Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey, y'all's justin Richmond. Today on the show, we
Speaker 1: have twenty seven year old British singer songwriter Nilafer Yanja.
Speaker 1: Nilafer Yanja is a West London native who comes from
Speaker 1: a background as diverse as her city. All of that
Speaker 1: finds its way into her music, overlaid with her rich voice.
Speaker 1: After several years of hitting London small stages and open
Speaker 1: mics with her guitar, Nillifer broke through in twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: with a series of soulful indie poppy pas and singles
Speaker 1: that started leading to some critical acclaim. I spoke with
Speaker 1: Nilapher in April, just after her performance at the first
Speaker 1: weekend of Coachella about the release of her second album, Painless.
Speaker 1: The album's tracks, laden with electronic drums and rockets guitar,
Speaker 1: play like a diary entry wrenched with heartbreak, loss and hope.
Speaker 1: Painless follow Nilla Fer's debut album, Miss Universe, which also
Speaker 1: hinted at her fascination with nineties alt rock melodies. On
Speaker 1: today's episode, Nilafer shares the collaborative songwriting process she has
Speaker 1: that created her new album with her producer Will Archer
Speaker 1: and friend saxophonist and multi instrumentalist Jazzy Bobby. She also
Speaker 1: talks about writing her first songs at ten years old
Speaker 1: and about how she always dreamed of being a guitarist
Speaker 1: in a band, not a solo act. This is broken
Speaker 1: record liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Richard.
Speaker 1: Before we get to my conversation with Nila Freyanya, here's
Speaker 1: a live performance of her song The Dealer with frequent
Speaker 1: collaborator Jazzy Bobby. It's been baking on my mind. Oh
Speaker 1: seems to lose me for the time, for count the
Speaker 1: decision you are for You are someone to life and
Speaker 1: smell like you to say, said speaking to the bone.
Speaker 1: Can somebody see? Somebody says I might ends up be
Speaker 1: all alone this smart bush, I need some time to
Speaker 1: I can't, They says, I need to know that wh
Speaker 1: umty the was the kind of pace she spakes your part, Baby,
Speaker 1: it's me that stake that set apart. I should start.
Speaker 1: Sh Goes can eat our set and stop, Patien star
Speaker 1: shot Goes can eat our sight and stop. It's been
Speaker 1: hing on my mind since I live all the time.
Speaker 1: I gonna tell a decision who I phone. You are
Speaker 1: someone to life? No nothing lost beving that do the
Speaker 1: times come back soon? Somebody asks, I hope it's just
Speaker 1: the summer time to call touch two. I need some
Speaker 1: time to work out this sit I need to Nona
Speaker 1: who Undy. What is the kind of patience takes your part? Baby?
Speaker 1: It's need a stake. I sat part m patien sta.
Speaker 1: She goes, can't eat on satin and stop patient STA.
Speaker 1: She goes, can't eat on satin, stop patient stats. She goes,
Speaker 1: can't eat on satin, stop patient stats. She goes. I
Speaker 1: listened to say, known, got of so, baby, but sometime
Speaker 1: to this is I need to know now what kind
Speaker 1: of patience. I haven't had the chance to see you
Speaker 1: live yet, Unfortunately, I want to correct that soon. So
Speaker 1: that was my first time sort of seeing you, you know,
Speaker 1: do something live. And the incredible thing I was realizing
Speaker 1: as I was listening is as great as the songs are,
Speaker 1: you know, in the way that they uniquely produced like
Speaker 1: on the records, Like even these you know kind of
Speaker 1: bare versions are just as good, like just in a
Speaker 1: different way. I would miss the recorded version, but those
Speaker 1: are so good. Thank you. I'm glad you think so.
Speaker 1: You never know if you've gone like too far away
Speaker 1: from the original version. Yeah, it's always fun to like, yeah,
Speaker 1: things out and maybe wonder how you like write the
Speaker 1: songs because they stand alone so well away from the production.
Speaker 1: But then like on the recordings, there's so much production
Speaker 1: going on, Like are you writing them with all of
Speaker 1: that stuff in mind, all the stuff that ends up
Speaker 1: on the record or did they sort of evolve into
Speaker 1: what people here on the releases? I mean it depends,
Speaker 1: Like broadly speaking, when I'm writing, there's not much production
Speaker 1: involved at the early stages, like I'll just be playing
Speaker 1: something on guitar or working something out and then taking
Speaker 1: it to the studio and then working on it from there.
Speaker 1: Once I kind of have the song. But for this record,
Speaker 1: a lot of it was made like in the studio.
Speaker 1: So I was working with my friend Will Archer, and
Speaker 1: he had a lot of not like all the produced
Speaker 1: kind of effects in there, but a lot of it
Speaker 1: was kind of feeding the process as we went along.
Speaker 1: Did you write a lot of it in studio? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So he had a lot of the guitar parts this
Speaker 1: record with like drums already in there or like effects
Speaker 1: already in then I'd write over it, I guess. Was
Speaker 1: that pretty different from Miss Universe, which was your first record,
Speaker 1: the Miss Universe was it was another kind of experiment,
Speaker 1: I guess because a lot of the songs were like
Speaker 1: old songs I've been working on for a while, and
Speaker 1: then some of them I was like writing in the studio.
