Giraffage

Charlie Yin, professionally known as Giraffage, is an American electronic music record producer. Of Taiwanese descent, Yin grew up in San Jose, California, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Political Economics.^[1] He subsequently pursued his musical career, regularly performing as Giraffage at San Francisco Bay Area venues and around the world, independently and with other artists. Yin has collaborated with other electronic music producers, including Porter Robinson.

Giraffage has produced numerous remixes of pop and R&B tracks and several EPs, including No Reason, released on November 18, 2014.^[2] He has produced three full-length studio albums: Comfort in 2011; Needs in 2013; and Too Real, released on October 20, 2017. In 2021, he debuted his collaborative project Bodysync with Canadian DJ Ryan Hemsworth.^[3]

Career

Yin started releasing music in 2011 with his debut EP Pretty Things.^[4] Later that same year, he followed it up with his first full length album, Comfort.^[5] His first few releases were sample-heavy, taking inspiration in late-2000s chillwave artists like Toro y Moi and Washed Out.^[6]

In 2012, he went on a 30-date European tour^[7] with Orlando producer XXYYXX after releasing the shared EP Even Though.^[8] Shortly afterwards, Giraffage signed to Alpha Pup Records in early 2013 and released his second album Needs.^[9]

Giraffage performed as the main support during Porter Robinson's "Worlds" tour of North America from August 28 to October 18, 2014. In November of that year he released the No Reason EP through Fool's Gold Records ,claiming it was written sample free.^[10] No Reason garnered acclaim from blogs like Pitchfork, XLR8R, and The FADER,^[11][12] who described the project as "bedroom dream-pop"^[13] with "the lushest of synthesizers."^[14]

In 2017, Giraffage signed to Counter Records (a label within the Ninja Tune family which is also home to ODESZA, RAC, Daktyl, Conner Youngblood, Laurel, etc.) for his third full-length album release, No Reason. The album launched with first single "Slowly" ft. Matosic and was officially released on October 20, 2017, worldwide. On Too Real, Yin tapped indie artists, like Japanese Breakfast, to collaborate on the album, blending electronic, synth, and whimsical melodies.^[15]

Yin has played venues and festivals worldwide, including Boiler Room,^[16] Coachella,^[17] Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival,^[18] Decibel Festival,^[19] and toured North America in support of his Too Real album.

Previous projects

Prior to Giraffage, Yin produced chiptune music under the moniker "Robot Science"^[20] in 2009 with the debut EP Doodads.^[21] He followed this up with Square in 2010^[22] and Good Luck in 2011.^[23]

Discography

LPs

• Comfort (2011)
• Needs (2013)
• Too Real (2017)

EPs

• Pretty Things (2011)
• No Reason (2014)

Singles

• Even Though (with XXYYXX) (2012)
• Move Me (with Jhameel and DWNTWN) (2013)
• Impression of You (with Viceroy and Patrick Baker) (2015)
• Bring Me Your Love (2016)

Remixes

(*The R. Kelly remix was later reworked into an original track entitled "Be With You" and included on the No Reason EP.)

References

External links

• Official website