After releasing her third full-length LP "My Method Actor" last September to critical acclaim, singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya has returned with a brand new EP titled "Dancing Shoes." It's a quick burst of guitar-heavy pop that picks up where "My Method Actor" left off.
The songs for "Dancing Shoes" came together quickly in the studio after Yanya's last tour. Lead single "Where To Look" is one that she had been toying with during the "My Method Actor" sessions, but it didn't gel until later. "When we came back from tour, it suddenly clicked," Yanya said in a press statement. "Melodically, it’s one of my favourite things ever. Very glad I was able to give it the time and breathing space that it needed.”
Yanya has been touring a lot recently. In September, she performed at Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Festival, and on Monday she returns to the Triangle for a show at The Ritz with Alex G.
Born and raised in London, Yanya discovered the guitar at a young age after rifling through her sister's CD collection.
"I was into anything with a guitar in it," she told WUNC. "It was like Blink 182 and Linkin Park. It was a whole different thing back then."
She picked up the instrument herself around age 12 and soon after, she started writing her own songs.
These days, Yanya has gained a reputation as one of the most distinctive guitarists going. Her tone is rich and unique, and once you learn her sound you can spot it the second you hear it. All of her albums have been well-received by both audiences and critics, earning her "Best New Music" awards from Pitchfork as well as new fans around the globe.
For "My Method Actor," she and collaborator Wilma Archer decided to focus on keeping things simple."On this record we just wanted to create something more distilled with just the two of us," she said. "We've worked together on my last couple of records, but this time we decided to hyper-focus on the sound we wanted without being tempted to let other outside sounds in."
Yanya and Archer have worked together since her first album, 2019's "Miss Universe." As collaborators, they've grown closer over the years.
"He's brilliant and has great taste. He's very prolific when it comes to ideas and we really bonded on guitars when we first met," she told WUNC. "It felt like he was the only person I had met at that point who really understood the sound I was going for."
When she was writing her latest record, Yanya said that the concept of method acting kept popping into her head.
"It came up as a lyric in a song and I decided to run with it," she said. "There's a parallel between the theory of method acting and the way I see my life enmeshed with music and writing and being on stage."
Yanya said that while performing on stage is a big part of her life and she's become more accustomed to it, it’s still an intense experience for her. "In method acting, the theory is you study your character so much that you no longer have to act. You become the character and you react as the character, and that's how I feel when I go on stage."
Both "Dancing Shoes" and "My Method Actor" are out now on Ninja Tune Records.
