boylife is 4life: A Deep-ish Dive Into the Elusive Artist's History
Updated: Oct 11, 2024
If you’re a listener of boylife, you’ll know that the LA-based singer-songwriter is a mirage—no matter how close you get, he remains just out of reach, continuously elusive and never materialising into something truly tangible. It is this enigmatic aura that surrounds the artist—otherwise known as Ryan Yoo—that endlessly intrigues his nascent yet loyal audience. Luckily for you, I’ve taken the time to compile a short chronicle of Yoo’s musical journey! I learned a lot through researching for this article, so I hope to introduce you to new facets of Yoo’s musical prowess as well.
Yoo’s first documented step into music was through collaboration-turned-band Common Souls, a duo he created with UCLA friend Nick Velez (who would go on to help him with his future work). The pair’s first act manifested as an EP called “Pyramid Lake,” released in December 2018. Before releasing the EP, Velez and Yoo were initially planning on releasing a couple dance/electronic tracks—after listening to it myself, I could definitely hear the influence of the instrumentals from the genres bleeding into the composition of the EP. Here, you can experience Yoo's vulnerable vocals taking centre stage in the duo's first professional recording, showcasing his commanding presence as the main vocalist. Working alongside him, Velez’s musicality is incredible, which explains why he has played a large role in many of Yoo’s releases following Common Souls. My personal favourite track from them is either “Cocoa,” a mesmerising soundscape that mimics an ocean floor kind of peace, or “Jasmine,” their most popular release and a sun-soaked ballad reminiscent of the works of Dijon and Daniel Caesar.
His next adventure was with group mmmonika, an indie-pop boy band he formed with other LA natives John DeBold (bass), Gabe Durastanti (guitar), Grant Milliken (keyboard), and Nick Velez (drums)—Yoo served as the group’s lead vocalist. Stolen from their bandcamp bio:
“mmmonika was born in los angeles after a dark and stormy night... four white boys and an asian kid came together like voltron and started singing happy sounding nonsense about being depressed and anxious and 35 years later here we are” (bandcamp)
ammonia’s first official release was in May 2019 with the breezy, nonchalant track “see me on the outside!”—probably one of my favourite songs from the group.
With mmmonika, Yoo experimented more with his vocal style, moving into a mixture of electro-pop and grimy rock (think Dominic Fike). This experimentation would serve him well later on with his solo work, where he has been praised for his polychromatic sound. Mmmonika’s most recent song, “kerosene” was released in July 2020—if you like energetic, stripped-down garage rock, then this is definitely the song for you.
Unfortunately, the band hasn’t worked on anything since then, but if you check out their Instagram you can see hordes of loyal fans begging for more. If you’d like to know more about the band, here’s an interview I found that explores how the group got together!
While he was working with others, whether it was Common Souls or mmmonika, Yoo continuously worked on his own music. His debut album gelato under the moniker ‘boylife’ was released in October 2021, but Yoo was developing songs for the album as early as 2016 (more info in this interview) along with Nick Velez. A startling self-portrait that serves as a stark contrast to the private artist, gelato was inspired by Yoo’s experiences with bipolar disorder, depression, and the prejudice he faced as an Asian-American in Los Angeles—particularly the disparity between the ideals of masculinity in American and Korean cultures. Yoo explores many deeply personal topics in gelato, speaking on his interactions with the church and his relationship with his parents, who are first-generation immigrants from Korea. As a child of immigrants myself, Yoo’s song “peas” hits home—he strikes a perfect balance between an uncomfortable probe into things left unsaid and a heartwarming portrait of other ways we are shown love.
Yoo also shifts into yet another genre on gelato, drifting along the smooth waves of R&B and easy listening on tracks like “dio” and “lush”, with some homages to his grungier days on “church” and “bummy.” As I’ve researched Yoo’s musical history, I’ve come to appreciate the album much more for the gruelling process that led up to it. Yoo is constantly morphing and improving into a better artist every year, and from what I’ve seen, he won’t be burning out any time soon.
Keep up with boylife on Instagram :-) And after you go through his discography, drop me a message with which one of his projects has been your favourite so far!!
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