Speaker 1: At what point do you bring in like say Jazzy,
Speaker 1: like you've written a song, yeah, you figure you wanted
Speaker 1: on a record. At what point do you bring someone
Speaker 1: like her into like work out parts, And you mean
Speaker 1: like for like live shows or for I guess for
Speaker 1: the records. For the songs, well, I mean Jazz wrote
Speaker 1: a couple of songs together on this record, on the
Speaker 1: new record, Like one of them was totally from scratch
Speaker 1: and one of them was more like help me, I
Speaker 1: need help. Yeah, I guess it depends. But when it
Speaker 1: comes to like doing stuff live, like I'll take it
Speaker 1: to my band, Jazzy's my band and kind of rearrange
Speaker 1: the songs or like arrange the parts for like the
Speaker 1: live shows. On the newest record, you're saying a lot
Speaker 1: of it was written in studio, So how did that
Speaker 1: work with Jazz your band? When I was working with
Speaker 1: Jazz on our song together, we just lard from the
Speaker 1: beginning together and we were writing it together and then
Speaker 1: she recorded it and produced it as Belong with You.
Speaker 1: Otherwise Jazz's not playing on the rest of the record,
Speaker 1: so mean will on most of the songs we wrote
Speaker 1: those together, recorded those I had. Ellis plays drums in
Speaker 1: my bands, come in and we do some of the
Speaker 1: drum parts, like we've already had the demo drums. Some
Speaker 1: of them are good enough to like keep, and some
Speaker 1: of them we were like, let's do live. Let's do
Speaker 1: live versions of these, and some of them is like
Speaker 1: a blend. Which ones did you end up keeping the
Speaker 1: demo drums, like, Chase me, maybe demo drubs is the
Speaker 1: right word, but like produced the first version of it. Yea, yeah,
Speaker 1: Chase Me trying to think now stabilize as a blend
Speaker 1: has like the drum machine and live drums. It's a
Speaker 1: really cool drum party. Yeah, he's kind of He's always like,
Speaker 1: why did I make this so hard when we're doing
Speaker 1: it live? Maybe the rest of them of like blends
Speaker 1: or we have live drums on that, and said, yeah,
Speaker 1: speaking of like the kind of production on this record,
Speaker 1: there's a part in the song Shameless, like maybe three
Speaker 1: quarters the way through it sounds like maybe it was
Speaker 1: a demo version of the song, which it's like you guy,
Speaker 1: it goes into like another world. Yeah, it's like piano
Speaker 1: and oboe, Yeah, some sort of ye clarinet. There we
Speaker 1: go exactly. That was Will, Like I can't only speak
Speaker 1: for him, so it felt like a very Will section
Speaker 1: as well and Will part um and that song. I
Speaker 1: was actually on the fence for a while, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of what's just how I felt about it, Like
Speaker 1: something about it was almost too honest and like too
Speaker 1: up front, and it's like I felt okay writing it,
Speaker 1: but then when I was listening, like singing it, I
Speaker 1: was like, I just don't know, but I love it now.
Speaker 1: What was it about it that didn't feel right when
Speaker 1: you're singing it? I think, um, the lyrics for me,
Speaker 1: and like the melody and everything kind of felt on
Speaker 1: the place two or Guy Got You Too Simple? It
Speaker 1: just fit too well. Yeah. I feel like most people
Speaker 1: would say, like if the lyrics and the vocal melody
Speaker 1: like fit really well into the song, like that's that's
Speaker 1: like a good match. I guess. So yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: maybe it was like you know, when something falls into
Speaker 1: place and then you kind of doubt yourself. You're like, well,
Speaker 1: should it that have been so like easy got you?
Speaker 1: Maybe not easier about have been a bit more of
Speaker 1: a struggle. Yeah, well, I guess it was meant to be,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, not only like is the rhythm in
Speaker 1: your music, but also there's like a dynamic, so many
Speaker 1: of the songs sound equally kind of loud and raucous
Speaker 1: and like quiet and beautiful at the same time, like
Speaker 1: you're looking to fit opposites together. I guess, you know. Yeah, always,
Speaker 1: I think, and it kind of takes me back to
Speaker 1: how I used to write, when I was just like
Speaker 1: always working by myself. A lot of times it kind
Speaker 1: of be a challenge because you come up with one
Speaker 1: part for a song and then I'm like, for the coolest,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do the same, so I need
Speaker 1: to come off other parts. You can't need to take
Speaker 1: yourself into another like headspace, and I come up a
Speaker 1: whole of a section and then go back to the
Speaker 1: original things and just see if they fit and see
Speaker 1: if it works together. But for me, that's how I
Speaker 1: kept things interesting for myself. So I think maybe finding
Speaker 1: ways to like keep that I don't know, I guess
Speaker 1: that's always stayed with me, trying not to do something
Speaker 1: that feels too obvious. But I think I'm learning that's
Speaker 1: totally like what's obvious to me is different to you
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So sometimes I felt like there's too
Speaker 1: many different things going on in one song, so it's
Speaker 1: like how to pull it back and how to simplify it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because even on I guess like Midnight Sun, you know,
Speaker 1: like the ending you have like this, you know, crazy
Speaker 1: distortion going. It's amazing Sacks, beautiful sweet sound in Sacks.
