Misty Mountain by Sophia Yau-Weeks

Sophia Yau-Weeks’ musical journey began at the age of four, studying as a classical violinist. Regimented training and the pressures of high performance catalyzed a fraught relationship with music. As she grew older, this anxiety intensified due to familial pressure to succeed. Music was part of a means to an end – acceptance into a top university and, subsequently, a professional career as doctor, lawyer, or something of the sort.

Anxiety and depression followed her to college, where she became burnt out and detached from the idea of a career-driven future. In 2020, her third year of university, the pandemic hit. With the rest of the world, Yau-Weeks hunkered down. As lockdown stretched on, her growing feelings of isolation and grief needed an outlet. So, she picked up her acoustic guitar (which was previously reserved for learning covers) and decided to write a song of her own. Then she wrote another. And another. Slowly, surely, her relationship with music poetically shifted from anxiety-inducing to a way of processing her emotions. It transformed into an avenue for creative expression, a tool to understand and interpret the world around her, and her personal experiences.

At 24, guitar in tow, Yau-Weeks moved to London. In the two years that she lived there, songs continued to flow and unfold. She recorded them–deliberately, patiently–as voice memos from her bedroom. Now 27 and back in her hometown of Oakland, CA, Yau-Weeks is releasing her debut record, Misty Mountain. This vulnerable body of work is rooted in slowness and introspection.

Most of the LP was written between daytime nannying shifts and evening gigs across London’s independent venues like the George Tavern and Windmill Brixton. At a time when she was finding her footing in the local music scene, Yau-Weeks became immunocompromised from a COVID infection. This led to a period of great isolation and grief, giving the album its reflective, melancholic, and tender sound.

Misty Mountain was recorded to tape at Tiny Telephone Oakland with co-producer Maryam Qudus (Alanis Morissette, SASAMI, SPELLLING, Gracie Abrams). It was engineered and mixed by Qudus and mastered by Heba Kadry. Embracing organic artistic expression and collaboration, the album explores themes of love and relationships, grief and trauma, and resilience and collectivism, while drawing sonic inspiration from the likes of Nick Drake and Big Thief. Yau-Weeks’ desire to record analog was not only about the sonic warmth it would offer, but also an attempt to embrace slowness and imperfection, a rejection of the productiveness and perfectionism instilled in her at a young age. Yau-Weeks shared, “The process of recording this album was an act of unlearning and relearning. The limitations of tape forced us to trust our intuition when making musical choices and also welcome the singularity of each take. I think the record reflects a growing confidence in my musicality.”

The record is filled with emotional honesty, a product of Yau-Weeks’ deep introspection. Album opener and title track “Misty Mountain” emerges with field recordings of birdsongs alongside atmospheric guitar licks, transporting you to a foggy peak. The song is a metaphor reflecting upon Yau-Weeks’ experiences with mental health conditions while in relationship with someone grounding and present. In “Nobody’s Laughing,” Yau-Weeks spends her 26th birthday in solitude and writes of the social isolation experienced as an immunocompromised person wondering, “Who am I when I’m alone?” Over the finger picking of a Nashville guitar, Yau-Weeks recalls the trauma of CSA in “Sylvia’s House” where “worms are out on the asphalt / last night it rained / again.” In “Spellbound” Yau-Weeks sings over a resonant open guitar tuning accompanied by a captivating 3-part string arrangement, and contemplates the interconnectedness of all living things expressing, “all together / we’ll keep going ‘round / all together / from birth into the ground.” The record concludes with stripped back “Kristine,” a tender song written after the death of her Godmother. Yau-Weeks voices, “giving / like the sun / shared your rays with everyone.”

Wistful and inquisitive, Misty Mountain is an intimate look into Yau-Weeks’ internal world as she processes the past, reflects upon the present, and anticipates the future. It is a thoughtful amalgamation of her experiences commenting on what it means to be alone in the world while in communion with others. With candid lyricism and a timeless indie-folk sound, Misty Mountain is a debut surely worth the listen.

Sophia Yau-Weeks is a singer-songwriter based in Oakland, CA. Now back in her hometown after a two-year-stint living in London, Yau-Weeks is releasing her debut record, Misty Mountain. This vulnerable body of work, which was recorded to tape at Tiny Telephone Oakland, is rooted in slowness and introspection. The album was co-produced with Maryam Qudus (SPELLLING, Gracie Abrams, Alanis Morissette).

sophiayauweeks.com