Keath Ósk Steps Away From the Throne: A Solo Voice Emerges Beyond Yaelokre's Fantasy World
With debut album "Foreword," Yaelokre's creator Keath Ósk trades the fantasy folk of Meadowlark—built over two years—for jazz brass and a deeper register, claiming space that's entirely their own.
In the music video for "And The Hound," Keath Ósk plays both roles in an argument over a chair. One character sits calmly and sings, while the other jumps around and dodges, eventually being forced to sit down and bursting into tears. Ósk has used this performance to explain the tension between themselves and their on-camera image—the chair represents "the self that gets pinned down," and the whole project is meant to prove they were never actually trapped there.
This Filipino-American musician, who has an Icelandic adoptive father, began releasing music under the name Yaelokre two years ago and quickly blew up on TikTok, earning a spot on the NME 100. Using a guitalele, they built out an entire fantasy universe called Meadowlark, rooted in journals and illustrations from their childhood and teenage years: four masked children moving through the fleeing antelope of "Hartebeest," the adventures of a young rabbit and goat in "Kid & Leveret," and a half-human, half-rabbit mother burying her children in "Harpy Hare"—with lyrics mostly maintaining a Renaissance-style classical rhyme scheme. "Harpy Hare" is Yaelokre's most-streamed track on Spotify, with 242 million plays. The music video draws on the Filipino childhood clapping game "Nanay Tatay," which many overseas fans have since started playing together at live shows.
Ósk describes the music they made during that period as having "no pressure, no plan"—as natural as posting something on Facebook. They originally dreamed of becoming a teacher or a children's book illustrator; songwriting turned out to be an unexpected detour. They first sang at a Philippine "Language Week" event at age three, and later learned mixing and recording techniques through former producer and Yaelokre bassist JD Santos, who's also a member of the Filipino indie band Medyo Maybe.
The Voice That Stepped Out of Meadowlark
Released under Keath Ósk's real name, the debut solo album "Foreword" features re-recorded versions of eleven Yaelokre songs, plus a cover of a Bonnie Tyler track. The project was originally meant to be a stripped-down, vocals-and-guitar affair, but Ósk changed their mind during recording and brought in South London producer Jack Hardman (aka Good Dog) to add trumpet, trombone, and soft keyboard arrangements, giving the whole album a tint of jazz, American roots music, and hip-hop. "I thought it was just going to be me singing quietly in my bedroom, but the more I listened, the more I felt boxed in by that rule," Ósk says. "What I actually wanted was brass, a party, a story."
The vocal shift is just as striking—they describe swapping out Yaelokre's bright, elf-like tone for a much lower register. Ósk admits plenty of listeners might assume they're "just a folk singer with a soft voice who can't hit high notes and can't handle mature subject matter," but this album is meant to prove "I'm more than that." They compare the Keath Ósk persona to blue cheese—a smell that takes time to get used to.
Two Projects, Two Audiences
Ósk still considers Yaelokre their "main project," with "Foreword" serving as a deliberate step away—future work will gradually move further from the Meadowlark universe. Here's how they draw the line between the two: the music made in 2024 was "entirely for myself," a way to let the characters and story grow. But once that work goes public, Yaelokre becomes a space that belongs to its fan community—people write fan fiction, and others have shown up to sold-out shows dressed as Meadowlark characters. That devotion brings warmth, but also headaches; Ósk has publicly asked fans not to sexualize the characters. As for Keath Ósk, they describe it as "a little corner where I can write a sad song when I'm sad"—one that belongs only to them.
The Yaelokre world tour kicked off in Belgium on October 7 and will run through venues across Europe and North America over the next three months, which Ósk describes as a "grand and over-the-top" production. If a solo Keath Ósk tour ever happens, the venues will be smaller, and they'll ditch the Yaelokre stage getup in favor of their everyday clothes. "Foreword" is now out via Atlantic Records.
