Some songs take the long way home. “picking at grass,” the lead single from Yasu Cub‘s debut album spiral arms, spent over a decade marinating before it finally found its legs. And man, was it worth the wait.
The Tokyo-based duo—Jacob Oki Ahearn and Rory Hoffmeister—first sketched this thing out back in 2012 during their college days at Lewis & Clark in Portland. You can hear that Pacific Northwest indie dirt in the DNA, mixed with the late-night hum of Tokyo, where the album eventually came together. But the song sat dormant for years, just a scrappy demo gathering digital dust, until something clicked.
In March 2025, the duo hauled themselves to Turning Reel Sound on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with Rory in the producer’s chair. And here’s where it gets wild: through some family connections, they ended up knee-deep in stories from the late-’80s Seattle scene. Even kicked it with Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden. Jacob got hooked on Mother Love Bone’s “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns” around that time, and you can feel that emotional grandeur seeping into the final take of “picking at grass.” Not in a copycat way—more like the ghost of old Seattle rock whispering in their ears.
The track itself moves slow and patient, like somebody who’s learned to sit with pain instead of running from it. But there’s voltage underneath. Jacob woke up one morning mid-session with a bassline in his head, and that thing anchors the whole song with new weight. Rory brought in piano, adding this warm glow, and then Ilia Kanuhin—guitarist for Moscow dream-pop band Kosmos na potolke—layered in this shimmering lead that ties it all together. Suddenly it’s not just a duo anymore. It’s a moment.
Lyrically, the song orbits this image of “seeing deer across the water,” which came from a late-night marsh encounter back in Georgia. That’s the whole vibe of spiral arms really—finding the universe in the small stuff.
“picking at grass“ is the kind of track that rewards headphones and late nights. Try it. Let it settle under your skin.