On January 16, 2026, Ya Tseen (pronounced Yacht Seen) will return with their new album, Stand on My Shoulders, digitally available worldwide from Sub Pop. Led by multi-disciplinary artist Nicholas Galanin, Stand On My Shoulders is an incandescent exploration of existence, a celebration of love and connection to Land.
Stand On MyShoulders features guest performances from Portugal. The Man, Meshell Ndegeocello, dreamcastmoe, Anel Figueroa, Jahon Mikal, Pink Sifu, Sidibe, Hanna Ben, and Ashley Young. The album builds on the group’s 2020 Sub Pop debut, Indian Yard, with revolutionary love as the foundation for collective liberation, centering connection, longing, and resistance. The cover art for Stand On My Shoulders is one of Galanin’s monoprints, referencing a photo of his father, who passed away in 2021. His father’s Tlingit regalia remains, but the wearer isn’t visible, highlighting the space to be filled by future generations. With Stand On My Shoulders, Ya Tseen uplifts the gifts given to us by our ancestors and the collective responsibilities we have to future generations.
Today, the group has shared an official video for their debut offering “Taste On My Lips” feat. Portugal. The Man, Meshell Ndegeocello, & Sidibe.
Galanin shares of the track “Taste on my lips is a love note written for the dance floor, inspired by connections made possible on those floors for generations.”
You can watch the video, which was directed by Stephen Gray, here.
Galanin is a musician and visual artist who has been creating music, customary Tlingit carving, and interdisciplinary art for over two decades. His sculpture and video work have been shown at the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, Whitney Biennial, Sydney Biennial, Desert X, Art Week Miami Beach, and by the New York Public Art Fund. Galanin’s visual and sonic work are interconnected streams of creative flow, integral to the watershed of work he creates.
Ya Tseen has confirmed a 7-date run supporting Portugal. The Man. These dates will begin on November 6th in Portland, OR, and end on November 19th in Denver, CO. See below for a complete list of shows.
Thu. Nov. 06 - Portland, OR- Revolution Hall # Fri. Nov. 07 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall # Sun. Nov. 09- Seattle, WA - Showbox (SoDo) # Tue. Nov. 11 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater (OAK) # Sat. Nov. 15 - Pomona, CA - Glass House, # Sun. Nov. 16 - Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern # Wed. Nov. 19 - Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom #
# w/ Portugal. the Man
Stand On My Shoulders is now available for pre-save on all participating DSPs. Click here to pre-save the entire album.
More about Ya Tseen Ya Tseen is a continually evolving musical collaboration guided by Nicholas Galanin/Yeil Ya Tseen. Born into the Sitka Tribe of Alaska (Tlingit) Galanin is L’uknax.ádi (Raven Coho clan). He began learning music from his father, Dei Kee Tla Tin (Dave Galanin, 1955-2021), an accomplished Blues guitarist who performed under the name Strummin’ Dog. In 2013 Galanin was in a serious boat accident while returning home from a hunting trip that broke his back and ribs. He recalls the stars overhead as he was airlifted from the boat, connecting him to his earliest memory of looking up at the night sky, and his connection to Land. Galanin has returned to this experience of intense connection to Land throughout his career, in many ways it guides his creative practice. Following the accident, his father gave him the name Yeil Ya Tseen, meaning Raven be alive, an affirmation of Galanin’s survival and an acknowledgment of his experience. After his father’s passing, Galanin renamed his musical project Ya Tseen (to be alive) as a connection to his lineage and responsibility to live and create as a part of Lingit cultural continuum.
