the Covet universe. It’s hard to limit myself to doing one. Covet is a certain type of music, and this release is more dream pop; the next one will be hyper pop and crazy, and then it’ll be more orchestral.”
You’ve been through a lot lately. What brought you to this point?
“I had enough awful, traumatic experiences working in a band, getting legally fucked over. It’s like, you write everything then people use something that’s supposed to be beautiful against you. I decided to stop having bad experiences – I had to take the control back into my own hands.”
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Is it better to do that via your solo music than with Covet?
“I haven’t really done solo music for years, because of my band. The kind of music I’m interested in making and the things I want to do have evolved so much since I started Covet. I wanted to pivot and do something different.”
You’ve been very transparent about your state of mind during that process.
“I was very transparent about having a lot of bad things happen to me to the point where I wanted to quit. I can sit there and point fingers and be like, ‘This and that person fucked me over. This sucks.’ But one thing I’ve got going for me is I can always make more music.”
Where does that leave you in terms of playing guitar?
“I wanted to take a stab at doing everything myself, and it’s really reflected in my music. I’m more in the pop world now, with a lot of electronic compositions. I’m much less focused on virtuosic shred. I want to write something memorable and touching. It’s been a really restorative process for me.”
Does Always represent you distancing yourself from the negative things?
“It’s just a matter of me not wanting to be predictable. The one thing that unites it all is guitars at the center – everything I do still revolves around guitar. But sonically, everything is going to be different. Everyone is like, ‘I love the new sound!’ I’m like, ‘I hope you still love it after the next song comes out because it’s so different!’”
If I don’t advocate for myself, I’m sending the message: ‘You should put up with all kinds of things you don’t want to’
Have you toned down your technique?
“I don’t think about technique at all now. For Covet it’s post-rock riffs with a little bit of tapping. But for these songs, I’m letting melody take the wheel. I want this to be stuck in your head. I want you to sing this later. I want people to hear my guitar tone and be confused about how I got it. It’s a lot of sonic exploration.”
Not to uncover the mystery entirely, but what are the keys to your tone right now?
“I’m using a Hologram Electronics Microcosm looper and glitch pedal to turn my guitar into glitchiness. I was really going for things that degrade the sound and make it like a dying battery. I wanted to make ugly, pretty, and abstract sounds, then put them all together to make a sonic universe. And I wanted you to be able to hum it back!”
Given your newfound freedom, do you feel motivated to return to Covet?
“If I were to give advice to anyone in my position, I’d be like, ‘You worked hard for something – don’t let anyone take it away from you. That would be letting the haters and the unsavory people win.
I think it’s toxic to pretend nobody ever wants to quit. Everyone at some point questions themselves and their life decisions
“I’m still gonna work on Covet. I have a tour planned for China and Japan in December. It’s a big deal to go to China for the first time because I’m Chinese; I’m really looking forward to that.
“I’m always going to love Covet. The songs make me happy. But Always is about saying goodbye to something you love because it doesn't serve you anymore. People think it’s about romance or breaking up, but it’s about moving on from the heartbreak.
“If I don’t advocate for myself and my safety, I’m sending the message: ‘You should put up with all kinds of things you don’t want to put up with just because you make money from it.’ That’s not me. That’s not a life worth living. I want to stay excited about what I do.”
You’ve brought up quitting a couple of times; how do you feel about that now?
“I’ve talked to a lot of other musicians who have been through similar things. Everyone goes through it – I think it’s toxic to pretend nobody ever wants to quit. Everyone at some point questions themselves and their life decisions.
“When I got into music, I was teaching art, and then I quit to go tour and be a musician. I didn’t sign up for the drama or the weird parasocial relationships that happened; or stalkers; or the business side where it’s icky and people fuck each other over. I never signed up for any of that.
“I didn’t want to just turn over and give up. I have to write music. If I don’t, I feel really bad about myself. Maybe my self-worth being so rooted in creation is another conversation to have. But a lot of creatives share in that, right?
“It’s like a compulsion: ‘I have to do this.’ I might as well do it on my own terms. And what I enjoy about this is that I only have myself to blame. If it doesn’t work out the way I want it to, at least I did it on my own terms. I’ll have no regrets.”
