Nilufer Yanya is an English indie and alternative rock singer-songwriter and musician. Her new album, Painless, came out this Spring.
The singer’s music is “raw,” she told the Guardian. “Even when it’s a finished track it’s still got that kind of unfinished, unpolished edge to it.”
Yanya was longlisted for BBC Sound of 2018.
Nilufer Yanya: Indie artist and humanitarian
Yanya began uploading tracks to SoundCloud in 2014. Following recognition, she refused an offer to join a girl group headed by One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson.
“It’s not anything I would ever like to do,” Yanya told The Independent. “They were trying to convince me, presenting it as such a good opportunity. They said this girl band will be so successful that you’ll have a platform to go and do your own music.”
In 2016, Yanya released her first EP Small Crimes/Keep on Calling. She released her second and third EPs, Plant Feed and Do You Like Pain? In 2017 and 2018. Her 2021 album, Inside Out, is a compilation of the three.
Yanya released her debut album, Miss Universe, with the independent New York label ATO Records in 2019. She has opened on tours for artists including Mitski, The xx, and Interpol.
Yanya launched an initiative, Artists in Transit, with her sister Molly in 2016. The pair visited the Greek Island Kos during the refugee crisis the year prior. Inspired, the sisters fundraised to bring creative workshops to refugee children in Greece and then London.
“Their parents just want them to have a nice time no matter where they are, so we’re playing to that,” the singer told The Guardian. “I don’t know how to help people get out of that situation, [but] I think the first step is getting to know people and bridging some sort of gap.”
Nilufer Yanya embraces her Turkish Heritage
Yanya was born in 1995 to visual artist parents. Her mother is half Irish, half Bajan (British Barbadian) and her father is Turkish. She grew up in Chelsea, London.
“When you grow up here and your parents are from other countries, you want to disassociate in some way,” Yanya told The Guardian. “You’re like: ‘No, I just want to be from London, I don’t want to have to deal with all this other stuff.’”
Only in adulthood did Yanya begun to gravitate towards her Turkish heritage. She started taking lessons in Turkish. The upcoming album Painless features a saz, a lute-like instrument her father used to play.
Yanya includes much of her family in her music career. The singer’s older sister Molly directs some of her music videos and her younger sister Elif occasionally sings back-up. She uses her uncle’s studio, Riverfish Music, for recording.
It was her uncle who began to teach Yanya chords and rhythms on guitar, along with The Invisible’s Dave Okumu. At that time, Yanya already played classical piano. At 15 years old, the young musician recorded her first song “Promise” at Riverfish. Molly created the music video.
“You don’t feel the need to impress anyone so the ideas you present are maybe more you than you might try and present to someone else,” she told Loud and Quiet about working with family. “You’re just presenting yourself. It’s quite rare, I think.”
Nilufer Yanya: Painless
Yanya released Painless with her label ATO Records on March 4, 2022. The LP follows a 2020 EP Feeling Lucky. Painless is available on her website.
“It’s a record about emotion,” Yanya told The Fader. “I think it’s more open about that in a way that Miss Universe wasn’t because there’s so many cloaks and sleeves with the concept I built around it. I’m not as scared to admit my feelings.”
Watch the lead single “Stabilise” from Painless:
“I was really thinking about your surroundings and how much they influence or change your perception of things,” Yanya lsaid “Stabilise.” “A lot of the city is just grey and concrete, there’s no escape. The video plays on the central theme in the song of no one coming to save you ever.”
The singer will go on tour with Painless following the album’s release. Performance dates begin in March and continue to September. Yanya will sing in various European countries beginning with the UK and including France, Germany, and the Netherlands. The international tour will also take her to the US and Canada.
