Meet Sijya, the first Indian musician signed to the label that backed Björk

A calculated rhythmic precision dictates the flow of distorted synths and abused guitar pedals as singer-songwriter Sijya balances her deep-yet-delicate vocals on her six-track EP Leather & Brass. It will be released on September 12 under the UK-based label, One Little Independent Records, which has been associated with a powerhouse of talent, including iconic musician Björk and American dream pop artiste Glasser. Sijya is the first Indian musician to have been signed to the label.

Vinyl sleeves of Sijya’s second EP Leather & Brass
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While recalling a series of serendipitous events that cemented her bond with the label, Sijya harks back to her visit to London during the fall of 2024, but that was only after a chance encounter with British musician, producer, and composer Talvin Singh who, she says, reached out to her on social media for music collaboration. “It’s so funny, but on Instagram, randomly, Talvin reached out to make a song together. He has close ties with One Little Independent, because he had collaborated with Björk in the ’90s. When I visited London for a performance at this venue for experimental music called Cafe OTO, I invited the record label to the gig. They came. I figured that they had already been introduced to my music by Talvin,” she shares. Sijya informs that her subsequent meetings with the label lead her to pitch the idea of her second EP to them, which got her signed to the label in January this year.

“I do think this is a huge thing for me because it also enables me to continue doing music and do this with intention and to take this seriously and do this well, because I have some resources and a whole team and all this infrastructure, which is incredible. And while being a big label, they’re also fully independent, which I really respect,” she adds.

Sijya is the first Indian musician to have been signed to UK-based label One Little Independent Records
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Leather & Brass took root two years ago, but the idea has been simmering in Sijya’s mind and heart for quite some time. “The EP explores the themes of decay. Thinking old machines, nostalgia, but, I’m not feeling the nostalgia as much as I’m looking at deterioration and decay. And that’s kind of what I was attracted to with this EP and with these materials, leather and brass as well,” she says, elaborating on how she has been interacting with both leather and brass since childhood, as her father’s professions involved these two materials.

The album cover of leather & Brass
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These materials bring out the themes of the past and decay; and old rusty machines and factories with dust. And that’s what this EP sounds like to me; in the sense, I’ve put all of the sounds, all of the synthesisers through analogue pedals. And these are mostly guitar pedals that I’ve kind of abused. They’re not meant to be used in the way that I’ve used them to create that old machine sound.”

Cover of the EP’s first song ‘I Only Want to Crash’
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Among the EP’s six songs, the opening track ‘I only want to crash’ evolved into a fragmented yet evocative lyrical piece. ‘Rust’ marks the beginning of a more deliberate search for identity after the artiste’s first album, while ‘Safe’ carries a suddenness that was not intentional but discovered through performance — an unfiltered moment of self-deprecation. “I recorded the EP at home in my home studio. And I have a mix and recording engineer in Delhi at Labrat Studios. Jay Panelia is my engineer. The label really helped make the EP sound way better. We went to mix engineer Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets, his studio in, I believe, Rhode Island. And put the EP through analogue processes. And it sounds really organic.”

The vinyl of the EP
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Special arrangement

Having pursued graphic designing from NID, Ahmadabad, Sijya has also designed her album’s cover. “We’ve done a small pressing of 500 vinyl records. I kind of got the sleeves, the outer covers, of the vinyl printed in Delhi because I wanted to kind of oversee it. The record is pressed in Poland and then it was sent to London,” she signs off.

The vinyl is priced at ₹2,500 (excluding GST and shipping) and will be available on bandcamp.com, olirecords.com and at Digging In India Record Store in Delhi and On the Jungle Floor Store in Bengaluru.

Sijya will perform live at Aura Studios, Chennai, tomorrow (September 7), 5pm onwards. Tickets start at ₹849 on events.fanpit.live/events/9aBdBr4U.