Speaker 1: It makes me smile every time I hear it from
Speaker 1: Jazzy and such a cool, interesting contract. It makes the
Speaker 1: music such an interesting listen and just never know what's
Speaker 1: happening next, keep you on your toes. It definitely keeps
Speaker 1: me on myself. Yeah, I don't know. For me, that's
Speaker 1: the point of kind of writing a song. It's like
Speaker 1: just get bored up always, like if it always stays
Speaker 1: the same, or just go well, it has to be
Speaker 1: a really good reason why it's going to stay like that,
Speaker 1: or just not trip you up, or I'll surprise you.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll get into that phase a got later. It
Speaker 1: sounds like you you've kind of had that inclination from
Speaker 1: the beginning. Even listening to like the EPs and stuff,
Speaker 1: it sounds like that's kind of there. I feel like
Speaker 1: the static maybe has changed a little bit, but it
Speaker 1: sounds like that basic element of your music, the element
Speaker 1: of surprise, has sort of always been there. Yeah. It
Speaker 1: kind of creates like for me, like attention and like
Speaker 1: a place to go to like a direction. Are there
Speaker 1: other artists that you can think of that do that
Speaker 1: in a way that's interesting to you? I mean I
Speaker 1: say this one a lot, but like PJ. Harvey A
Speaker 1: should do a cover of rid of Me at the
Speaker 1: moment with jazz Um. It sounds really good. I think
Speaker 1: that's a beautiful song. Thanks. I mean I didn't write it,
Speaker 1: so I can't say thanks. Yeah, yeah, no, it's just
Speaker 1: I find the way Harvey writes it's like kind of
Speaker 1: does a lot of that, like tension pulling release and
Speaker 1: like stripping things back and then kind of letting things go.
Speaker 1: And like for that with that song as well, it's
Speaker 1: like the guitar kind of has this really strong rhythm
Speaker 1: and then the voice just does this like kind of
Speaker 1: crazy thing. I was surprised that, you know, like a
Speaker 1: while back. I found your cover of the Pixies song
Speaker 1: Hey Yes. I was gonna say Pixies another band as
Speaker 1: you were explaining the way PJ Harvey does. You know
Speaker 1: her songs are sort of constructed, and I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: it's kind of similar with even that song, like I didn't.
Speaker 1: I was surprised you covered it. As you're explaining it,
Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense, like there's a super
Speaker 1: strong melody, it's always going different places. That song, you know,
Speaker 1: that was one of the first songs I heard and
Speaker 1: I was like sixteen, and I was like, wow, like
Speaker 1: this makes sense, Like it makes sense. I kind of
Speaker 1: see what they're doing and I want to do the
Speaker 1: same thing. Do you remember where you heard it first?
Speaker 1: On YouTube? Just just I was like hor I was
Speaker 1: on YouTube and I was like, actually, a guitar teacher
Speaker 1: told me to listen to it. He was like, I
Speaker 1: think you're kind of like this band. I was like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: so good. I remember I saw them you just got
Speaker 1: downe playing Coachella. I remember the first time I went
Speaker 1: to Coachella was like two thousand and four, fourteen. I
Speaker 1: built it out telling my mom and I went out
Speaker 1: through some friends and yeah, that was like their reunion show,
Speaker 1: and I remember that. I just like fucking was the craziest,
Speaker 1: Like just they're they're insane, They're amazing. Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: that's all like as well, and the lyrics as well
Speaker 1: as totally insane Blair, I have no idea to this
Speaker 1: day with I almost and I don't want to. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want to focus too much on what they are.
Speaker 1: Some of the lyrics are scary and like, but some
Speaker 1: of them makes sense, like, they makes sense some weird
Speaker 1: abstract ways. It's a devil between us and hears in
Speaker 1: the door. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: glad to make sense. It doesn't make any sense, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make immediate sense because each each line kind
Speaker 1: of means its own thing. Yeah, and the feeling like
Speaker 1: they wanted to vokes like them. It makes emotional sense
Speaker 1: to me at least, Yeah, emotional sense. Logical sense, it
Speaker 1: makes like and it might it might it might be
Speaker 1: like a really great meaning but makes like logically I
Speaker 1: don't know, but yeah, emotionally I'm like, yeah, it's a great,
Speaker 1: such a good band. Did you find a lot of
Speaker 1: bands through like YouTube and stuff? I think so yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely it was a very good. It worked very well
Speaker 1: for me. I still spend too much time on They're
Speaker 1: going on YouTube bowls and like old old music that
Speaker 1: is on there, and you're just like, what is this?
