Local rock trio Yeobo's debut album blends world music and electric songwriting

Yeobo is an instrumental rock trio that features members from around the Central Coast. I first met them when they came by the KUZU Studios in 2024 to perform their single "Danny's Walk." The trio will be releasing their debut album "Keeping Score" on Valentine's Day. Yeobo came by the new KAZU Studios recently, and lead guitarist Kee Hyon Higgins explained what the album title "Keeping Score" is all about:

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

"It's a reference to a book called "The Body Keeps the Score." It's a book that was given to me by a friend. You know, I think we all have our own stuff in life. And reading it, I was like, well, this is kind of profound. And there's a song I was working on with Jenn [Robey]. And I was like, 'let's just call it "Keeping Score." And she said 'that's the name of the album!'

That was [about] a year ago. And that theme stuck with all of us as far as how the album should look, as well as the tone or the texture of the album."

Valentin Pavageau

Click the audio player at the top of this story to listen to the interview or read the highlights below.

Kee Hyon Higgins on where the band's name Yeobo comes from:

"It's a Korean word for 'honey,' for 'partner,' for 'lover.' That's pretty much the idea of it. [In our previous interview, Higgins explained that it was a word that he heard his grandparents say to one another when he was growing up.]

Kee Hyon Higgins on the song "Vice," the lead single off of "Keeping Score":

"There's a lot of genres that we like to pull from and like to explore and kind of just see where it goes. Sometimes you reference the '70s and '60s and stuff. So 'Vice' is kind of a place where all these things kind of converge together. Guitars to drums to rhythm and kind of like, all right, let's just see what happens.

Jenn Robey on filming the video for "Vice:"

Jenn Robey: "Well, I've been very inspired by the ocean recently, especially since I just started working at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We also partner with artists. One of my close collaborators, Erika Staud, is a diver and she does a lot of our videos. So she did all the photography and got us all the underwater footage. And that is actually a local diver in Monterey. We feature a number of sea creatures in the video."

Kee Hyon Higgins on releasing their debut album Keeping Score on Valentine's Day:

"Obviously, the theme of Valentine's Day [goes] with the name of the band, Yeobo. It seemed kind of fitting to bring that together as far as the name is about partners. Maybe you have a partner or don't have a partner, but it should be, I think, a day for like, "hey, listen to our music!"

Dylan Music

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KAZU

Yeobo's debut album "Keeping Score" will be released this Saturday, Valentine's Day.