BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition July 2019

Artist to Watch
JONAH
YANO:
LIVING
THE DREAM
J
apanese-born, Toronto-based
singer-songwriter Jonah Yano
can’t believe the shape his life
is taking. He went from being
unknown, working at a small
cafe to having future-jazz innovators
BADBADNOTGOOD on his gorgeous new
single, “Nervous” , from his debut EP of
the same name.
Yano’s smooth voice has a tempered
sound that oozes confidence and soul,
sounding like the lovechild of James
Blake and Norah Jones.
Yano was born in Hiroshima and moved
to Port Coquitlam, BC, when he was four.
“Half of my family are musicians or
have musical history,” he says. “My
grandma did a royal conservatory and my
father is a folk songwriter in Japan.”
After playing music throughout high
school in BC, Yano gave up on the idea of
pursuing it entirely.
“I thought it was so unrealistic. It was a
self-doubt thing. I went to university and
dropped out, did some travelling to ‘find
myself’ and then moved to Toronto and
got back into music three years ago.”
Being in Toronto proved fruitful for
Yano after he befriended BADBADNOT-
GOOD drummer Alex Sowinski at a show
for T-dot duo MONEYPHONE. Yano says
the scenario feels like a scene straight out
of a biopic.
“Isn’t it crazy? Like, what the fuck is
going on? Alex and I developed a friendship
naturally. Obviously the conversation of
music was going to come up eventually. I
played him the demo for ‘Promise’ and he
said, ‘Cool, let me show this to the guys and
we’ll play on it.’ Like, sure man, I’m not even
freaking out at all right now. Sure, send it
to the rest of BADBADNOTGOOD, that’s
normal and within the realm of reality.”
Yano released his debut EP, Nervous,
with LA-based label Innovative Leisure
last month, who caught wind of his release
right before he self-published it online,
stopping him just in time so that they could
give the project the proper professional
treatment it deserves.
Although he plans on continuing his
creative relationship with BADBADNOT-
GOOD, Yano has bigger goals in mind.
“My biggest goal is to go to Japan and
write songs with my dad. I haven’t seen
him since I was 10 years old and that will
be my magnum opus. How fucking cool
would that be?”
Nervous is out now on all streaming
platforms.
By Joey Lopez
JULY 2019 BEATROUTE 15