Speaker 1: You know, it's really interesting visually as well. It's like
Speaker 1: you all this different kind of information of like and
Speaker 1: then you get the comment. It's just like wholes like
Speaker 1: whole world. The comments are though, the comments make me,
Speaker 1: you know, not really believe in humanity too much. Though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I learned the hard way not to look
Speaker 1: at video comments. Before we pause for a quick break,
Speaker 1: let's hear Nilafer play her song Midnight Sun from her
Speaker 1: new album Painless comment book The Things a sob man
Speaker 1: to feel. Found myself a better do, so maybe be
Speaker 1: better time this chouse you still like to say say,
Speaker 1: say do this a job of riding and none snug talk,
Speaker 1: can't keep my head, don't don't blood not tell me
Speaker 1: pete and better I noticing blood and mos w left
Speaker 1: my skin. The feelings of your conking God they can
Speaker 1: justice anyway, So maybe be better. Don't chouse you still
Speaker 1: like to say say sorry, I can do it a
Speaker 1: job and now I SnO okay, can keep my head,
Speaker 1: don't don't like and for no time, pardon I never
Speaker 1: try explaining? Do you all? I say, con keep my
Speaker 1: mouth shot this time still let to say say say
Speaker 1: this raise by com face. Didn't I lose the sleeves?
Speaker 1: Always I did it for you. I felt so short.
Speaker 1: You're my best, my ship, you, my man. I so
Speaker 1: always I did it for you. Remember every life, go
Speaker 1: through it one more time, so showing me how to
Speaker 1: speak through him, think me the spinning, do so but
Speaker 1: to this joys you stop that so so sad? Do
Speaker 1: it the job of a value, and no man slung? Okay,
Speaker 1: can keep my eye supposed to low and they have
Speaker 1: not to en and never try expanding. Do you hold
Speaker 1: on sight? Can my hands up from it's still like
Speaker 1: to say so sad? This rays bout figures I dins
Speaker 1: best means always I did it for you. I felt
Speaker 1: so short You're my best, my sheet, you, my men,
Speaker 1: my son. Always I did it for you. I didn't
Speaker 1: so short you might my sheet, my son. M We're
Speaker 1: back with my conversation with Nila for Janya. When did
Speaker 1: you first start writing songs? Probably I was quite young.
Speaker 1: I had a like lots of notebooks. I was just
Speaker 1: like write lyrics in like as poetry or as no
Speaker 1: like as a song. But I didn't have like I
Speaker 1: was just I either hadn't started learning guitar yet or
Speaker 1: I didn't. I just imagined the parts and just heard
Speaker 1: them in my head kind of thing. How old would
Speaker 1: you ben ten? Like before I went to high school? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wasn't playing guitar then, so I was just kind
Speaker 1: of writing songs where they weren't real songs. What inspired
Speaker 1: you at tend to be writing songs? That's ambitious? I
Speaker 1: just thought like bands were really cool. The idea of
Speaker 1: a rock band was really cool, and I really wanted
Speaker 1: to play guitar and being a band, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to sing them. I just wanted to be a guitar player. Yeah,
Speaker 1: playing guitar in the band. And then I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: if you have a band, you have to write the songs.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I was always interested in the songwriting. Is
Speaker 1: there a band or a group of bands early on
Speaker 1: that would have yeah, like Blink one A two, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I was younger, like, yeah, they're one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: What you do is so far away from Yeah, I
Speaker 1: came I think I've you know, changed since then, which
Speaker 1: is good. Yeah, absolutely, But this is when I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, nine, yeah, yeah, that's a good age to
Speaker 1: be in the blink, that's that's the appropriate age. You know,
Speaker 1: very catchy songs, you know. Yeah, and they He had
Speaker 1: loads of good guitar parts and melodies. Just loved to
Speaker 1: sound as a guitar. That's funny because I feel like
Speaker 1: pop punk's an adjective that comes up when I'm reading
Speaker 1: stuff about you. It's never occurred to me like when
Speaker 1: I listened. I mean I was very young, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I understood. So if you start writing songs at ten,
Speaker 1: but really with that like a melody, just sort of
Speaker 1: writing words but imagining their songs, when do you get
Speaker 1: a guitar? I started playing guitar maybe like eleven twelve,
Speaker 1: just kind of like a messing around on it. First
Speaker 1: at home. It was like some random guitar my granddad
Speaker 1: had given my sister. I don't think he had all
Speaker 1: the strings, and it was not very good, but it worked.
Speaker 1: It worked, and I thought it sounded really good. And
Speaker 1: then I started having some lessons. That's cool. Took her
Speaker 1: from there. It was any of your family musically inclined. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say everyone was kind of musically inclined. My uncle,
Speaker 1: he's a producer and like musician writer, so he was
Speaker 1: another guy who played guitar, played bass, made lots of music,
Speaker 1: had a studio where at was the studio. He was
Speaker 1: working in London for a while in like acting, and
Speaker 1: then they moved like out to the countryside build his
Speaker 1: own studio. Cool, did he anything? We would now? He
Speaker 1: did a lot of like Spanish acts, Spanish pope or
Speaker 1: Spanish pop rock, I guess. And then he was like
Speaker 1: in some like britt funk bands when he was younger.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's anyone you would know, but
Speaker 1: his name's Joe Stiff Dvornik. He who showed myself on guitar.
