The UK artist follows the recent ‘Like I Say (I runaway)’ single with news of a new song, and the title(ish) track.
‘Method Actor’ is the song released today, from the album My Method Actor out September 13th on Ninja Tune.
A one-take video for the song shot in an old hotel in Benidorm, Spain.
Of the song ‘Method Actor’ Nilüfer says:
“I was researching method acting – and from what I read, it’s based on finding this one memory in your life, a life-altering, life-changing memory. The reason why some people find method acting traumatic and maybe not safe mentally, is because you’re always going back to that moment. It can be good or bad but you’re always feeding off the energy, something that’s defined you – and that’s what helps you become the character. It’s a bit like being a musician. When you’re performing, you’re still trying to invoke the energy and emotion of when you first wrote it, in that moment. It definitely feels like you’re having to recreate or step into that headspace.”
Pre-save/order ‘My Method Actor’ and listen to “Method Actor” above, find touring details below and stay tuned for more music from Nilüfer Yanya coming soon.
Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor Tracklist:
- Keep On Dancing
- Like I Say (I runaway)
- Method Actor
- Binding
- Mutations
- Ready for Sun (touch)
- Call It Love
- Faith’s Late
- Made Out Of Memory
- Just A Western
- Wingspan
Nilüfer Yanya tour dates
EU & UK Dates
24/11 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique Orangerie
25/11 – Amsterdam, NE @ Melkweg Old Hall
26/11 – Berlin, GE @ Kesselhaus
28/11 – Paris, FR @ La Bellevilloise
30/11 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
2/12 – Bristol, UK @ Fleece
3/12 – London, UK @ HERE at Outernet
4/12 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
5/12 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
North America Dates
28/9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
30/9 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
1/10 – New York, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
2/10 – Boston, MA @ Royale
4/10 – Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe
5/10 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
6/10 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
7/10 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
9/10 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East
10/10 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
11/10 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
13/10 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
15/10 – Denver, CO @ Meow Wolf
18/10 – Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre
19/10 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
20/10 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
22/10 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
24/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theatre
More on the album.
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 Empireand 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.
