Yot Club

Yot Club

Yot Club is the project of Ryan Kaiser, an American lo-fi rock artist from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who is based in Nashville, Tennessee. He begins releasing music under the Yot Club name in 2019, after earlier work under the name Amateur Observer.

Early work and musical development

Before Yot Club, Kaiser shares recordings on SoundCloud and Bandcamp as Amateur Observer. That project lasts for about a year before he deletes it, describing a sense of insecurity about the material. He then starts again under Yot Club, building a new musical identity around a bedroom-based approach to recording.

Sound and recording style

His music sits within lo-fi, indie rock, alternative rock and bedroom pop, with a sound built from distorted vocals, lo-fi beats, guitar parts using chorus pedal effects, warm lead guitar lines, analogue synth melodies and light pads. Kaiser works with self-imposed limits, including using a single microphone, and records most of his music in his bedroom. At times, he also turns his car into a small recording studio. His songs usually begin with guitar and are then layered with additional instruments. He processes his vocals with clipping distortion and reverb, giving his recordings a recognisable tone.

Releases and collaborations

Since his debut under the Yot Club name, Kaiser releases three EPs and 26 tracks within a single year. A key step in his career comes with a signing to Nice Guys, a Paris-based record label, which helps bring his work to a wider audience. Among the releases associated with this period is the EP Nature Machine, which includes covers of songs by The Smiths and Mountain Goats.

Reception

Kaiser’s music gathers more than two million streams on Spotify, reflecting the reach of the project despite its low-budget recording methods. He describes the work as a kind of digital diary, and frames releasing it publicly as a way of preserving it rather than letting it be lost or obscured.