Speaker 1: He would encourage me as well. And then my parents
Speaker 1: are like visual assists. So my mum got me to
Speaker 1: piano when I was younger because she loved piano. Started
Speaker 1: doing that from like seven years old. Cool. My dad,
Speaker 1: he's Turkish, so he loves taxis music. He was like
Speaker 1: musically inclined because he'd always be playing the saz what's
Speaker 1: the sas kind of a folk instrument like an ood
Speaker 1: or something not too far away. Six strings, five groups
Speaker 1: of strings, but they come in groups of like three,
Speaker 1: so they're all tuned to like the same peg, so
Speaker 1: it sounds like a double string guitar kind of. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a lot like has a lot of richer sound,
Speaker 1: like thinner sound as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: Had did you appreciate the Turkish music you were hearing
Speaker 1: grown up? I don't think I did when I was younger, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I didn't really get it because he played a
Speaker 1: lot of like kind of classical traditional stuff and it
Speaker 1: was a bit like my mom was really into like
Speaker 1: getting into like Mozart, and I was like, you can
Speaker 1: hear the melodies and you can understand that, but like
Speaker 1: I didn't really like appreciate it. Very grateful to have headaches, fosed,
Speaker 1: very cool. When did you start performing I started doing
Speaker 1: like open mics just by myself. I just left school,
Speaker 1: so maybe eighteen around that time, so within the last
Speaker 1: ten years. Yeah, okay, what was it coming from like
Speaker 1: just writing songs, you know, by yourself to performing them?
Speaker 1: It was abstract, like it was totally weird. Like I
Speaker 1: knew if I wanted to do music, I perhaps to
Speaker 1: kind of get used to the idea of performing. So
Speaker 1: I was really pushing myself to just get good at it,
Speaker 1: I guess, and feel comfortable with it. But it was
Speaker 1: really strange because like you write something you're playing at home,
Speaker 1: you're singing at home, or like even like recording like demos. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh it sounds so different to how I imagine it?
Speaker 1: Why is that? And then you play it on stage
Speaker 1: and like it sounds so different power imagine it? Had
Speaker 1: you been recording demos at that point, Yeah, I've done
Speaker 1: a few demos at school with my friends for music class,
Speaker 1: I guess as well. And then I did record a
Speaker 1: song on my uncle studio as well. Yeah that was cool.
Speaker 1: Did it ever come out or now it was on
Speaker 1: YouTube for a long time a video as well. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear that. Oh my god. No, did
Speaker 1: performing then? Did it change the way you wrote after that?
Speaker 1: I think so a little bit. Yeah, because in my head,
Speaker 1: I guess I was always writing for like an imaginary band,
Speaker 1: so like the guitar parts I wrote were like more
Speaker 1: like little riff, and then when I was on stage,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, like how is this?
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to sometimes it doesn't have all
Speaker 1: the components of like rhythm like too strongly in there.
Speaker 1: So kind of building an accompaniment for the voice is
Speaker 1: different for like building parts of the guitar. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I don't know if it changed it too much. I
Speaker 1: was kind of aware of it. Probably definitely allf we
Speaker 1: did this is the process you countar playing super rhythmic.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I feel like I can hear the drum
Speaker 1: parts even if there's no drums. You know, when did
Speaker 1: you give up on the band dream, like just being
Speaker 1: a guitarist. No, I did have some bonds at school. Yeah.
Speaker 1: At the beginning, I was like, no, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: not singing, And then when I got a bit older,
Speaker 1: I was like, that my song, so I have to
Speaker 1: sing that. And you met Jazzy who played sax for
Speaker 1: us here at school? Right? Yeah? We met on music tour?
Speaker 1: What is that? What's on? What's music tour? Our school
Speaker 1: had a really cool music department, And I think it
Speaker 1: was when I was thirteen, Me and Jazz became friends
Speaker 1: because we were sharing her toe over What did you
Speaker 1: guys bond over? I think just the experience, I guess,
Speaker 1: I like, yeah, we were in Prague, so you're performing
Speaker 1: these songs and you're writing songs. Not all that long ago,
Speaker 1: eight nine years ago? When did it happen that you
Speaker 1: got signed and were able to record your first record?
