My name is Yana Couto, and as a composer and pianist, there are some moments when a song resonates so deeply with me that it feels like internal energy leading me towards reimagining it in my own way. That’s exactly what happened with “Isimo” by Bleachers.
From the first moment I heard it, I knew it was something special and deeply personal. The emotions woven into the melody and lyrics struck a chord in me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful it would sound as a minimal piano rendition.
The original version of “Isimo” holds a lot of emotional weight. Jack Antonoff’s music has this incredible ability to tap into deep, raw emotions, and “Isimo” was no exception. It’s one of the more serene tracks on the latest Bleachers album, with a calmness that stands out.
I found myself returning to it repeatedly, feeling comforted by its simplicity but also struck by its emotional depth. It was the kind of song I wanted to sit with, to understand, and ultimately, to explore in my own musical language.
One of the reasons I wanted to create a piano version was to see this song in a new light, with space to breathe even more, to let the emotion float free without the lyrics guiding the listener. Piano has always been my go-to instrument for expressing feelings. It’s both delicate and powerful, and I thought it would be the perfect medium to explore the intricacies of “Isimo” in a more introspective, instrumental way.
When I sat down to create this rendition, I knew I didn’t want it to simply be a cover. I wanted to create something new and my own, while still staying true to the essence of the original song. My goal was to keep the emotion intact but express it through the unique voice of the piano.
There is this concept that I like to explore in my music, which I like to call “beautiful sadness” – that feeling when something is both beautiful and sad, that it makes you feel a whole array of emotions. I think nostalgia has that mix of sadness and beauty, and that feeling is very close to my heart.
I began by stripping the song down to its most basic elements. I spent some time at the piano, playing through the main melody, and experimenting with how to capture the mood and spirit of the original while transforming it into something even more minimal and intimate. I wanted to highlight the calm, reflective energy of “ISIMO,” but also bring out the subtle layers of emotion I felt were present beneath the surface.
In the process of arranging, I tried to keep the music minimal but impactful. I’ve always been drawn to minimalist music, where the beauty comes from subtle variations, pauses, and the space between the notes. For “ISIMO,” I wanted the arrangement to feel open and spacey, with the right balance between the notes and the silence. I wanted the listener to feel that they had room to breathe within the music, to reflect on the emotions it evoked.
I also spent a lot of time thinking about dynamics—how to build and release tension in a way that mirrored the emotional arc of the original song. I also wanted to create more space and piano effects – adding additional layers and subtle glimmers to add some variations to the track.
The rise and fall of the melody needed to feel natural and organic, like waves coming in and out. I let the emotional core of the song guide me, playing around with softer and louder moments until I felt like the arrangement had found its voice.
I also feel super lucky to be able to record music on my upright piano at home, which has this absolutely amazing acoustics and its own special sound – it’s a very unique instrument, a pre-war Bruno Sommerfeld upright piano.
Every time I compose while playing the piano, it feels as if half of the song is already in the instrument – in its mechanisms, natural wood sounds and reverb. It really allows me to listen more to the silence between the notes and make space for it.
To me, this song is a tribute not just to the original composition, the story behind it (which is a love letter to his wife), but also to Jack Antonoff’s artistry as a whole. His music has been a huge inspiration for me, not only as a listener but as a composer and producer. I’ve spent a lot of time learning from his production techniques and his approach to music-making through interviews and videos.
Watching him work has opened my eyes to new possibilities in my own creative process, even though the music he makes might have a completely different output, it feels as if we are starting from the same place of curiosity. He also seems simply to be a nice and decent guy.
“Isimo” is one of those songs that speaks to the vulnerability and intimacy we all experience, whether in relationships or within ourselves. I listened to the song with the lyrics open on my phone, and quickly learned that it was written thinking of his wife and the story resonated with me deeply.
The elements of mourning your childhood, being naive, taking too much on yourself when you should be kinder, finding that you can find your lost pieces along the way, finding people that will love you and care for you. That for me was a beautiful love letter to someone that has been on a rough personal journey, a love letter full of kindness and appreciation to someone you love and see grow. I hope my interpretation honours the emotional depth of the original while offering a new way to experience the song.
As I continued working on the piece, I felt more and more connected to the song and its underlying emotion. The final version came together quite quickly and I knew that there was some energy in me pulling me towards releasing it and sharing it with the world. As a composer, I spend most of my time working on original material, so it is quite rare when I take a work of some other artist and make it my own to the point of releasing it.
However, this song has been incredibly personal to me, and I’m so excited to finally share it. My hope is that listeners will feel the same sense of calm and introspection that “ISIMO” gave me, and that this piano rendition will offer a new perspective on an already beautiful piece of music.
Listen to “Isimo” below and stream it everywhere else here.
