Indie-Alternative Trio Oya Paya Comes Full Circle On Wicked New Album ‘Som’

Critically-acclaimed by UK media, indie-alternative trio Oya Paya fully open their 2019 account with Som EP, released via Umami Records on Friday, March 22.

Taking naming cues from the Singapore playground game (‘oya paya som’) that forms their namesake, the trio conjure up more magic dust with their tongues in firmly in cheek on Som EP. From the wending opening lick on ‘Where Is The Line’, the band doesn’t hold back in delivering their playfully raucous take on the genre, balancing empathic crests like ‘Seven Four’ with DIY basement vibes on tracks like ‘Why?’ and ‘Hiding’.

For Oya Paya, the album’s journey was littered with cross-continental back-and-forths resulting in the finished work. “Ashwin had to head back to Singapore, rendering the band physically apart. Having pieced our previous two EPs together in the confined spaces of our bedrooms, we now needed to figure out how we could make records from separate countries. That’s where this EP began,” the band said. “We recorded and mixed it all ourselves; some bits were recorded in Singapore and others in Liverpool and France. Some ideas came from rehearsals and others from Ableton sessions. In the end, we pushed ourselves to find solutions and ended up loving the offspring of our different approach.”

Culminating in a video premiere on tastemaking digital publication EARMILK, Oya Paya have garnered airplay on Dave Monks BBC Radio Merseyside rotation, Alive & Amplified, and Reprezent Radio, amidst a string of critical praise – like The Burning Ear noting its “clever wordplay and strong melodic hooks”, and UK Hype Machine publication Cougar Microbes hailing the band’s “mix of whispered lullabies, international mish-mash of chord changes and mischievous demeanour”.