Speaker 1: So I got signed to my label. I want to say,
Speaker 1: like twenty seventeen eighteen, How did that come about? I
Speaker 1: was releasing EPs up until that point with another label,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't like like a steal. You were just
Speaker 1: part of like more of a collective. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: more a bit more relaxed, but we were releasing EPs
Speaker 1: and that was really fun. I was like things start
Speaker 1: to think about, like okay, album next, like how do
Speaker 1: how do I want to do this? Because should I
Speaker 1: work with? I was trying to find new labels or
Speaker 1: find different labels for me. The EP part was like
Speaker 1: really exciting because it's like to get from like having
Speaker 1: no kind of connections to releasing music physically like vinyls
Speaker 1: as well. That felt like a big jump. But I
Speaker 1: go from the EPC the album kind of made more
Speaker 1: sense because it's like I kind of already had a
Speaker 1: manager in place, already had kind of connections and people
Speaker 1: helping me. Yeah, but I think before that, getting to
Speaker 1: the EP stage, it was like, how am I going
Speaker 1: to do this? Yeah? Right, this is really hard? Interesting?
Speaker 1: Yeah where did you record those EPs? In London? Yeah? Against,
Speaker 1: but like at home or in a studio with different
Speaker 1: producers that I was working with at the time. I
Speaker 1: hadn't like found like one person. I was like, this
Speaker 1: is person, Like we're going to make all the music together.
Speaker 1: It was I was kind of like China, different engineers,
Speaker 1: different producers, making a lot of demos. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back with more from Nilla for Yanja after a quick break.
Speaker 1: Before we get back to the rest of my conversation
Speaker 1: with Nilla for Yanya, let's hear a live performance of
Speaker 1: one of her newest songs, Chase men feel that need
Speaker 1: no more chases. Let me make hathway to Hugh Babies,
Speaker 1: no fan Amon anymore spaces are gonna make haathway to you,
Speaker 1: baby slump my stock goados head a room, chase me
Speaker 1: you who babies, Peanut wid you baby all go sazy
Speaker 1: crazy hazy. And I can make no friends because I
Speaker 1: can make no sence because I can't. Baby ten feels
Speaker 1: like so bad calming and feels like soul that scarring.
Speaker 1: It feels like sol and gol and he's like con
Speaker 1: said son as Bison's bad drug, and he's like the
Speaker 1: concert song, it's not flooding chases name you make hath
Speaker 1: flay to you, who baby is not fan anymore? Spaces
Speaker 1: aver make hath fay to you baby snow my stock
Speaker 1: goados he over chase me you babies mean, ain't why
Speaker 1: you baby all go sazing hazy hazy, SnO the way
Speaker 1: you ain't in snow the way you said it's snow
Speaker 1: the way we man feels like so bad calling and
Speaker 1: feels like so that starving. It's like solid girl, and
Speaker 1: it was like Co sad song as this stands hard
Speaker 1: a job and it was like Co sad song, It's
Speaker 1: nothing that need no more chases lending make half way
Speaker 1: to you, who babies fan on on anymore? Spaces of
Speaker 1: the me half way to you babies not my song
Speaker 1: to go ridos in a will chase me to you?
Speaker 1: Who babies mean? Ain't white to you baby? Oh go
Speaker 1: sazy hazy hazy Ti too long time, too love Time
Speaker 1: Too long, sister of T too Love TI Too love Long,
Speaker 1: tell me at a little bit about how could ravel went.
Speaker 1: That's kind of a pretty big gig, right, it was interesting,
Speaker 1: a lot of traveling, and then the changeover is like
Speaker 1: really quick, so lots of things went wrong in that changeover,
Speaker 1: had to cut a song, like just things aren't working
Speaker 1: because it was like first gig the tour, so those
Speaker 1: things are going to go wrong, but we pulled off,
Speaker 1: I think yeah, and I had fun and like the
Speaker 1: crowd was nice. It was just like it was a
Speaker 1: quite overwhelming experience. You mean you've done other festival dates. Ye,
Speaker 1: did it feel different? The last thing we did was
Speaker 1: like a EU and UK tour. To change from that
Speaker 1: to like just straight at festival, everything's a mess. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's totally kind of different. I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: can't hear anything. It's kind of what festivals are like
Speaker 1: generally kind of chaotic mess, very chaotic, And yeah, the
Speaker 1: Cloud seems to enjoy it, so I can't really complain.
Speaker 1: I guess following you on Instagram and search, seems like
Speaker 1: you travel quite a bit, and I'm curious, like what,
Speaker 1: like how travel either just informs you as a person
Speaker 1: and maybe also informs your music if it are like
Speaker 1: it seems like it's an important part of your life, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say, I mean definitely with music, like being
Speaker 1: able to travel and play shows in different places, especially
Speaker 1: like during the pandemic, Like I kind of realized how
Speaker 1: massive that is of a privilege to be able to
Speaker 1: do that. Not everyone gets to travel, and not everyone
Speaker 1: gets to travel because of the job or the music,
Speaker 1: So it feels it's really amazing when those two things
Speaker 1: come together. I just never want to take that for granted,
Speaker 1: I guess, and then it's just a I just think
Speaker 1: it's a great thing to be able to do, like
Speaker 1: when you can have family in different places. So also
Speaker 1: feels a bit like necessity. I guess that that old
Speaker 1: saying that people say about boiling your mind, it really does,
Speaker 1: because it physically you take yourself out of your everyday environment.
Speaker 1: And then when your song totally different, you can't think
Speaker 1: about normal things because you're just so like caught up
Speaker 1: in the moment of oh, how do I do this?
