Nilüfer Yanya Shares New Single 'Call It Love' | Ninja Tune

Following the recent announcement of her third album My Method Actor, which is due 13th September on Ninja Tune, Nilüfer Yanya shares new song 'Call It Love'. On the track Nilüfer delves inwards, asking listeners to join her in confronting deep-seated truths and trusting their intuition. Speaking on the track’s inspiration and vulnerable tone she shares, “It takes a certain kind of bravery to fully trust your instincts. It’s about allowing your calling to lead you, to let it guide you somewhere. Let that consume you and destroy you.”

The new single follows the near title track 'Method Actor,' which The Guardian supported as the lead single in their weekly playlist alongside praise from NME, Crack Magazine and The Face. Following on from previous single 'Like I Say (I runaway),' which gained support from the likes of Clash, Loud & Quiet and Dork, with Rolling Stone calling it “Mesmerizing” and being tipped as one of their Best Songs of 2024. 'Like I Say (I runaway)' has also been A listed at BBC 6 Music and just added to the playlist at BBC Radio 1.

As a whole, Nilüfer Yanya’s third album asks questions with no easy answers. It is a supple, expansive body of work that peers into the crevices of life, exploring them with comforting strings, skittering beats, soul-tinged melodies and swooning harmonies. It asks, who are we? Why do we follow the paths we follow? What is at the heart of it all?

While writing My Method Actor, Nilüfer retreated into the studio with her creative partner, Wilma Archer (Sudan Archives/MF Doom/Celeste). She had toured her second album, PAINLESS, for a year and entered a period of transition, between albums, between record companies, between homes. My Method Actor deals a lot with the idea of movement from one part of life and into another. The seeds of My Method Actor were planted in early 2023, but it wasn’t until the spring of that year that shoots began to appear. As songs started to form, Yanya and Archer squirreled themselves away from the world. “This is the most intense album, in that respect,” Yanya says. “Because it’s only been us two. We didn’t let anyone else into the bubble.” They wrote and recorded in small sessions, spread across London, Wales and Eastbourne. You can feel this cocooning of creative energy in the atmosphere of the record: it envelopes you entirely in cinematic sweeps while feeling intimate, finally inviting you into the little world they created and offering up its secrets.

Songs bloomed into being in unexpected ways helping Yanya make sense of her world and the ways it’s changing as she enters her late twenties and grapples with what it means to be an established musician. “For me, writing is definitely problem solving - in the way they say that dreaming is like problem solving. You're like, oh, that sounds good. That looks good. That makes sense. But you don't really know why. You're kind of using that part of your creative brain that doesn't have to make sense.” Her lyrics are specific and hazy at once, and sometimes surreal: she talks about the songs as though she’s trying to decipher the person she was when she wrote them.

Nilüfer’s previous album PAINLESS has consistently been celebrated as one of 2022’s most outstanding albums, with glowing reviews from the likes of The Guardian (album of the week), The Sunday Times, Crack Magazine, NME and more. The album features the stand-out tracks 'anotherlife,' 'stabilise' and 'midnight sun,' which Nilüfer performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Nilüfer has also performed on Late Night with Stephen Colbert, Later with Jools Holland and NPR’s legendary Tiny Desk concert series.

She’s supported Adele, the XX and Mitski on tour, headlining London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire and selling out shows across Europe, Australia, Japan and the USA. Yanya has also been remixed by Sampha, King Krule and Little Dragon and has collaborated with Bombay Bicycle Club and Liss. Nilüfer is a founding member of the community project Artists In Transit which takes creative workshops and other support to displaced communities and people in times of hardship.

© Scoop Media