Jasper Sloan Yip

Following a great act isn’t always a fun task, but a crowd favourite like Jasper Sloan Yip made it look pretty damn easy. When Jasper took to the stage, the dancefloor was inundated. And let me tell you, this kid can play guitar. Oh – he can sing, too. He and his barefooted band played some groovy tunes that swayed from high tempo folk pop to quiet hymns and everywhere in between. While he could barely keep his glasses from falling off, JSY was definitely able to keep everyone’s attention and rocked his set with swagger and mostly an acoustic guitar, but played an electric for a few songs. A few more tunes with the electric would’ve been great, but maybe that’s just me..
- More Than A Feeling

Vancouver singer-songwriter Jasper Sloan Yip hadn't made it east of Chilliwack for a gig before Canadian Music Week. He, along with drummer Graham Serl, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Mark Brichon, pianist John Tanner and vocalist/violinist Stephanie Chatman hopped a flight for the weekend, and found themselves on stage at Kensington watering hole Bread & Circus, before a full room of eager listeners. Seated at tables and chairs, standing and leaning against the sides and back, smiles found on the faces of old friends, reunited family and simple strangers - I walked in mid-way through the first song to hear more from the man that a friend from the west coast insisted I see.

Jasper's songs are earnest pop. They evoke a lyrical space that reveals the character of a Pacific metropolis - openness and depth in the presence of looming mountains, dazzling glass, steel and unending surf. These are songs of yearning for rooted connection in the urban setting, sung by a heart that bleeds. Through up tempo shuffling rhythms, percussive guitar, bouncing bass, a $4 rented banjo, an old piano and vivid violin to lingering ballads sung solo, finger-picked perfectly, there was Jasper's tenor vibrato, at times a breathless [bronchitis tinged] whisper, at times a warbled cry, both the timbre of a soul having seen its share of hurt and celebrating it's return to joy.

The set ended and friends were made by the bar. The fraternity amongst bandmates extended to new fans. Drinks flowed, hands shaken, hugs exchanged. A girl in hipster glasses, worn and then tossed from the stage by Serl, a banker handing out his card while lining up shots, the revelation of Jasper's resemblance to the King of Thailand... the afterglow of a joyous performance.
- NXEW - Jay Blackwood

6 Song Session Podcast for CBC Radio 3 - CBC Radio 3

Jasper Sloan Yip released his debut back in 2007 under the stage name the Blenheim Street Project, and two days later embarked on a backpacking trip spanning ten months and three continents, before returning to his native Vancouver seemingly not exhausted enough to stop him putting together a band and giving voice to all the experiences and ideas spilling out of his head. Here’s the result! A record of smart and playful indie, wide eyed and possessed of plenty of wit.

Mr. Yip has a voice that manages some theatricality. He hits some vibrato-rich high notes, affects a whisper of urgency and significance, lets loose with gusto. His delivery is pretty effective but the listener gets the impression that he’s not doing it for any emphasis or impact, not doing it to enhance any artistic statement. I think the guy just really likes to sing.

‘Every Day and All at Once’ is a fun record of good intentions and better vibes. There are some of the archer affectations of Okkervil River but also plenty of the shambolic charm of the '80s college rock types translated into an often by-the-numbers modern indie mould. Yes, it’s a little generic. But it’s also good. ‘Transit’ speaks to Yip’s life on the road; it’s a driven restless anthem, roaming all over the landscape. ‘Athens’ is a more reserved affair, expressing a disaffected disgust, addressing a relationship for which the narrator no longer feels anything. ‘Back and Forth and To and Fro’ swaggers along in the face of its own bemusement at the sudden enormity of the world, held afloat by a lilting reggae rhythm part. With ‘Postcard’ he sends our way some likeable ukulele/banjo interplay and an infectious clapalong momentum.

Likeable and infectious are the key words here. Yip has some experience under his belt and it’s evident he’s probably got plenty to say but these aren’t the things that fuel his music. The guy just wants to have some fun.

Date review added: Saturday, July 24, 2010
Reviewer: Alex Cleary
Reviewers Rating: - Americana UK

All afternoon I was trying to come up with some way of describing Jasper Sloan Yip that didn't include Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz, John Mayer and The Mellow Show. After all, as much mainstream popularity as those artists have (and, to be honest, as much as I enjoy three of those four things), it seemed to me that invoking any of them would guarantee a fair number of readers would just instantly skip over the rest of the review, regardless of how glowing it might be -- not exactly a desirable outcome since, as far as I'm concerned, his newest album, Every Day and All at Once, deserves to be heard by a wide audience.

Around my fifth or sixth listen, though, I came to two realizations. First and foremost, I don't think it's possible to write about Yip and not mention Matthews/Mraz/Mayer. Just run through the list of things that define those artists, and every single one of them would apply to Yip. Jangly acoustic guitar? Check. Laidback vocals? Check. Light, breezy melodies? As songs like "Mistakes And Repeated Carelessness and "Oh My God" and "Athens" show, definitely a check.

The second realization? Who cares if people tune Yip out because he gets compared to the 3 Ms. It's their loss for being so closed-minded. Yip consistently demonstrates throughout Every Day and All At Once that he's got oodles of talent, and if he wants to use that talent to make catchy, slightly-insubstantial-but-ultimately-very-fun pop, then more power to him. It's something he does well, and I, for one, think it's awesome. - i(heart)music

Back in 2007, Vancouver singer-songwriter Jasper Sloan Yip built a stage in the backyard of his childhood home with his father and performed for the first time, until the police arrived. These days, Jasper has a dynamic and versatile band behind him, and their latest album "Every Day and All at Once" has been played on all three CBC Radio channels, including a live performance on Radio One. To learn more, check out Jasper's MySpace page. - Rabble

Kiddo performs at Little Mountain Gallery November 6 and every Monday of November at Falconetti’s, starting on November 9. For more information, please visit MySpace.com/JasperSloanYip.

