CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It has been a packed holiday season for the music duo T H R O N E. On top of touring and releasing new music, the duo recently got married. River Watson (Mvskoke), who also goes by Yvhikv, married music partner Taylor Mendelsohn in a private ceremony on December 14, 2024. Additionally, the duo’s 2024 album, “Singing Bear Speaks” was also nominated for Indigenous.tv’s Album of the Year, marking their first nomination in the category.
Watson has been performing music since she was in high school. According to Watson, her professional relationship with her husband is strong because they both get to exhibit their strengths as musicians.
“I think we just complement each other really well,” Watson said. “I’ve always been very confident in my voice, he (Mendelsohn) has always been very confident in his writing. We would always kind of inspire each other with those different things.”
Although the couple performs at shows together, they choose to not perform live at their own wedding ceremony in order to focus on nuptials. However the couple did record a music video for their new single, “our wedding song”, a track recorded in honor of their big day. Watson described the song’s sound as “cutesy, but not your typical love song”.
Watson and Mendelsohn wanted their wedding to encompass Indigenous traditions. This included a blanket ceremony, and a Pueblo wedding vase ceremony.
Watson’s stage name Yvhikv means singer or to sing in traditional Mvskoke. She is the former 2014-15 Junior Miss Muscogee Nation. Watson’s inspiration to become a musician came from her dad, Julian B. For Watson singing is something that comes out from within.
“I started to notice that there was a very free thread, a single very thin thread between when I would sing and my spirit inside,” Watson said. “It was like I wasn’t even singing. It was as if I did not have any conscious realization that this voice that I was hearing was my own.”
Regardless of where her music takes her, Watson’s music is immersed in her Indigenous culture, which can be heard in her songwriting, melodies and how she sings. She writes about things that are sacred and familiar, like medicine. Call and response melodies are used in Watson’s music, which can also be found in traditional Mvskoke songs. When describing how she sings, Watson said her inspiration came from how she was taught to speak the Mvskoke language.
“I try to sing from my gut. This is how I grew up understanding how you speak Mvskoke, which is from the gut,” Watson said. “You speak it with your whole being. You speak it from the root of yourself.”
T H R O N E’s discography can be found on a variety of social media and music streaming platforms, which can be accessed here.
