Luke Yansick of Los Angeles: The “Next Big Thing” Named By K. Magazine

Luke Yansick, born and raised in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, recently released his first EP titled Stripes on the first of this month. His work is directly comparable to that of Still Woozy’s album Loveseat, yet less polished creating an alternative, indie-rock sound. He has a spark behind his motivation that easily captures the listener's attention – whether this be through his songs or his story. Luke’s album captures the essence of his life from last year, and putting it out to the world fuels his manifestations for the new beginnings of 2025.

Love At First Listen

“Growing up we always had music in the house,” Luke says when remembering what it was like being raised by his father, who was a drummer in a band. “He showed me great music… and it definitely sparked my initial love for music,” he adds. Additionally, he didn’t have a traditional upbringing – he wasn’t raised on sports. “My parents kind of offered me music instead,” he says when remembering what it was like growing up in a very religious household. He felt he was different from other kids his age, which led him to invest more of his time into hobbies that promote individuality – an escape from the thought of being like everyone else. “I had hobbies of surfing, skating, playing instruments, and ultimately recording music, all of which you could all do on your own. I found it all so inspiring and they all funneled into each other,” Luke says when speaking on what entertained him growing up.

After taking guitar lessons in elementary school, developing a music taste of his own on his middle school iPod, and learning songs by the famous Beatles, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan, Luke decided he wanted to start songwriting. “I played at little talent shows in school when I was a kid,” he adds. “Twenty-One Pilots was a huge inspiration for me. I used to learn and cover their songs all the time in middle school. I was a massive Twenty-One Pilots geek before I got into indie music and more alternative bands.”

“Indie and alternative rock artists like Tame Impala, Mac DeMarco, Hers, etc. were deeply inspiring to me. Not only was their music mind blowing with its creativity and almost ungraspable talent, but it also showed that creating something meaningful on my own was within reach,” Luke says. But it wasn’t until he got his first laptop in highschool when he started composing music and posting his work on SoundCloud. “I always thought I could make music, but I didn’t know what I was doing and I felt I lacked a little bit of confidence,” he says. In a beautiful way, not knowing what he was doing was the best part of his origin story. “I just messed around till I found out.”

Every musician has their realization moment when it “clicks” that they want to spend the rest of their lives immersed in the industry, but for Luke, it almost happened backwards – he found his calling when he was already on stage.

It started with Andrew Naranjo, who Luke met at his first job and formed a bond with over skating, surfing, and songwriting – they spent their time together collaborating creatively. “He introduced me to a lot of cool people. One of them being Ethan Estrada… They already had a past of writing and recording music together, It was all so inspiring…. Now they are some of my best friends.” Luke says. In the heat of the summer in 2023 came new beginnings, which was the startup of Andrew and Ethan’s band Mosaic Coyote, and this era would play a crucial part in Luke’s growth as a musician. When their mutual friend, Katya Jane – who recently had launched a production company, Velvet Red Productions – reached out to the newly found band to put on a show, in which they complied. Luke remembers coming into the picture at this point in the story and says, “They needed a drummer, and knew I could mess around on drums and had some of my own.” He had the opportunity to debut his old songs he had made back in highschool, and showcase his drumming skills according to Mosaic Coyote’s setlist. 

What began as a casual night followed by friendly peer pressure to get on stage, sparked something for Luke. He was curious about incorporating live drums more when creating his own music. He had never had the push to set him up to explore this until now, and diving deeper into music production was supported by this confidence boost. It was then that Luke decided it was time to “start pointing mics at the kit (his drum set)” and mentions, “Maybe if I had never played that show, I’d still be in school, thinking I could make music but lacking the validation to believe in it.”

A Year In-The-Making

Without external motivating forces waking him up everyday telling him to keep pursuing music, Luke made the choice to spend all of 2024 working towards his passion to become a self-produced musician. He was working and studying for the first half of the year, and craved normalcy in his early adult life, which led him to attending community college from an obligatory feeling. But Luke found his mind elsewhere most of the time there, and decided to make the full dive into creating music. “I need to record music because it’s the only thing that’s for me,” Luke says, alluding to the fact that he needed an escape from school. He continued the grind outside of the classroom, working multiple jobs and recording everyday. And his writing process? It was as organic as any music listener could imagine – he started writing about what was happening in his life at the time.

