A calculated rhythmic precision dictates the move of distorted synths and abused guitar pedals as singer-songwriter Sijya balances her deep-yet-delicate vocals on her six-track EP Leather & Brass. It can be launched on September 12 underneath the UK-based label, One Little Independent Records, which has been related to a powerhouse of expertise, together with iconic musician Björk and American dream pop artiste Glasser. Sijya is the first Indian musician to have been signed to the label.
Vinyl sleeves of Sijya’s second EP Leather & Brass
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While recalling a collection of serendipitous occasions that cemented her bond with the label, Sijya harks again to her go to to London throughout the fall of 2024, however that was solely after an opportunity encounter with British musician, producer, and composer Talvin Singh who, she says, reached out to her on social media for music collaboration. “It’s so funny, but on Instagram, randomly, Talvin reached out to make a song together. He has close ties with One Little Independent, because he had collaborated with Björk in the ’90s. When I visited London for a performance at this venue for experimental music called Cafe OTO, I invited the record label to the gig. They came. I figured that they had already been introduced to my music by Talvin,” she shares. Sijya informs that her subsequent conferences with the label lead her to pitch the thought of her second EP to them, which acquired her signed to the label in January this yr.
“I do think this is a huge thing for me because it also enables me to continue doing music and do this with intention and to take this seriously and do this well, because I have some resources and a whole team and all this infrastructure, which is incredible. And while being a big label, they’re also fully independent, which I really respect,” she provides.
Sijya is the first Indian musician to have been signed to UK-based label One Little Independent Records
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Leather & Brass took root two years in the past, however the thought has been simmering in Sijya’s thoughts and coronary heart for fairly a while. “The EP explores the themes of decay. Thinking old machines, nostalgia, but, I’m not feeling the nostalgia as much as I’m looking at deterioration and decay. And that’s kind of what I was attracted to with this EP and with these materials, leather and brass as well,” she says, elaborating on how she has been interacting with each leather-based and brass since childhood, as her father’s professions concerned these two supplies.
The album cowl of leather-based & Brass
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These supplies convey out the themes of the previous and decay; and outdated rusty machines and factories with mud. And that’s what this EP seems like to me; in the sense, I’ve put all of the sounds, all of the synthesisers by way of analogue pedals. And these are largely guitar pedals that I’ve type of abused. They’re not meant to be utilized in the approach that I’ve used them to create that outdated machine sound.”
Cover of the EP’s first tune ‘I Only Want to Crash’
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Among the EP’s six songs, the opening monitor ‘I only want to crash’ developed right into a fragmented but evocative lyrical piece. ‘Rust’ marks the starting of a extra deliberate seek for id after the artiste’s first album, whereas ‘Safe’ carries a suddenness that was not intentional however found by way of efficiency — an unfiltered second of self-deprecation. “I recorded the EP at home in my home studio. And I have a mix and recording engineer in Delhi at Labrat Studios. Jay Panelia is my engineer. The label really helped make the EP sound way better. We went to mix engineer Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets, his studio in, I believe, Rhode Island. And put the EP through analogue processes. And it sounds really organic.”
The vinyl of the EP
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Having pursued graphic designing from NID, Ahmadabad, Sijya has additionally designed her album’s cowl. “We’ve done a small pressing of 500 vinyl records. I kind of got the sleeves, the outer covers, of the vinyl printed in Delhi because I wanted to kind of oversee it. The record is pressed in Poland and then it was sent to London,” she indicators off.
The vinyl is priced at ₹2,500 (excluding GST and delivery) and can be obtainable on bandcamp.com, olirecords.com and at Digging In India Record Store in Delhi and On the Jungle Floor Store in Bengaluru.
Sijya will carry out dwell at Aura Studios, Chennai, tomorrow (September 7), 5pm onwards. Tickets begin at ₹849 on occasions.fanpit.dwell/occasions/9aBdBr4U.
