Steppin' Presents: Y.O.P.E.
- Kay Tee Vlk
- Mar 28
- 5 min read
Y.O.P.E. is the musical experiment of bassist Joop de Graaf. Joop is also known for his work
with bands such as Brintex Collective, Imaginarium, the Diana Dzhabbar Quartet, and
Dandana. Inspired by a wide variety of influences, Joop decided to start his own project
together with drummer Luis Possollo. In 2022, they recorded first EP titled ‘Lost but Here’, later the debut album ‘Peer Pleasure’ came out in 2025, both released on the Wicked Wax label. Before the performance at Hidden Gem, we took a moment to chop it up with Joop & Luis on all things Y.O.P.E.
Y.O.P.E. is an experiment, first of all. Me and Luis started this project in general, and then later on a bunch of friends came along and we started to make the music. I most likely compose it and then I'll give it to the guys to experiment more arrangement wise and stuff like that.
L: It's based on, let's say, modern music with very much electronic influences sound wise.
So this performance is essentially going to be the history of Y.O.P.E. We started as jazz musicians and we still are jazz musicians, but we've gone with this project and the artistic direction of this project has gone in a different direction. So we still integrate this jazz and improvising element, but we also have some more singer songwriter songs.
J: If I'm vibing with a person, I can invite them and we play along together or whatever.
That's what we have with Sam now, a.k.a. Sam Nera, and a bunch of other artists that just came along like Antonio, Tommy van Leuken, all these guys are great friends and are a great inspiration to the music. Without them, we cannot make this music basically.
If you were to describe the sound of Y.O.P.E., how would you describe it?
J: I would say it's like an... electronic experimental soundscape with break beats and beat related stuff. And it can go anywhere. There's basically for me, we have the written parts or written out parts or whatever, but what happens in between there, we don't, that's my goal.
We don't know what's going to happen. And I want to be surprised by the musicians I'm playing with. That's the most important thing. And that is actually almost every time we are playing. And then sometimes it goes right, sometimes it goes wrong. But most likely we end up together and having fun. That's for me how I would describe the experience playing this stuff. And there's a lot of, I have a lot of inspirations from the modern music like Salami Rose Joe Lois, to classical composers like Stockhausen or Stravinski or whatever. These guys are great inspirations for me. And everything that happened in between. For me, the most important part is the experiments and finding new things.
Is there a message you'd like to convey in your music?
L: Yeah, just experiment. Jump off the cliff, just take the risk and see what happens.
J: If there's a mistake happening, it's nice. It's not about making mistakes, but it's about what to do with those things, I guess. And I mean, that's generally also a normal reflection of life, I guess.
Tijmen de Nooy Photography
L: We all come from an... academic jazz background, if you can call it that. Anton is really into Jamaican and African music in general. Miguel is into Lee Konitz and David Binney and all these crazy saxophone players and other musicians. I'm into a lot of different stuff. 80s fusion and really traditional hardbop from the 50s and 60s. And Joop is into all this crazy, I mean, classical music, not classical, modern. 20th century modern music from great composers like Stockhausen, Messiaen and everything and blending all that together has proven challenging at times, but I think the end product is, I'm really proud of it.
J: Yeah, we're trying to take the traditions out of those things, but try to make it our own, which can be very difficult and challenging. And it has been, like there's been many discussions. It's not bad, but I mean, it's always like difficult because we are searching and that searching might be tough sometimes because we don't know where we're aiming for, sometimes as well. And that is, that can be challenging also for the guys like, what are we doing now? Where are we going? And then I just try to convince them to trust the process and see. Wherever it goes it goes, does it really matter? Like, I don't want to be put in a corner you or this or whatever.
What's in store for Y.O.P.E. in the near future?
J: I mean, we just go on with whatever we do. Yeah, it sounds weird maybe, but it's, yeah, trying to get more gigs and present our album is the goal right now because it's almost released. So, yeah, that's, I guess, the main goal, but I'm already working with new musicians for another album or EP. We don't know yet, but yeah, and it's always been like that. It's just coming together, playing music. Sometimes it's difficult. Luis lives in Portugal.
So, we have like, we work in timeframes, like, you're now there for three weeks. Let's put all the gigs in those three weeks and that can be challenging sometimes, but it's so far, so good.
L: We're releasing our album on the 26th of February, in Paradiso in Amsterdam.
And we just had a nice week with two other gigs, so that's really exciting. We're going to release it next Wednesday. It's going to be fun to have all the friends and hopefully a lot of people there watching us.
J: Yeah, exciting, but scary, but fun, but whatever.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
J: I mean, we can all be a bit more nicer to each other. Not in the band, no, I'm not saying like, we're fighting constantly, no, but in general. And I think my goal is to spread joy and love. And also just say like, yeah, everybody's going through the same shit, if I may say. And I think that's the fun thing about it. Once you realize everybody's almost doing the same things, but somewhere else in that way, yeah, I don't know. We just want to spread joy and love. That's the most important part, I guess.
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