Photo credits: Ejatu Shaw© @ejatushaw
Released October 30th, Naya Yeira’s debut EP Almost There is a 6-track project which blends music with her prowess in digital art, creating a world centred around the process we all go through: both the beauty and pain of a journey of authenticity. Almost There mirrors growth is rarely linear, and the most interesting part of it all is to create within the uncertainties; “It's kind of accepting that it's okay to be a beginner in something and starting something meaningful,” she says.
With the EP being 3 years in the making, Jakarta born, London based Naya shares how the creative environment she encountered coming to the UK aged 18 differed from the one she had known growing up, “I learned to write from a perspective of someone from the outside looking in in both cultures,” she explains, opening up on her embracing the opportunity to explore her individuality in ways that had previously felt unfamiliar. “Where I grew up it's a very collective kind of society,” she reflects, “I remember just trying to fit in all the time and to have a sense of individuality was something I was really scared of, which is why I grew up really shy.” London became a place of self-discovery, where she built her now identity through a series of small but personal decisions. From the colours she gravitated towards, to the clothes she wanted to wear, and being okay with experimenting with sounds enabled Naya to understand herself from differnent angles.
The journey means a lot to Naya who boldly rejected the compulsion many have to ride off the back of a trending moment, going into how her earliest releases in Indonesia gained major popularity online; “It felt lost because they were just school projects that I released and went viral. I didn't know who I was as an artist, I didn't know what I wanted to talk about… I was like, ‘What, you want more? I don't even know who I am.’” Rather than simply adopting a forced identity, Naya had the confidence to intentionally build herself a foundation and grow a personal brand that felt genuinely her own. This is likely why Naya’s music feels so open to possibility: her experience refuses to fit neatly into a single category, so there is little reason for her creativity to do so either.
With a creative outlook shaped from an early exposure to the film industry through her father, a director, this sparked Naya’s love affair with visual expression that compliments instead of compete with her sonic world. Today, she draws on an expansive range of disciplines, from digital design and mixed media to 3D artistry and creative coding, taking an increasingly active role in shaping the full presentation of her work, she beams, “I think as an independent artist you kinda have to DIY a lot of things.” By combining these skills with her musical practice, Naya creates a distinctive artistic identity where not being confined is her ethos, sharing, “I don't think I'd ever make a purist, like, pure R&B or just pop [project]. I would always wanna experiment and push myself,” with the EP Almost There being a direct reflection of her desire for expansion and vocal freedom, going on to say, “For one of the songs, ‘Hit record’, I had to explore this really low range of mine- I was like, ‘I didn't know I could do that.’”
The three lead singles off the EP show the diverse nature each track on the project embodies; ‘Twenty9’ is an ode to breaking toxic patterns wrapped in a body swaying alt R&B style including a singalong worthy chorus, while ‘Raffle Ticket’ draws parallels between love and chasing a seemingly impossible win, which feels like the epitome of the phrase almost there itself. Third single ‘Hit record’ shifts to a focus of creative independence, delivering a smooth sound centred on reclaiming control and trusting your own artistic instincts. In Naya’s consciousness of the relationship between the words and ideas she reinforces, she admits non judgementally yet proudly, “I definitely think what you sing manifests into your life because you keep repeating it over and over,” a conviction that even as she pursues the unusual and the unexpected, her music offers something constructive, where experimentation coexists with a genuine sense of purpose. Naya also professes she can become closely involved in the details, but deeply values finding collaborators who understand what she is trying to achieve.
Describing with a warmth on her face as she speaks, “It's just so nice to have somebody who cares about the art as much as you care about it,” on the experience of working with a friend who recognises her intentions, even when Naya herself may begin to doubt them. This included Naya and her friends filming immersive visuals of her digital art released alongside the EP “within a warehouse and images projected onto plastic sheets”, transforming the space, with Naya fondly detailing the inspiration from an installation by a French artist, she wanted to create something that people feel like they enter rather than merely observe.
Naya is committed to her artistic journey, emphasising, “I really wanna get into more of the coding stuff and into projection mapping. I'm quite happy with the touch designer stuff and how interactive it's getting. I'd love to use it more and connect it with music… and collaborate more with other digital artists.” As her sound continually evolves and the visual world expands, for Naya the potentialities are still unfolding. With the Almost There EP, this part of her story feels like a pivotal moment in her music career, where her growing fanbase can really tap in.
