Nilüfer Yanya: KCRW Live from HQ

Intimate performances, fresh sounds, and candid conversations with a view.

Written by Marion Hodges Dec. 12, 2024

After cycling through draft-upon-draft to find the right words for UK singer-songwriter-producer-guitar-goddess Nilüfer Yanya's “Call It Love,” for KCRW's Favorite Songs of 2024 list, I finally landed on this:

“Like pressing a bruise or peeling a scab, the dull ache of Nilüfer Yanya’s guitar tones and lyrics like, ‘I call it shame, heating me up / I catch a flame, some call it love…’ are equal parts exacerbated and relieved by the seriously sultry world that’s been built to hold this track.”

The same words really apply to the whole of Yanya’s 2024 album My Method Actor. The ache is present throughout, in that “Don Draper describing the Greek-to-English translation of nostalgia kind of way.” And it’s a yearning kind of ache that’s well-earned. Following the release of PAINLESS, Yanya’s lauded 2022 sophomore LP — which gave us such gems as “Stabilise” and “song-of-the-decade” contender “L/R” — Yanya entered a period of transition: between albums, between record companies, between homes, between… everything. But she emerged with My Method Actor. The uncertain circumstances surrounding the project’s origins lend the result a home-like quality — as though she and her longtime creative partner Wilma Archer needed to create a sound that they could live in for a while.

And in true “artist’s artist” fashion, the way that Yanya and Archer present this song cycle live offers quite the contrast to the album. (See: the saxophone stylings of Jazzi Bobbi.) Get into the video above as soon as possible. Yanya (Vocals/Guitar), Archer (Guitar), Bobbi (Vocals/Saxophone/Keys), Beth O'Lenahan (Bass), and Ellis Dupuy (Drums) are all there waiting for you with intricately constructed Actor cuts “Call It Love,” “Like I Say (I Runaway),” “Ready For Sun,” and the de facto title track “Method Actor.” Plus, enjoy a deliciously loose interview between Yanya, Archer, and Morning Becomes Eclectic host Novena Carmel — you’ll never hear Yanya’s full name without thinking about casting a spell ever again.

More: MBE Oct. 6, 2022: Nilüfer Yanya guest DJs

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Credits:
KCRW Music Director: Alejandro Cohen
Interviewer: Novena Carmel
Director/Editor/Color: Angie Scarpa
Director of Photography: Kylie Hazzard
Camera Operators: Rachel Bickert, Kylie Hazzard, Angie Scarpa
Recording Engineer: Hope Brush
Assistant Recording Engineers: Nick Lampone and Chandler Martin (FOH)
Executive Producer: Ariana Morgenstern
Senior Producer: Anna Chang
Digital Producer: Marion Hodges
Digital Editorial Manager: Andrea Domanick
Lighting Design: Jason Groman
Art Director: Evan Solano