Musician Nilüfer Yanya's experience and intuition on display for 'My Method Actor'
Nilüfer Yanya’s song “Binding” begins with a simple drum loop, gradually giving way to a stripped-down guitar riff that slowly and hypnotically draws the listener in. Her voice joins a few seconds later, intoning lyrics that loosely follow a character driving dazedly nowhere, “Driving too fast/Vacant and glass-eyed/Not coming back/Down from the hills.”
Binding is perhaps the most devastating track off of Yanya’s newest album, “My Method Actor,” released on Sept. 13 through Matt Black’s independent record label Ninja Tune.
The emotional core of the song comes from Yanya’s lived experiences. Still, the particulars are the result of her songwriting process: a mixture of the aforementioned method acting, referenced in the album’s title, and an intuition-driven approach to creation. “I didn’t choose a subject matter if that makes sense.
That part just has to naturally appear from the songs,” Yanya shared with City Lights producer Jacob Smulian in a recent conversation.
“My Method Actor” is Yanya’s third LP release, and one that has been met with near-universal acclaim from music critics.
The album explores the tension between identity and performance, beckoning listeners to sit next to her as she gracefully picks through tangled knots of emotion, often painful and tender to the touch. Each song comes from a seed of personal truth, but the world that she builds is rich with characters that are not herself and and experiences that arise naturally out of her imagination.
The London-based musician has carved out a unique space for herself inside of a media environment that expects authenticity while constantly demanding conformity. “People like your music because you make the music that you want to make, not because you make the music they want to hear… I think that’s the whole point of it,” she says.
Yanya’s conversation with Smulian broached her ever-evolving relationship with fans, the process of writing an album with just a single producer (Wilma Archer) and the experience of creating her newest crop of visuals for promotion.
She plays in Atlanta at Terminal West on October 11th, tickets can be found at her website here.
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