Yeil Ya Tseen/Galanin has been creating music, customary Tlingit carving, and interdisciplinary art for over two decades. Galanin’s sculpture and video work have been shown at the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, Whitney Biennial, Sydney Biennial, Desert X, Art Week Miami Beach, and by the New York Public Art Fund. Galanin is a member of the artist collective Black Constellation. In 2018 Galanin raised his first Kooteeya (totem pole) as lead carver in Juneau Alaska, followed by a second in 2023. Galanin’s visual and sonic work are interconnected streams of creative flow, each integral to the watershed of work he produces and contributes to. Ya Tseen (previously Indian Agent, Silver Jackson) has performed across North America, Europe, and Australia, most recently with Portugal the Man and Samantha Crain to fund the rebuilding of a Tlingit clan house in Sitka. As Ya Tseen, the band has expanded into a musical project, a fluid collective woven from numerous voices and sonic signatures.
Ya Tseen’s first album with Sub Pop Indian Yard included collaborations with Shabazz Palaces, Stas THEE Boss, Nick Hakim and continued his long term collaborations with O.C.Notes, Zak D. Wass, Tunia, Jesse Hughey, supported by Derek Haukaas (drums), Nikko Van Wycke (Bass), Jase Ihler (drums).
With their second release on Sub Pop Ya Tseen expands their collaborative approach, featuring Portugal The Man, Meshell Ndegeocello, dreamcastmoe, Anel Figueroa, Jahon Mikal, Pink Sifu, Sidibe, Hanna Ben, and Ashley Young.
Ya Tseen’s newest album, Stand On My Shoulders, builds on connection and revolutionary love as the foundation for collective liberation that ran throughout Indian Yard. The album cover art is a monoprint created by Galanin, based on a photograph of his father in Tlingit regalia. The regalia remains, but the wearer isn’t visible, leaving space to be filled by future generations. With Stand On My Shoulders, Ya Tseen uplifts the gifts given to us by our ancestors and the collective responsibilities we have to future generations. The album is an incandescent exploration of existence and a celebration of the persistence of love and connection to Land.
Ya Tseen Stand On My Shoulders
1. Ircenrraat (feat. Ashley Young)
2. Twilight (feat. Pink Siifu, Sidibe)
3. Perfect Combo (feat. dreamcastmoe)
4. Taste On My Lips (feat. Portugal. The Man, Meshell Ndegeocello, Sidibe)
Today, Ya Tseen shares a bouncy new remix of “Close the Distance” from the group’s 2021 Sub Pop debut, Indian Yard. The song was remixed by indigenous DJ Mar 66. This remix follows the stand-alone cover of the Little Wings song “Look At What The Light Did Now” performed by Ya Tseen ft Samantha Crain, which was originally recorded for season 2, episode 4 of the critically acclaimed FX/Hulu television show Reservation Dogs.
Ya Tseen frontman Nicholas Galanin shares about this remix: ”Mar 66 is one of the greatest Indigenous DJ & electronic artists from the North, a vital artist I respect and admire. Ya Tseen is thrilled to share this Remix with the world.”
Listen to “Close the Distance (Mar 66 Remix)” HERE.
Ya Tseen has confirmed live festival performances this fall at Áak’w Rock in Juneau-Douglas, Alaska, on September 22nd, Walk the Block on September 30th in Seattle, WA, and Indigenous Futures on November 11th in Washington, DC.
Released in conjunction with the start of National Native American Heritage Month, you can listen to Ya Tseen ft Samantha Crain’s cover of the Little Wings song “Look At What The Light Did Now.” This cover was originally recorded for season 2 episode 4 of the critically acclaimed FX/Hulu television show, Reservation Dog and follows the group’s 2021 debut record, Indian Yard.
Frontman, Nicholas Galanin shares, “My friend Sterlin Harjo, the creator of the acclaimed FX series Reservation Dogs, invited Samantha and I to cover Little Wings classic song ‘Look at What The Light Did Now’ for an episode in season 2. This was a high honor to contribute to one of what I would consider the best episodes of streaming television being made today. It’s tough to capture love and Indigenous mourning, though I feel as if this episode did so in an elegant and powerful way.”
