"It's guitar music, but it's for everyone"

Yvette Young is one of the most original guitarists on the planet - combining innovation with accessibility in a new Covet album. But she admits: "I've always felt like an outsider to the guitar world..."

- By Jenna Scaramanga

It’s a familiar story: the Californian child of immigrant parents turns guitar playing upside down with a radical approach to two-handed tapping. Yvette Young’s music is nothing like Edward Van Halen’s, but her story is similar. Self-taught on guitar after a background in classical music, they both found their own idiosyncratic approaches by fearlessly chasing the sounds in their heads.

Like Van Halen, Yvette Young’s technical wizardry is disguised by an emphasis on memorable songs. For a band sometimes categorised as math rock, Covet are remarkably accessible. “It’s guitar music, but it’s for everyone,” says Young, Covet’s leader and mastermind. “I just love catchy music, stuff that makes you want to dance.” The new album, Catharsis, zips by in under 30 minutes. “I purposely made a lot of these songs really short,” she says. “I’d rather leave people wanting more than overstay my welcome. I prank myself by making the most difficult digestible music, so it’s hard for me but fun for everyone else!”