Indie Pop & Rnb artist Yutao never felt at ease in China where he was born—he always longed for ideals he felt were embodied by Western culture. When he finally came to the States, he tried to stay true to his tradition, and infused his native Eastern culture with Western culture. Slowly, the pair of seemingly very different ideals melded into a personal outlook for Yutao reflected in his delicately gorgeous, electro-pop. The California-based artist now invites us into his self-curated universe through a series of singles; one out every twomonths, starting with the dreamy “Sensation.”

“I live and create in a limbo state. Both Eastern and Western perspectives have shaped me, and, while I see the value in both outlooks, I feel a dissonance inside. If I draw a circle between East and West, I live in the center, but, through creating music, I have found a home,” Yutao shares. 

Yutao’s songs are emotive but elusive, with lyrics that explore frustration, lost love, identity, wanting to belong, and music that is delicately dense with lush ambience and airy melodies. His aesthetic evokes alternative electro-pop artist keishi, and the vibrant scene of young Asian musicians around the 88rising record label. 

Yutao felt music in his body before he created it. He came up as a break-dancer but was sidelined for two years after an injury. Upon healing, he realized his moves weren’t as on-point as they were before the injury, and he longed for a fresh creative outlet. During this time, he started hearing and feeling hip-hop, R&B, and EDM in a new way. “The rhythms of this music gave me a rush—like the same sensation I had when I first started breakdancing,” he says. 

From there, Yutao started to research how artists make and produce music, and he began making hip-hop. Yet, this route didn’t quench Yutao’s thirst to create. He looks at music as sound design, so, he had to dig deeper. Yutao started studying music theory to bring to life the rhythmic and richly textured music he heard in his head. “Everything comes from my head and my heart first,” he confirms. “Then I put the story, the lyrics, and the instrumentation together.”

Yutao left China over a decade ago to come West as an international student. Since then, he has spent his adult life in the United States, soaking up American culture. “I still feel a disconnect, and, when I go back to China, I also feel out of sorts. There is this ambiguity I live in, but I feel at home creating my music,” he says. 

The opening salvo in Yutao’s release series is the single, “Sensation,” which is rich with airy vocals, fragile sheets of textured ambience, a chill groove, and infectious melodies and sub-melodies swimming all about. The song oozes that butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling of first-encounter romance. “It does capture the fireworks of early romance, but there is also this narrative that it might not last—that the time together will be short, just like the length of the song,” Yutao shares. 

At last, Yutao has come home, and he has found an Eastern-Western life perspective bridge. “I’ve been envisioning a world with no boundaries, and I’ve found that within my music,” he says. He continues: “Through my journey, I’ve grown to respect and understand where my parents are coming from while also enjoying my independence, and pursuing what I am passionate about.”