The North American deluxe edition on clear vinyl is now available. The deluxe packaging will include a 24-page hardcover LP-sized book with covers featuring a sci-fi landscape populated by a toddler-wearing artist Merritt Johnson’s sculpture Mindset, a VR headset woven from sweetgrass. The interior art was designed by Galanin. This deluxe edition will be available while supplies last.
Ya Tseen’s Nicholas Galanin is one of the most vital voices in contemporary art. His work spans sculpture, video, installation, photography, jewelry, and music; advocating for Indigenous sovereignty, racial, social, and environmental justice, for present, and future generations. For Galanin, memory and land are inevitably entwined. His most recent installation for Desert X 2021, on view through May 16, 2021, entitled Never Forget has garnered international media acclaim including from outlets such as The New York Times, TheLos Angeles Times, The Desert Sun, Galerie Magazine, and Time Out. The 45-foot letters of Never Forget reference the Hollywood sign, which initially spelled out HOLLYWOODLAND and was erected to promote a whites-only development. Its timing coincided with a development in Palm Springs that also connected to the film industry: Studio contracts limited actors’ travel, contributing to the city’s rise as a playground and refuge of the stars. Meanwhile, the white settler mythology of America as the land of the free, home of the brave was promoted in the West, and the landscape was cinematized through the same lens. Never Forget asks settler landowners to participate in the work by transferring land titles and management to local Indigenous communities. The work is a call to action and a reminder that land acknowledgments become only performative when they do not explicitly support the land back movement. Not only does the work transmit a shockwave of historical correction, but also promises to do so globally through social media. In connection with this installation, Galanin has organized a Go Fund Me account to benefit the Native American Land Conservancy (NALC.) You can contribute here.
Ya Tseen Indian Yard
Tracklisting: 1. Knives (feat. Portugal. The Man) 2. Light the Torch 3. Born into Rain (feat. rum.gold and tunia) 4. At Tugáni 5. Get Yourself Together 6. Close the Distance 7. We Just Sit and Smile Here in Silence 8. A Feeling Undefined (feat. Nick Hakim and Iska Dhaaf) 9. Synthetic Gods (feat. Shabazz Palaces and Stas THEE Boss) 10. Gently to the Sun (feat. Tay Sean) 11. Back in That Time (feat. Qacung)
The North American deluxe edition of Ya Tseen’s debut album, Indian Yard is now available on clear vinyl in the Mega Mart and in select indie record stores. The deluxe packaging will include a 24-page hardcover LP-sized book with covers featuring a sci-fi landscape populated by a toddler-wearing artist Merritt Johnson’s sculpture Mindset, a VR headset woven from sweetgrass. The interior art was designed by Galanin. This deluxe edition will be available while supplies last. To celebrate, they have shared an official video for the previously released song “Back in That Time,” (feat. Qacung) directed by Raven Chacon.
Today, Sub Pop releases Indian Yard, the debut record from Sitka, Alaska project Ya Tseen. Galanin began working on the record in 2017 while going back and forth between his home in Sitka and Juneau, Alaska where he was carving a totem pole. The album entwines falling in love and the birth of a child with the urgency of current social and environmental justice movements to tear down destructive systems and build anew. He shared the concepts with bandmates Zak D. Wass and Otis Calvin III and together they structured the album alongside longtime collaborator Benjamin Verdoes. Through sessions in Sitka and Seattle, a cast of brilliant friends—Shabazz Palaces, Nick Hakim, fellow Indigenous Alaskan singer and songwriter Qacung, to name a few—helped form Indian Yard into a cataract of intensely current pop wonders.
His debut as Ya Tseen (“be alive,” and a reference to his Tlingit name Yeil Ya Tseen) is Indian Yard, his first album for Sub Pop. Rich with emotional range and sharp awareness, Indian Yard explores love, desire, frustration, pain, revolution, and connection through magnetic expressions of an Indigenous mind and body. The lusty electro-soul cascade of “Close the Distance,” the lithe funk frolic of “Get Yourself Together,” the insistent weight of “Back in That Time,” sung in Yupik: These 11 tracks put Galanin, Ya Tseen, and Indigenous art at large in a current musical conversation with the likes of Moses Sumney and TV on the Radio, FKA Twigs, and James Blake.
