Yetep, a rising star in electronic dance music, returns to Hawaiian Brian’s on Friday.
About that name: Yetep is “Petey” spelled backwards, and the musician’s given name is Peter Hong.
About that music: Yetep is becoming known for his lush, melodic tunes and for being able to find the right voice for his melancholy, romantic lyrics.
He’s been recorded and promoted on New Noise, an imprint of the Dim Mak record label, founded by the innovative producer Steve Aoki, and touring the country performing at festivals and clubs.
His latest song, “No Doubt,” was just released, featuring singer Kylie Reynolds and written in collaboration with Myrne. Reviewer Peach Gallagher described it as “the perfect summer anthem built for late night dance sessions that carry into the early morning” on the website runthetrap.com.
“I’m doing this full time now, but still taking it step by step, baby steps,” he said in a phone call from Los Angeles.
Now 27, Yetep was born in South Korea and came to the U.S. as child. He initially started his music studies in a conventional way — with piano lessons forced on him by his parents.
“I absolutely hated taking piano. I would ditch the class and everything, and I never saw myself taking music seriously,” he said.
Nonetheless, music found Yetep. He became drawn to producing music during college after going to music festivals and started “dabbling” in mixes, evenutally leaving school to pursue music at Icon Collective, an L.A. school that specializes in electronic music production.
He regrets not getting his degree, he said, but believes he made the right decision when he dropped out: It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was something he felt he could commit to.
“It was really hard for me to tell my parents, because college meant pretty much everything to them,” he said. “But it was really a blessing that they were 100% trusting me. My parents actually came to my show, and my father said, ‘We have to feed you more meat. You’re so skinny out there.’”
YETEP HAS proven to have a talent for recognizing pleasing tunes and harmonies. He’s still learning music theory and music composition, he said, but by using a computerized chord generator, he’s found a singular method of producing interesting chord progressions, some based on familiar songs, some entirely new. He then builds a tune based on what pleases his ear.
“My writing process is I first get the chord progressions, and than I hum melodies in my head that fit the chords,” he said. “Listening to so much music, I kind of tend to understand what kind of style I enjoy and what other people enjoy.”
Another aspect of Yetep’s talent is his ability to recognize vocalists who not only are good singers but creative artists as well.
He’ll often choose a vocalist to work with, with nothing more than the basics of a tune and an idea for a song.
“I definitely go towards emotional music, that’s what I feel most passionate about,” he said. “But usually with songwriting, I like to sit down with the vocalist and write a story about what she or he went through, or what I went through, and go from there.
“It’s kind of what everybody can relate to. Two people can listen to the same song and feel different things.”
Yetep also has established a name for himself as one of the more giving artists in the field, hosting events called “Common Unity” that raises money for local charitable organizations.
“Music is an expression of myself in a way,” he said. “Doing so many shows, I feel like music can be kind of an escape, where a show is kind of like a timeout. And I feel like there are things that are bigger than music as well, like giving back.”
He appears in Honolulu with Fransis Derelle, another up-and-coming music producer from Salt Lake City. It will be their first time performing together, though Yetep said the two have been communicating through SoundCloud, an online site for music producers.
Their trip here has already been a source of inspiration.
“We just talked about it, and we were like, ‘It would be nice to have a song together that we can actually perform together that’s about Hawaii,’” Yetep said. “We always meant to work together but we never had the chance to, so it seemed very fitting to do it in Hawaii.”
YETEP & FRIENDS
With special guest Fransis Derelle
>> Where: Hawaiian Brian’s
>> When: 9 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $10
>> Info: hawaiianbrians.com