Speaker 1: Or where do I go? Or like how does this work?
Speaker 1: You're always having to improvise. Where's your family at. I
Speaker 1: have some family in Turkey. I haven't seen them in
Speaker 1: a while, so I'd like to do that next. My
Speaker 1: mom's from Barbados and Island, so I have plans to
Speaker 1: go talk the Caribbean soon. Yeah. We still go to
Speaker 1: Island quite a bit when I was younger. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone in my family kind of likes moving as well,
Speaker 1: so really yeah, kind of not moving like physical like
Speaker 1: moving house, but just movement, being on the move. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Most of my immediate family, they all live in London.
Speaker 1: Did you feel like steeped in all the various cultures
Speaker 1: growing up? But did you just feel did you just
Speaker 1: feel English? It's interesting, Yeah, I don't really, It's kind
Speaker 1: of hard to remember. I guess exactly what you feel like.
Speaker 1: But I was aware of like these two very different
Speaker 1: things happening in my family, and like two different kind
Speaker 1: of sides. I guess to it because like my mum's side,
Speaker 1: she grew up in London, so I think she very
Speaker 1: much has that identity. And my dad came from Estanbul
Speaker 1: and like very much carries that identity with him. So
Speaker 1: on one side, my mom family was Catholic and my
Speaker 1: dad's Muslim. Those two things alone are like this is
Speaker 1: very different, and you kind of sense that growing up.
Speaker 1: But I think the beauty of like growing up in
Speaker 1: London is that everyone comes from different places, so you
Speaker 1: don't feel like you have to be you have to
Speaker 1: kind of be one thing, right, Yeah, I'm very grateful
Speaker 1: for that. You can embrace the Yeah, you can embrace
Speaker 1: the class definitely have to try to anyway. So that's
Speaker 1: fascinating me. That's really that's wildly different. It's like wildly
Speaker 1: different just day to day, like the way as a
Speaker 1: Muslim and as a just like things like Christmas. I
Speaker 1: was always like, oh, um, like does that work? Well?
Speaker 1: My dad would always go to Turkey to see his
Speaker 1: family then because he was teaching as well, so he
Speaker 1: had like time off when they were holidays in the UK,
Speaker 1: so he's always goes to his family and then yeah,
Speaker 1: it's beaut with my mum's family. But Christmas and that, No,
Speaker 1: I still love Christmas, but it's like that you get
Speaker 1: that sense like oh, I'm not meant to, I'm not
Speaker 1: supposed to or this isn't really my culture, but it
Speaker 1: is at the same time. So as you do get all,
Speaker 1: do you realize like there is an individual self? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that exists alongside those things. I'm next to it, but
Speaker 1: I'm not necessarily you know, it doesn't dictate everything in
Speaker 1: my life. Yeah, And I think that's where music that
Speaker 1: always helped me stay kind of saying because it's like
Speaker 1: that's my own thing kind of just for me in
Speaker 1: a way, and it's always helped me understand or even
Speaker 1: like pushed me to do things I wouldn't do or
Speaker 1: like kind of just grow. But it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: connect with your like where you come from, like your culture,
Speaker 1: identities or religion. Like it doesn't have to do it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to connect those things unless you want
Speaker 1: it to. Writing music always felt like I didn't have
Speaker 1: to do that. I mean, like no one asked me
Speaker 1: to do, you know what I mean. It's like I
Speaker 1: just I just enjoyed it and I thought it was
Speaker 1: fun and like I knew it's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: It didn't really make sense to like anyone else. I
Speaker 1: think it was kind of like just not my own thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like for a while, I was like stuck between like,
Speaker 1: oh music a lot, like what should I do like UNI,
Speaker 1: or like what should I study? It's really ambitious to
Speaker 1: be like ten, and like I loved music when I
Speaker 1: was ten, but I was not writing you know songs,
Speaker 1: are attempting to write songs when I was ten and
Speaker 1: then like to like you know, by the time you're
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen, you're out performing and like you're like, this
Speaker 1: is what I want to do and this is my thing.
Speaker 1: Like that's a really I don't know, evolved like way
Speaker 1: to approach something that you enjoy. You know, most people
Speaker 1: enjoy things like they just participate at the fan level
Speaker 1: and you're like, you know, I don't know necessarily how
Speaker 1: or but I'm gonna make this. I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1: That's what's interesting about kids. I guess it's like how
Speaker 1: did they come up with these ideas? Like it's still
Speaker 1: perplexed by Yeah, I guess I just felt like I
Speaker 1: had to do it. I think. Also, and like Nope,
Speaker 1: when I kind of was getting like growing up, I
Speaker 1: was quite like shying resolved. So it's like I still
Speaker 1: am like that I knew like if I didn't do it,
Speaker 1: I was never going to do it, kind of thing
Speaker 1: like if you if you just didn't jump. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: I didn't make myself do it, then I might not
Speaker 1: ever do it. I was quite like catalo of that
Speaker 1: kind of natural like desire to like want to please people,
Speaker 1: I think, But I was also kind of aware of
Speaker 1: like maybe like what I actually wanted to do for myself.