Indian Yard is a profound record of liberation and an implicit act of protest, making its case by facing the intersection of past, present, and future realities. In a nod to Sun Ra, “Gently To The Sun” mentions “meds for a nightmare”—an apt description for a record that offers a much-needed antidote for what now ails us personally and universally.
This is not, by any means, Galanin’s first album. He has released a steady stream of records under a panoply of aliases, including Silver Jackson and Indian Agent. He has worked with the likes of Meshell Ndegeocello, Tanya Tagaq, and Samantha Crain. And for the better part of a decade, he’s also been part of the revolutionarily borderless art collective Black Constellation alongside Shabazz Palaces and THEESatisfaction (read full bio at Sub Pop).
Indian Yard can be purchased on CD/LP through Sub Pop. LPs purchased through megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers in North America, the U.K., and Europe will receive the standard LP on black vinyl. The North American deluxe edition on clear vinyl is now available for preorder. The deluxe packaging will include a 24-page hardcover LP-sized book with covers featuring a sci-fi landscape populated by a toddler-wearing artist Merritt Johnson’s sculpture Mindset, a VR headset woven from sweetgrass. The interior art was designed by Galanin. This deluxe edition will be available while supplies last.
Ya Tseen’s Nicholas Galanin is one of the most vital voices in contemporary art. His work spans sculpture, video, installation, photography, jewelry, and music; advocating for Indigenous sovereignty, racial, social, and environmental justice, for present, and future generations. For Galanin, memory and land are inevitably entwined. His most recent installation for Desert X 2021, on view through May 16, 2021, entitled Never Forget has garnered international media acclaim including from outlets such as The New York Times, TheLos Angeles Times, The Desert Sun, Galerie Magazine, and Time Out. The 45-foot letters of Never Forget reference the Hollywood sign, which initially spelled out HOLLYWOODLAND and was erected to promote a whites-only development. Its timing coincided with a development in Palm Springs that also connected to the film industry: Studio contracts limited actors’ travel, contributing to the city’s rise as a playground and refuge of the stars. Meanwhile, the white settler mythology of America as the land of the free, home of the brave was promoted in the West, and the landscape was cinematized through the same lens. Never Forget asks settler landowners to participate in the work by transferring land titles and management to local Indigenous communities. The work is a call to action and a reminder that land acknowledgments become only performative when they do not explicitly support the land back movement. Not only does the work transmit a shockwave of historical correction, but also promises to do so globally through social media. In connection with this installation, Galanin has organized a Go Fund Me account to benefit the Native American Land Conservancy (NALC.) You can contribute here.
What people are saying about Indian Yard: “a rich listen, strengthened by Galanin’s burning focus on critical issues” - [ 8/10] Uncut
“A widescreen epic of joyous, synth-driven indie-pop, electro-soul and borderless beats. […] An artist who refuses to be hemmed in.” - WePresent
“Indian Yard is every bit as multi-layered and multi-faceted a listen as Galanin’s artistic take on the world promised” - Loud & Quiet
Ya Tseen Indian Yard
Tracklisting: 1. Knives (feat. Portugal. The Man) 2. Light the Torch 3. Born into Rain (feat. Rum.gold and Tunia) 4. At Tugáni 5. Get Yourself Together 6. Close the Distance 7. We Just Sit and Smile Here in Silence 8. A Feeling Undefined (fat. Nick Hakim and Iska Dhaaf) 9. Synthetic Gods (feat. Shabazz Palaces and Stas THEE Boss) 10. Gently to the Sun (feat. Tay Sean) 11. Back in That Time (feat. Qacung)
