Not long after the London-based singer Nilfer Yanya signed with an American label in 2017, she ran headlong into a creative wall. Knowing that whatever I wrote might be on the album, that put a block on my head, she explains. At first she responded to the pressure with perverse logic. Knowing that as soon as I write a song, it either is gonna be good enough or not good enough guess Ill just not write anything then, she reasoned.
Thankfully, that period didnt last long, and Yanyas debut album, Miss Universe, arrived late last month. It skates swiftly from scuzzy rock to pinprick funk, from power chords and splatting cymbals to soft, prettily multi-tracked hooks like all of Everything But the Girls Eighties output condensed into one album.
Shes a singer-songwriter, but she rocks, says Bruce Warren, a radio veteran who has been supporting Yanyas music at WXPN in Philadelphia. She writes great hooks. She does the loud-quiet thing really well. Weve been a fan since the first EP.
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On a recent trip to New York City, Yanya was fresh off a showcase that she felt was a little shaky. New material, and we had only had two rehearsals prior, so it was a bit rough, she says. The first show has to happen at some point. Its always scary to do the first gig.
But she was buoyant and unconcerned, drinking champagne from a flute and happily evangelizing for veganism. (Eggs are basically meat!) When I was 18 I started forcing myself to play as many shows as I could, Yanya says. I remember writing bios for myself and sending it around to venues: I like your venue, it has a cool vibe, I played this and this venue, Im working on an EP. Im like, I hate this! Then you get into a weird circle of basically bad venues.
Im painting a dark picture, she adds. Its not bad. But its hard. Every step youre taking, theres someone telling you this isnt gonna work.
By the time Yanya worked her way into Londons live scene, she had already been writing and recording songs for a few years, some of which she uploaded to SoundCloud. These were mostly just singer-songwriter fare, with the guitar micd like its right next to your ear.
While putting together Monsters Under the Bed, the song that first brought her attention from labels, she worked at her uncles studio, resulting in something more hi-fi: a slippery, Come As You Are-like pop song. Its probably what I needed for people to hear, Yanya says. People in the industry have good ears, but they also have bad ears they can only hear something when its shiny. Oh, I can see this is a product!'
If Monsters Under the Bed attracted label attention for sounding clean, Yanyas videos remained more abstruse. 2017s Golden Cage has an off-the-cuff, capture-an-outing-on-a-Camcorder feel. Nearly every frame is devoid of people other than Yanya; her hair keeps blowing into her face; segues between shots are big and blocky and homespun. Meanwhile, Yanya talk-sings and unfurls graceful high notes, while the hook is one of her strongest, a snappy beam of soul complete with skronking saxophone.
The Golden Cage clip enthralled the blues-rock yowler Benjamin Booker, who sent a late-night email about it to Jon Salter, head of the New York City-based indie ATO Records. [Booker] sends me stuff he thinks that would be cool for the label, and he sent me the video for Golden Cage,' Salter remembers. It was maybe 1:30, 2 in the morning, but that video was so immediate for me. Within ten minutes I was searching through my emails and trying to find her manager.
Several labels were already chasing Yanya. For a while, she says, I didnt even think about signing because everyone was like, You dont really need a label anymore. But I sort of realized, to fund a record, you do kind of need a label. ATO won her allegiance in part, Salter says, because Yanya loved other singers on the labels roster, like Nick Hakim, who specializes in sleepy, homespun piano-soul.
To combat the guess Ill just not write anything pressure Yanya felt while makingMiss Universe,she entered the studio with other writer-producers, including Oli Barton-Wood, MT Hadley and Bastian Langbaek. In a session like that, you have to be productive, Yanya explains. You dont just wanna sit there. I knew I needed to write something, and I would try to stop being so precious. I learned a lot. But also I lost a lot of confidence in the process.
A few songs onMiss Universeare older: Monsters Under the Bed appears again here, as does Baby Blu, which captures the tricky transition from mourning to moving on, and Heat Rises, a breathless guitar-pop missile.
But many of Yanyas tracks grew out of the new sessions. Safety Net melds an old verse I had for ages that didnt work with an old chorus from Hadley. We just squashed them together, Yanya remembers. The merger was tough to execute. He was ready to give up at one point: This isnt working,' Yanya says. But I was like, no, I want to use this riff.'
Its impossible to hear that painstaking process in the resulting track Safety Net is languid and funky, unhurried and unabashedly beautiful. I feel like its a real pop song, in a good way, Yanya says. Its the kind of pop song Ive been wanting to write for ages but havent really been able to.
NowMiss Universeis out, and Yanya is fresh off a tour as the opening act for Sharon Van Etten, a good opportunity to introduce more indie rock listeners to her music. But shes aching to do more writing songs, or maybe fiction. Soon the whole album thing will fade away and itll be like, what have I done for a whole year? she says.
I started writing at the same age that you start doing all those other things that you turn into a person, so me writing is me being a person, Yanya continues. Not writing anything what I am doing? I need to write something immediately.