Speaker 1: So it's like I could always do things that people
Speaker 1: tell you to do, but then you can also just
Speaker 1: also do your own saying. So music was like subtle
Speaker 1: way of rebellion A yea yeah, people pleasing tendency, and
Speaker 1: then you felt like if you didn't jump right in
Speaker 1: and like put yourself to do shows, which you might
Speaker 1: feel like you're otherwise too shy to do, like you
Speaker 1: maybe would lose all of it. Like maybe you wouldn't
Speaker 1: just write songs by yourself. Who knows what you would
Speaker 1: miss out on? Right? Yeah? Do you think you would
Speaker 1: have kept writing just kind of personally, like as a
Speaker 1: hobby or just for a personal fulfillment if you hadn't
Speaker 1: pursued it a professional Yeah, And I kind of wonder
Speaker 1: like that would kind of also be interesting because maybe
Speaker 1: I'd be better something else. Maybe I'd be good at
Speaker 1: doing two things. What do you think it would be?
Speaker 1: I don't know, like what if I was like writing
Speaker 1: books or maybe my songwriting would have evolved just differently,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know why I felt the rush in
Speaker 1: the panic. Yeah, yeah, to do it, Like I could
Speaker 1: have just taken my time. It's impressive though, it's really impressive. Okay,
Speaker 1: So do you still feel a certain amount of innate
Speaker 1: pressure on yourself or like like you're in a bit
Speaker 1: of a hurry to do things, like you feel like
Speaker 1: you got to keep moving or else or are you
Speaker 1: going to stall? Yes? Yeah, And I'm trying to like
Speaker 1: tell myself like it doesn't it's not real. That's just
Speaker 1: what's in my head. Like you can stall or you
Speaker 1: can't stop, you can break relax, yeah, just relaxing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And like, um, I always aim to like work more slowly.
Speaker 1: That's like my current aim, like all the time, take
Speaker 1: more time, make it slow, like don't rush it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: are you making stuff now? His writing? I'm not really
Speaker 1: writing at the moment. I keep having like weird dreams
Speaker 1: where I'm like buying songs Like I'm like like I've
Speaker 1: never really done that before, like written something that I've
Speaker 1: heard in a dream. But like I've been trying to
Speaker 1: because I keep hearing stuff. Oh you gotta you gotta
Speaker 1: take it down. Yeah. But it's like you know when
Speaker 1: you work up your voices, like yeah, you're like recording
Speaker 1: to your fine like it's always sounded this morning. I
Speaker 1: always I always think of um like Satisfaction was written
Speaker 1: that way. I read in the bo Keith Richards was
Speaker 1: like asleep, like dead asleep and like dreamt like of
Speaker 1: the song and then like woke up and was like,
Speaker 1: oh fucking like grab your recorder and like just like
Speaker 1: bump bump blah blah bamah. I was like, fuck. I
Speaker 1: imagine if Keith Richards didn't stumble out of bed from
Speaker 1: some in some hotel room, you know, probably you know,
Speaker 1: fucked up and record that, Like god damn, we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have that song. It kind of comes from the same
Speaker 1: kind of place. It's like distinctive kind of melody and
Speaker 1: just idea. So it's like when you're a sleeper week
Speaker 1: it doesn't even make a difference. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: all I'm sure equally good and equally bad ideas. Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: coming you're sleep, you know, and out of sleep. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely that place where you're you're you're turned off
Speaker 1: to the conscious mind. Yeah, it kind of makes more
Speaker 1: sense of your dreaming. Yeah, when people are like it
Speaker 1: just appeared, it's just from the star, it's like, how
Speaker 1: I feel like, maybe you got to sleep with the recorder.
Speaker 1: I mean you have your phone. Yeah, you got to
Speaker 1: just do it. Yes, true? Cool. Well, thank you for
Speaker 1: taking the time to play some stuff. Thank you, there's
Speaker 1: a real pleasure. Yeah, catch you next time. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Nila for Yanya for coming on Broken Record to talk
Speaker 1: about her life, career and her latest album. You can
Speaker 1: hear all of our favorite Nilla for Yanya songs on
Speaker 1: a playlist at broken Record podcast dot com. Be sure
Speaker 1: to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com
Speaker 1: slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all of
Speaker 1: our new episodes. You can allow us on Twitter at
Speaker 1: broken Record. Broken Record is produced with help from Lea Rose,
Speaker 1: Jason Gambrel, Bentaladay, Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering
Speaker 1: help from Nick Chaffey. Our executive producer is Mia Lavell.
Speaker 1: Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you
Speaker 1: like this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to
Speaker 1: Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers
Speaker 1: bonus content an uninterrupted ad free listening for four ninety
Speaker 1: nine on a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple
Speaker 1: podcast subscriptions, and if you'd like the show, please remember
Speaker 1: to share, rate and review us on your podcast, Apple,
Speaker 1: our theme music. Expect any beats. I'm Justin Richmond,