Stripes: The Album Breakdown

Luke tackled the project in a unique way and started writing quieter songs made for an acoustic guitar, then eventually switched to surrounding the music around the drums. This style is the ultimate testament to the components that are so deeply rooted in his upbringing and inspiration from the start of his journey, which was his father’s musical influence (a note from the writer: this aspect of his story is arguably one of the most beautiful parts because of his career foundation staying true, even as his platform begins to grow as a creative). “It was a pretty random process, I didn’t have much rhyme or rhythm,” Luke says when reminiscing on this stage. By the end of his album, he had a process for writing down to a ritual and knocked out his last song quickly which, ironically, is titled I Don’t Even Really Know. His writing style and instrument compliments of choice for his first album helped him learn more about what future projects could look like. “I've been just trying to produce as much as I can nowadays, and in the back of my head I know that I want people to jump around more at shows. That's the direction I’ve been leaning towards when I’m writing,” Luke says.

Rare, untouched, and miraculous are all things you can say about a four leaf clover or the perfect seashell on the shore, but in this case, we’re talking about self-produced singer/songwriters in 2025 – the equivalent of Luke Yansick. “I recorded everything in this room (his parent’s basement), by myself,” he says. This album was intended to stand alone as its own project from the start. Luke mentions how great his friends’ support was behind-the-scenes. Between Adam Henderson helping perfect the final mixes and masters, and David Kohn doing the same for Stripes’ most played piece titled “Delusion Of You Intro”, Luke feels his friends played a significant part in “taking the mixes to another level,” he mentions. He extends his gratitude for having talented friends that he met through music, which adds to the supportive environment of mutual love. 

Now that Stripes has made its way into the headphones of more than 1,300 monthly listeners on Spotify, he wants to explore the opportunity to connect with others over a shared project. “After this project, I'm excited to collaborate more. I need to get out of the basement and touch the grass. I think I can learn a lot more from others.”

The untold story about the Stripes cover art: Luke was photographed by the one and only, Andrew Naranjo, and the visual edits and promotional videos were designed by Luke himself (courtesy of a friend’s Adobe Suite login).

What’s In The Queue?

“I feel like I’m just always going to make music… I’m definitely going to come up with something again soon,” Luke says, and adds that he is looking to reinvent his persona as a musician. With that being said, he is craving new opportunities to learn and meet more people in the industry. Luke intends spending his near future writing (and hasn’t stopped since the release of his EP) and playing drums for the band Mosaic Coyote (so keep an eye out for them). This opportunity has been a huge benefit for him as he gets to play unreleased songs occasionally, getting a taste of a different side of the industry – this is always helpful despite what role a creative person serves for their personal work. Luke’s biggest goal for 2025 is to spend more of his time expanding his discography this year. “It’s been really fun playing shows and meeting people… LA is such a good melting pot of people,” he says.

“I just really want to play shows, that’s all I really want to do,” Luke shares. “I still feel like such a beginner. Drums, producing, playing shows. But I’m having the best time doing all of it. I wouldn't change a thing about it.” He offers a refreshing take – he cares less about being seen as a famous rockstar, and cares more about being seen as someone who’s doing what they love. For him, he relishes playing live and knows this based on his experience on stage as a drummer, as well as a fan in the audience “I just saw Cage The Elephant not too long ago… the way the crowd jumps is just so sick,” Luke recalls, and mentions how he already craves this energy at his future shows someday (another note from the writer: I personally relate his style of writing to ROLE MODEL’s new album). His songs have minds of their own, and he especially appreciates the art of letting the pieces write themselves. “I don't want to put it (his musical genre) in a box and not let it branch out in the way it wants to. I'm kind of just going with the flow, while still pushing myself to create as much as possible, as well as learn and gain new experiences,” Luke states. “I'm excited to just keep working at it. I want to, and am going to keep sharpening my craft.”

“I feel so blessed for the band I play in, the people that surround me, the things that inspire me, and how close I am to some really talented people,” he says when recalling where he’s been and where he’s going in his career, as well as what has come out of playing and releasing music. Luke Yansick’s songwriting is inherently valuable to him, and he is definitely an artist that the indie music community should be watching out for – he is on track to become very successful in the music industry!

xoxo, Mia Linder, Creative Projects Coordinator