Yot Club

For decades the bright lights of NYC have drawn artists to its storied city streets — those seeking their tribe, those looking to solidify their identity, and now 26-year-old Ryan Kaiser has joined those ranks, moving from Nashville to Brooklyn, at the tail-end of 2022. Except, unlike so many who have come before him, Kaiser’s already made a name for himself creating daydreamy, sun-blasted, Polaroid-pop as Yot Club.

Rewind to 2019 when, fresh out of college and out of nowhere, Kaiser’s song “YKWIM?” became a go-to sad song for nostalgia-centric TikToks. (It’s now 2x RIAA Platinum.) Accordingly the major labels came calling, but the Mississippi native stayed grounded, prolific, and singular in his vision, releasing his self-produced bedroom pop EPs and loosies, before signing to Amuse, dropping his debut LP off the grid in 2023, and performing extensively in the States and Europe.

With Yot Club’s second full-length, Rufus, Kaiser is expanding his sonic palette and challenging his own established modes by collaborating: writing with Tommy English (Carly Rae Jepsen, Kacey Musgraves), and singer Charli Adams, with Patrick Wimberly (formerly one-half of Chairlift) on mixing duties. His lo-fi hooks are bolder and brighter with a new cinematic scope.

Rufus is not exactly Ryan Kaiser, but these snapshots capture the essence of his experiences: a bad relationship and fresh realizations; walking away to try and find footing in a new city that maybe isn’t exactly the mythologized creative utopia. It continues Kaiser’s coming of age — looking back, picking it all apart, trying to work it all out, and constantly pushing forward.