Local indie folk/pop/rock act, Kiddo, is the latest brainchild of singer/songwriter Jasper Sloan Yip. “I released a record two years ago under the name The Blenheim Street Project,” Yip recently told The Peak, “and I went away for like a year and I came back and decided to play music.” Yip then hooked up with multi-instrumentalist Mark Brichon and they started playing together for a year or so before adding drummer Graham Serl into the mix. As Yip explained, “we literally jammed for a month and then in September we spent three weeks in the studio, and we just made a record and so now we go by the name Kiddo.” The forthcoming record, tentatively titled Every Day and All at Once, will hopefully be released by the end of December or, if not, sometime in the second half of February 2010. For the record, Kiddo has been working at Vertical Studios with local producer Tom Dobrzanski, known for his work with other local bands like Said the Whale, Hey Ocean!, and We are the City.

It’s always hard to succinctly sum up the sound of a band, but Yip said, “I’m a big Bright Eyes fan so I think there’s a lot of Bright Eyes all over it and someone said we kinda sound like Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, I kinda agree with that and then there’s also a little bit of Pedro the Lion.” He also explains that he is heavily influenced by different bands at different times, depending on who he is listening to at the moment, which can include anything from Bon Iver, Department of Eagles, old school hip hop, electronica, or other local artists like Erica Mah. This diverse range of influences makes Kiddo’s music hard to fit into a particular genre but they definitely have a certain pop sensibility.

When listening to their music, one is initially drawn in with their catchy hooks and melodies (I dare you to listen to the song “Transit” and get it out of your head) but, like most good music, deeper meanings and layers begin to expose themselves upon repeated listening. In particular, it is through the lyrics that one arrives at these different levels.

“I’m always thinking of lyrics,” Yip explained, “I think that’s my strongest thing, like I’m probably the least capable musician in the band as far as instrumentation goes, Graham’s really good and Mark’s been playing in bands his whole life, he plays everything.” Yip largely drew on his experiences of travelling for 10 months, preferring to draw on whatever was happening at the moment for inspiration. As he says, “I wrote half the songs while I was away. It’s cool cause I can listen to some of those songs and hear where I was . . . I can probably pinpoint what each line is referring to. I mean, I write about myself, I’m just very introspective . . . so yeah, it’s a record about me.”

During the recording process, they were lucky enough to be able to bring in other instruments like violins and French horns, as well as other guitarists. “It kinda sounds like we’re a sevenpiece band on a couple songs,” Yip pointed out, “but we’re just a trio.” Despite this, Kiddo prefers to add as much as possible to their live show. “We bring on whoever’s available, like we have a fiddler whenever she’s available. I mean, our live shows [are] actually always changing, partly because Mark plays so many different instruments that we like to try different arrangements on the songs and we always have different players.” In essence, the band doesn’t like to simply recreate the record in concert form. Instead, they like to “think of the record and live shows as really different things because they’re different platforms.”

“I didn’t try to make the record sound like we sound live because in both arenas you can do so much more,” Yip elaborated. “On the record you can do whatever you want but when you’re live you have that energy you can’t really get on a record. The point is the live show is always changing and I like to keep it spontaneous. I get bored easily.”

Ultimately, for Yip, it’s all about connecting with the fans. He hopes their music instils the same feeling in the audience that he gets from listening to his favourite artists. As he explained, “every now and then something awesome happens. I busked a lot this summer and one time in my hat I found a little note tied to a button that said ‘thanks a lot for that’ . . . you know, things like that are awesome. That’s what’s great about the way music is these days. I’ve got fans in this country or that country, just ‘cause of the Internet and they’ll send me a message saying ‘I like that,’ you know, every now and then it happens . . . and it’s nice.” - The Peak

The Labour Day weekend was the final excuse to party hard before going back to school, work or whatever mundane routine we are all apart of. It was to clearly mark that summer is now pretty much over. Besides that depressing thought, I had the privilege of making a trip out to Kitsilano to see some great local talent perform at St James Church. With its wooden pews, high ceilings and red velvet drapes, it seemed to be the perfect venue for a pre school party. Cheap wine included.

The main cause of my venture was to see Jasper Sloan Yip and his band perform new tracks from their new album. Previously known as The Blenheim Street Project and now going by his real name to prove that this time, he means business. Jasper took to the stage with his new band, Mark Brichan on bass, Graham Serl on drums and Stephanie Chatman on violin to prove that more instruments are the way to go.

With a new album currently being recorded, Jasper used this show as the perfect place to showcase the new tracks he has been working on for the past year. "Back and Forth and To and Fro" was luciously upbeat with reggae hints that reminded me of a long lost summer, "Mistakes and Repeated Carelessness" had a more grown up sound which was a little different from Jasper's folky sound from the past and his voice had much more depth and vibrance. "Transit" was the final song of the performance and the perfect one to show how comfortable Jasper is surrounded by his fellow band members. Everything sounded so much fuller and more complete compared to the simpler, acoustic performances I have seen before. A change that I am glad I finally got to witness and it excites me to see what's to come.
- Vancouver Observer