Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Cardona and Logan Woodyard band: yawny yelly glowy floaty.
Hi Stephanie and Logan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
We started dating at the end of 2013, simultaneously falling in love and creating music together. We were very different from one another at that point in our lives, but all the good stuff we had in common. We’ve been growing together as individuals in love and a musical duo for nearly eight years.
We embarked on our first DIY tour in the summer of 2014. Starting in New Orleans, making our way up to NYC, finishing in Chicago, and eventually settling down in Canyon Lake, Texas. It was there that we really grew our following. Playing Austin, San Antonio, and San Marcos quite regularly, and still put together two more tours for ourselves, eventually establishing a business relationship with a Slovenian booker and promoter that put together a European tour for us back in 2017.
After our West Coast tour in 2018, we decided to head back to our South Texas hometown, Alice, to dedicate all of our time and attention to writing new music on a horse ranch. Stephanie quit her day job, Logan made his full-time work from home into a part-time job, and we cut back as many expenses as possible. What began as a strict music writing retreat, quickly became something of a mental, emotional, and artistic gym. With no distractions in sight, we were forced to confront every demon, every trigger, every personal hang-up we’d been only treating when we had time for or just ignoring all together.
We’ve been on the ranch for almost three years. We’ve spent it working on our communication with each other, our mental health, our physical health, connecting to the earth with year-round vegetable gardens, holding ourselves accountable, developing our musicianship, trusting, and being more receptive to each other in both songwriting and business.
We used to try really hard to separate and compartmentalize the different ways we work together and work on ourselves, but the truth is that everything affects everything. Embracing that has created what feels like a much safer and more fertile environment for learning, creativity, happiness, and love. This radical shift inspired a name change in 2020 from Voodoo Boogaloo to yawny yelly glowy floaty, a new approach for us to write songs, and new motivations for social media and promotional plans for 2021.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
A big part of our struggles have been from not being on the same page and not being experts in communication. Which is particularly difficult as a romantic couple that is also a musical duo. Still, I think that’s a pretty common struggle for all musical groups and romantic couples.
Getting on the same page can only be done with communication. “Great” communication at that. It took us forever to realize that not being on the same page is partly because one person hung up on details while the other is looking at the big picture. We’d get so irritated trying to explain where we were coming from to the other person. In those moments’ patience, forgiveness, and gratitude are important.
It was difficult figuring out how to have fewer of these stressful moments. I think the solution may be different for everyone and even then, you’ll still have moments like that. It will never be zero- at least not for us. But at least I can say that when they do pop up, they are much easier to keep from blowing up to an unnecessary degree and are resolved much quicker.
Aside from all of that, a big struggle was my (Stephanie’s) mental health. I grew up very poor, my parents had lots of very vivid lows in their marriage, I had eating disorders, I’d self-medicate, my self-esteem was so low, my only relationships before Logan were very dysfunctional, so I often acted and reacted out of insecurity. My financial situation always kept me from getting any professional help. I often felt too exhausted to put in any of the self-work I could’ve been doing. Meditation, journaling, daily exercise, healthy diet, drinking responsibly, identifying my triggers, setting and enforcing boundaries. It all seemed too hard, too time consuming, and some things seemed too hippy-dippy for me to be interested in at all. I saw Logan doing these things, he’d even suggest I get with a regular routine that incorporated even a few of them. But I was tired and afraid, so I stuffed things down and it affected my musical abilities, my communication skills, and my growth as a human in general. Moving out to the ranch almost three years ago and taking the time to make all of the necessary changes saved my life.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
yawny yelly glowy floaty is a musical duo. We write songs about our growth as individuals and about our love for one another as a couple. We’re known for our trippy and lush instrumentals, dreamy female vocals, and for being very warm and friendly people to everyone we meet. We’re most proud of what we can accomplish as a team of two. Proud of the four DIY tours we made happen for ourselves, proud of our latest single releases, and of how far we’ve come as people. I think what sets us apart from others is that our art is our entire lifestyle. From the music we make, the lyrics we write, the way we choose to sell ourselves, to the food we grow and choose to eat, the routines we’ve built, to the things we choose to exclude from our daily lives and work hard to avoid reverting to. It’s all connected, it all affects one another, there is no separation.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
We’ve been EXTREMELY LUCKY in our lives together and in our business. From our early “party hard” days, to being offered gigs as an opening act for big artists and landing cool festival lineups, to having a family member with a ranch that we could park our fifth wheel and live peacefully on, to have met one another when we did. Everything we’ve done has been graced by the luck of the universe; fortune favors the bold and we have definitely been making bold decisions our entire time together.
Contact Info:
- Email: yawnyyellyglowyfloaty@gmail.com
- Website: https://linktr.ee/yawnyyellyglowyfloaty
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yawny_yelly_glowy_floaty/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yawnyyellyglowyfloaty/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/yawnyyelly
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/yawnyyellyglowyfloaty/featured
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Z3etAUxYCwQRKV0D6fF5e?si=i3zOrWFAQe6VxRjK1-ytwA
Image Credits
yawny yelly glowy floaty
