Rachael Yamagata doesn't put up gaudy sales or streaming numbers and she doesn't tour that often, but her music frequently shows up in movies and TV shows, which gives her the funds to maintain creative freedom without worrying about mass appeal. Her fanbase is modest but highly connected to her songs.
Her parents divorced when she was 2 years old; growing up she split time with them along with her step-parents, giving her lots of exposure to different music and cultures. Her heritage is Japanese (on her father's side) and German/Italian (on her mother's side).
Yamagata admits that her songs have a lot of nuance and require a "deep dive." A lot of that has to do with her upbringing. "I grew up in a family that proved the point that one can never judge a book by its cover," she
told Dumpling. "Musically that is what I always look at – what are the subtleties of a situation? What is not being said but can be immediately felt?"
Her list of songs used in movies and TV shows is really impressive. Here are some highlights:
Monster-in-Law (2005) - "1963"
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) - "Be Be Your Love"
How I Met Your Mother, "Nothing Good Happens After 2 AM" (2006) - "Quiet"
Hope Springs (2012) – "I Don't Want to Be Your Mother"
Lucky Them (2013) – "The Way It Seems To Go"
The Morning Show, "Episode dated 9 December 2015" (2015) – "You Won't Let Me"
She's also had songs in multiple episodes of Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill and The O.C., and she showed up on the 2009 30 Rock episode "Kidney Now!" to perform a song called "He Needs A Kidney."
She stays creatively sharp by freewriting, where she just writes down whatever comes to mind, to elicit ideas from her subconscious mind. "We can all channel - that's what songwriters do," she
told Songfacts. "We're just getting little things from other places. And if you write in the morning, it just picks up speed, and you're like, wait a minute, what is this? Is this me? Is it the higher self? Is it other people? Is it all of those things? It's really cool."
She plays a variety of instruments, including flute, but her main instrument is piano, which she usually uses to write her songs. When she plays live, she'll often transpose some songs to acoustic guitar so she can get up from the bench and better connect with the audience.
Yamagata had a rough go with major labels. Her first album, Happenstance (2004), was on RCA, and they dropped her. Her next album, Elephants...Teeth Sinking into Heart (2008), came out on Warner Bros., which parted ways with her when they restructured a few years later. Since 2011 she's put out her music either independently or on small labels.
She has a big following in Asia, particularly in China, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. In South Korea some of her songs have soundtracked various Korean TV dramas ("K-dramas").
Her primary collaborator for most of her albums is John Alagía, a producer whose other clients include Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer and Jason Mraz. He produced her debut album, Happenstance, and has worked on all her studio albums since.
