For drummer, composer, and producer Layton Weedeman, rhythm is more than a foundation—it’s a language of connection. Over the course of a two-decade career, the New York–based artist has explored the intersections of jazz, hip-hop, soul, and global traditions, always returning to one central idea: collaboration as an act of creation.
His latest venture, Yellow Couch Music, functions as both a recording project and a communal platform—one grounded in improvisation, mutual respect, and a deep pocket. “I’ve always been drawn to collaboration,” Weedeman says. “Yellow Couch Music gives me a way to invite other voices in and build something that’s rooted, but open.”
Weedeman’s earliest musical sparks came via television and family: Yo! MTV Raps, alt-rock broadcasts, his parents’ records, and his cousin’s well-worn cassette tapes. At age 13, a live performance by Sonic Youth in Philadelphia shifted his perspective entirely. That same year, he received his first drum kit, beginning a study in rhythm that would take him through bossa nova, samba, reggae, swing, and beyond. Weekly lessons with a jazz-informed teacher gave him not just technique, but sensibility. “That was where the listening really started,” he recalls.
By high school, Weedeman had become a trusted sideman in the local scene, juggling gigs with multiple bands. His next move was to Berklee College of Music, where he deepened his command of jazz, groove, and production in a rigorous and exploratory environment. At Berklee, he absorbed everything from Afro-Cuban polyrhythms to melodic harmony, graduating with the kind of versatility that would become a defining feature of his work.
It was during this time he co-founded Courtesy Tier, a blues-psych power trio that cut its teeth on the DIY circuit in Boston and New York City, booking its own tours, self-releasing records, and eventually landing on festival stages like SXSW and CMJ. Along the way came sync placements, TV licenses, and a crash course in building an artistic vision from scratch.
That same ethos now fuels Yellow Couch Music, launched in 2024 as both creative platform and collective experiment. The debut single, Fool Stop, brought together a heavyweight cast: vocalist Estephanie, lyricist JSWISS (known for work with Nate Smith and Elvis Costello), and underground hip-hop legend John Robinson of Scienz of Life. Anchored by Weedeman’s buoyant drum groove, the track layered trumpet, flute, synth, and keys into a luminous, genre-defying arrangement.
Since then, Weedeman has continued to build Yellow Couch Music as a vehicle for collaboration, drawing in artists like Lars Haake, Eric Biondo, Roberto Poveda, H. Alonzo Jennings, Bradley Valentin and NYALLAH. Each track, he says, is a conversation: “I want the groove to lead, but the voices—both instrumental and vocal—shape where it goes.”
This summer, Yellow Couch Music will make its live debut at Nublu, a Lower East Side institution in NYC known for genre-blurring artistry. The performance will feature material from Tidings In The Rough, Weedeman’s forthcoming full-length debut under the Yellow Couch Music banner. The record is a portrait of an artist deeply attuned to the value of process, collaboration, and groove—a culmination of years spent listening, learning, and creating across styles.
“I’m not chasing metrics,” Weedeman says. “I just want to make music that feels human. Music that moves you—literally or emotionally. A means to express myself without any rules.”
With Tidings In The Rough, he’s done just that. Yellow Couch Music is not only a project—it’s a gathering place, a testament to the power of rhythm and the communities it can build.
Contact: info@yellowcouchmusic.com