The Fat Angel Sings

Small Crimes by Nilüfer Yanya released on Blue Flowers Music, The frighteningly-talented songwriter Yanya – who dropped that awesome cover of The Pixies “Hey” last year DEEK-label head Bullion’s covers album – has followed up with her next track “Small Crimes”. It’s a song that brushes touchpoints like John Martyn and The XX while managing to be something entirely new.

“I’ve been working on this project for a while,” Yanya tells us. “I started writing songs when I was really young so things have very slowly evolved into the music I’m making now. It’s kind of weird to view it as a project because it is just me (and my music), I find it hard to think of them separately in that sense.”

On “Small Crimes”, Yanya’s masterful gossamer melodies toy with silence as much as the chiming interplay between vocal and guitar. Yanya began playing classical piano as a child but moved to guitar in her early teens and comes with an endorsement from Dave Okumu, who mentored her on the six string. She also credits  composer, writer and multi-instrumentalist Sorana Santos for encouraging her put voice to her songs. “I originally never planned to sing any of my songs,” she explains, “but I had some really great teachers and friends at school [who] encouraged me to do so.”

London based singer/songwriter Nilüfer Yanya, accompanied by saxophonist Jazzi Bobbi, captivates you with her rich and golden tones in her performance of “Thanks For Nothing” . 

The 22-year-old started writing music almost a decade ago; she has also been mentored on guitar by Dave Okumu from the Invisible. “When I’m writing it’s like a burning energy,” she says. “If I come up with something I like, it’s very instinctive, you’re not really thinking. It feels like something you have to do.”

Growing up listening to Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse and Pixies (she does a terrific cover of Hey), she was also exposed to a mix of diverse sounds thanks to her artist parents, who have Turkish, Irish and Bajan heritage. Her husky voice and sparse, lo-fi sound flit between soul, R&B and indie; she describes her music as “raw – even when it’s a finished track it’s still got that kind of unfinished, unpolished edge to it”.