There’s a quiet conviction in the way Jyou talks about music like every track is more than just production and melody, it’s a timestamp. When he put together his SoundSubterra Sessions playlist, he wasn’t just curating vibes; he was archiving a chapter in his own life.
At 24, on the edge of turning 25, he found himself in that subtle but seismic shift where priorities start to realign. “I think that realization clicked about what’s really important and what makes a life have value,” he says. “That’s falling in love with something or someone, and having that complete passion for it or them.”
The playlist is steeped in that energy songs where the lyrics and sonics are equally soaked in feeling. Each track isn’t just about what it says, but how it moves.
Jyou’s musical DNA pulls from unlikely but deeply connected places: the soul and call-and-response energy of church, the syncopated pocket of funk, and the freeform textures of alternative hip-hop. “Am I Wrong” by Anderson .Paak, “I Think” by Tyler, The Creator, and “Treat Her Like A Lady” by The Temptations are three of the playlist’s anchors.
These songs all share a groove-first magnetism rhythms that make your shoulders shift before you’ve even caught the first lyric. But it’s the passion behind the words that made them stick for Jyou. “They felt like an ode to a lover,” he says. “The groove pulled me in, the lyrics kept me there.”
Nashville’s alt-rap scene is in an accelerated growth phase, and Jyou’s been both student and architect in that process. This playlist mirrors his position in that community collaborator, listener, and amplifier. “I had to add some of the talent around the scene that’s super inspiring,” he says. “I draw inspiration from anywhere, and I’m lucky to be part of such a huge, talented community here.”
That cross-pollination between peers, genres, and scenes keeps his work in constant motion, and his playlist feels like a snapshot of those creative conversations happening in real time. While curating, one track in particular reminded Jyou exactly why he makes music. Asiatica’s When We Were EP from 2023 hit with quiet precision. “Every song really made me feel seen sonically,” he says. “It’s so indie and simplistic her soft vocals over light guitar strums and smooth drums. Speaking on niche topics that might seem irrelevant when you think about your full 24, but that doesn’t mean that feeling wasn’t strong when you felt it. It’s a reminder that great music often lives in the details a fleeting emotion, a moment that could be overlooked but instead gets immortalized.
Fallin one of his own standout moments treads the fine line between vulnerability and composure. “I’m a huge fan of songs with juxtaposition,” he says. “Tracks that talk about heavy topics but are upbeat. Like ‘Hey Ya’ by Outkast. I think there’s beauty in pain, and I always like to present it like that in my music.” That ethos runs through the playlist. Even when the subject matter turns heavy, there’s movement, rhythm, and life in the arrangements. The tension between the two is what keeps it human.
Asked what title he’d give the playlist if it wasn’t simply under his own name, Jyou pauses. “Maybe something about feeling?” he offers. “The commonality in all these songs is that they make you feel something—whether it’s love, or you feel the need to dance, or cry. It’s all feelings the music brings out of you.” If you walk in blind, no liner notes, no artist bio, Jyou hopes the arc of the playlist still lands. “Like you’ve just gone through an actual relationship,” he says. “The emotions, the highs and lows, the sensation of wanting to interact with the person these songs are drawing you towards. In this upcoming EP, I’m taking people along that emotional rollercoaster.”
Episode 2 of SoundSubterra Sessions isn’t just a playlist it’s a guided tour through the inner corridors of Jyou’s recent years. It’s church pews and basement shows, funk grooves and whispered confessions, Nashville cyphers and indie heartbreak. And like the best rollercoasters, when it’s over, you just might want to line up and go again.
