What do you get when you put four friends in a band who are all more than happy to play the music they love and are enjoying the ride while making countless jokes along the way? You get Yohafu.
University of Rhode Island students Tim Doherty and Joe Tudino founded Yohafu in November of 2015. Since their formation, they gained the other two members of the band, Stephen Smith and Steve Anderson. Doherty and Tudino first met in a meeting at the Musician’s Guild office.
“I told a really bad joke and he rolled his eyes at me,” Doherty said with a laugh. “I thought this is someone I could be friends with.” The two started to jam together, both testing each other’s musical limits, such as Tudino giving Doherty a Led Zeppelin song to sing. “I proved him wrong every time,” Doherty said.
Originally, the band consisted of Doherty, Tudino and their first drummer. Anderson joined in as bassist not too long after. However, things did not work out with their first drummer and Anderson soon took over on drums. When the band needed a fill-in on short notice, Smith jumped in with them.
“I liked playing with them,” Smith said. “They needed to fill the role so it worked out for both of us.”
“I was personally thinking that if we’re going to get someone to fill in for the parts, it might as well be someone who’s better at bass than I am,” Anderson joked. The members had known each other through Strike a Chord, a recognized URI student organization that started at Chariho High School and came to URI.
Each member brings their own playing styles as well as influences to Yohafu. Smith is jazz oriented while Doherty likes folk rock/punk. Anderson has his love for old school punk and Tudino is the blues rocker. While they all have their own influences, they do their best to meld the styles together.
“The finished product I’m not really sure how to put a genre on it,” Anderson said, while Smith added in that it’s pretty brash blues.
“[It’s a] big sound always, no matter what it is,” Smith said. While Yohafu does play covers, they also write their own songs. Smith said that their goal is to mark themselves as an original band, so when they play shows they have more original music than covers.
Doherty explained that he is happy to be in Yohafu for many reasons, one of them being that they support and back song ideas.
“My music taste, [it] tends to be like crazy people that are given microphones like David Bowie and Freddy Mercury,” he said. “It was nice to find three gentleman that were fine with my idiosyncrasy.”
Doherty added that the songs he writes deal with issues that were once very sensitive to him.
“I don’t exactly dress and act like a typical guy does so a lot of my songs are about coming to terms with gender roles don’t really apply to me,” he said. “Sometimes that can be a more introspective song about oh god, how do I go on with everyone being as judgey as they are.” Doherty also said that he is happy to be with musicians that not only support his message but tend to agree with his message.
The band is working on music and doesn’t have any shows currently lined up. They have only played a handful of shows, including the 193 Coffee House Battle of the Bands and a performance at the Wheel House. Doherty described the opportunity to play the Wheel House as surreal.
“Over a year ago I was sitting there holding a Guinness hoping I could be on a stage one day and then I was on that stage with two Guinness’s and a mouth full of music,” Doherty said. While Yohafu doesn’t currently have any shows on the horizon, they would all be happy to play any show that would have them.
“Doesn’t matter where or what show, as long as people are enjoying themselves, that’s the end game,” Anderson said.
To keep updated on what the band has planned for their future, you can check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/yohafutheband.