Yo Kinky

Ridegwood, Queens duo YO KINKY met at the start of 2020, bonding over shared musical interests, and immediately started working on songs together. Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, Laura Wight and Tom Unish self-produced and recorded their self-titled debut EP. This collection of songs addresses trust, communication, love, loneliness, freedom, identity, and expectation. The two-piece incorporates drum machines and buzzing, dissonant, squelching keyboards with guitars that alternately shimmer and shake with reverb and delay. Recorded and mixed by Unish, Wight handled the lyrics while Unish performed the instrumentation. Her bright vocals are delivered with a conversational precision that calls to mind acts like X, Sleaford Mods, and Blondie.

The lead single to YO KINKY’s debut EP, “Someone I Used to Know” expands the stereo image, with a wide wall of undulated guitars carrying Wight’s sweet and acerbic vocals, of a simultaneously interrogative and disengaged nature. While the lyrics may appear dark, Wight’s deep playfulness keeps things buoyant and seductive.

With the return of live shows in the upcoming months, YO KINKY anticipates playing local, nationwide and beyond.