"My Method Actor"

Nilüfer Yanya: A never-ending search for sound

Nilüfer Yanya with her new work "My Method Actor" - usually the third one decides the weal and woe of a music career.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Ninja Tune, Molly Daniel)

With her debut album "Miss Universe", Londoner Nilüfer Yanya roared to the top of the indie rock world like an ICE train. The big hype of the early days is over, on her third album "My Method Actor" the 29-year-old now appears calmer and more mature. The "Krone" spoke to her about career kickstarts, Louis Tomlinson and pain you can't feel.

Every life is made up of countless "what if" questions that you should never ask yourself, because you can't influence the direction and fate of things afterwards anyway. Almost ten years ago, Nilüfer Yanya was asked whether she wanted to take part in a planned girl group project by former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson - she declined with thanks and released her debut EP "Small Crimes" on the London indie label Blue Flowers a few months later, making a name for herself on the London indie scene for the first time. Today, the British woman of Turkish origin is 29 years old, has released her third studio album "My Method Actor" and has long been a phenomenon on the global indie rock scene.

She is also going her own way
She has already played as support for Adele, Mitski, The xx and Interpol, was included in the BBC's prestigious "The Sound Of..." list for 2018 and wowed audiences at the Californian mega festival Coachella. Quite a lot of success for someone who gave an established global star the cold shoulder just a few years earlier. Yanya was never deterred by the hype. Not even in 2019, when she went through the roof with her debut album "Miss Universe" and was only inevitably brought back down to earth by the pandemic. "When people listen to my music, it's nice," she tells us in the Krone interview, "I'm more worried about how I can keep them interested in the long term or how I can get them to like new songs when they come into contact with my earlier ones."

In retrospect, the pandemic actually came in handy for Yanya after her career took off in order to avoid losing her footing too soon. "The time was just right for me, I wanted to take a break anyway. But I first had to learn what it means to take a break and keep my feet still. Always having to bring out a new album can put a lot of pressure on you. The machinery of the music industry still scares me, it's one big chimera that you can't grasp. I'm happiest when I'm in the studio working on songs or on stage. All the promo and publicity dates, interviews, awards and receptions are often artificially fabricated. As long as you're aware of that, it's much easier to get by in this world."

The idea of transformation
For "My Method Actor", Yanya retreated to the studio with her creative partner Wilma Archer (Sudan Archives). The new album very much carries the idea of transformation. The change from one stage of life to the next. The approaching 30th birthday in 2025 and also the realization that after three albums and a career spanning almost ten years, Nilüfer Yanya is a force to be reckoned with in the music business. The pair's writing sessions took place between London, Wales and Eastbourne, and the music accordingly drifts in many directions. There are expansive, almost cinematic soundscapes ("Method Actor", "Call It Love") to explore, but there is also plenty of room for the artist's more familiar, more compressed songs. It almost seems as if every song, every line of text is a never-ending search for herself and her place in the cosmos of the music world.

"My mother always tells me that I capture the zeitgeist in my songs," laughs the 29-year-old, "very often I sing about the lack of feelings. Many melancholy things in life can be painless because you don't let them get to you at all. You feel that something is wrong and you are burdened, but you can't put your finger on what exactly it is - like phantom pains. That's how many people in the world feel and maybe that's why I reach so many people." Yanya doesn't think much of the cliché that the best songs are written in difficult moments. "When I'm very sad, angry or upset, I can't do anything - it wouldn't be emotionally possible. It's just about getting through the day and getting out of that mood. To write, I need peace and quiet and the opportunity to think and reflect on things."

Questions about the meaning of life
If you're looking for simple answers to complex questions, you've come to the wrong place with Yanya's new album. With a mixture of necessary melancholy and the constant hope of a happy ending, she metaphorically explores the questions of meaning in life, divided into sub-chapters - knowing that answers and truths are always subjective and remain open. "As a matter of principle, I try to live in the moment and not worry too much about the future. Maybe it's time for a change of scenery? My life is going very well, but sometimes I feel like I should live somewhere else. Maybe in Turkey, where my roots are." Whatever Nilüfer Yanya's personal future holds, with "My Method Actor" she is taking the next step in a career that so far has only gone upwards.