YAMA UBA are no strangers to breaking down walls. Through the strings connecting their previous musical efforts to the seminal album, Silhouettes (releasing January 23, 2024 on Psychic Eye Records and Ratskin Records), the US-based duo of Akiko and Winter has slowly and methodically chiseled a sonic and conceptual world all their own.

Through music videos and selective live performances culminating with a Fall 2023 Japan tour, the duo has been steadily building momentum, but all at their own pace and by their own rules. Silhouettes is the culmination of years of refining a vision over time, yet it feels natural and timeless in the most refreshing way possible. Decaycast team sits down with the duo to discuss their new album Silhouettes and their single “Facade,” which is out today! Listen below, and pre-order the album today.

What ground does Silhouettes cover, musically and conceptually?

Akiko: The album didn’t start out with any particular concept, but just because of the timeframe of our writing — five years, as opposed to one-and-a-half or two years in my previous work, we ended up with something that represented that passage of time in our own lives. I think, more universally, the album also speaks to the long-term process of personal evolution. These songs individually are all about the sometimes-difficult moments that give us an opportunity for reflection, and lead to self-discovery. As a whole, I’d say the album is about personal transformation. It’s about how for that to happen, you have to be willing to shed false or outdated beliefs, confront aspects of your life and self that aren’t fun to look at, and give voice to the parts of yourself that have been silenced.

Winter: Silhouettes covers a lot of experiences and expressions of transforming and transmuting energies. It’s a representation of becoming many different forms of self. It’s one the first recordings of me debuting my vocals and saxophone in a full album. It’s an album we both had full creative freedom with, and we were able to expand musically as much as we felt we needed to. We both went through many changes and transformations throughout this album, and this album portrays and reflects that.

Your latest single is called “Facade.” What is it about? 

Winter: “Facade” is about tearing down the walls of false illusion, dismantling any and all power over us that keeps us from being our truest and best selves. It’s a commemoration and celebration of dismantling old structures of belief from a worldwide perspective, within ourselves and outside ourselves, taking down all forms of oppression and injustice.

Akiko: I also think of “Facade” as being about dismantling power and tearing down the illusion of hierarchy. I’ve always had that anarchistic instinct to destroy systemic power structures in the larger world, but this song is about the moment you realize how insidiously those power dynamics are replicated in your own life. It’s about no longer making it your sole responsibility to make a relationship work, and finding the courage to admit that your only way forward is out – out of an abusive situation, out of toxic cycles, out of a social environment that seeks to pigeon-hole, define, or take advantage of you, and out of any structure that is held up by holding you down. It’s about finally breaking free from oppressive power dynamics, and then watching those who held you down fall apart around you. That’s when you can recognize that the abuse you tolerated, to some degree, required your own permission. Even if you get mad at yourself for that, acknowledging and taking responsibility for it becomes its own form of freedom. 

We might not individually have the power to stop the most advanced military in history, but we do have the ability to state that the institutional narratives are outright lies, and to simply refuse to be brainwashed… The crack in the facade, and the tumbling of the tower, starts with each of us.

In “Facade,” there is a long refrain of “It’s just a kiss from a narcissist” throughout the outro. What are you referring to?

Akiko: The song is about breaking free of abuse, and that line speaks to how it feels when you realize how cheap and effortless the scraps of recognition or affection are that you receive in uneven relationships. When we sing it, it reminds me how many times I would have to repeat something like that to myself, sometimes for years, to build up the resolve to finally escape an abusive relationship. I think that, as well as the exhilaration of finding your freedom, is something any abuse survivor can understand. 

We don’t limit ourselves with our sound and we embrace fully going anywhere we want to go. We utilize anything and everything we can, constantly experimenting and approaching our music in a way that feels exciting.

I also think of those lines in “Facade” as I witness global events, where you can see the dynamic of the narcissistic abuser and the abused in imperialism and in capitalism. It feels very personal to witness, for example, the US and Israeli government committing genocide in realtime, right in front of us. In this case, the US and Israeli governments play the role of the narcissist, who only sees others as tools to get what they want, and not as human beings. In colonization, we see the same tactics used in abusive personal relationships: systemic gaslighting, outright lying, abuse of social and institutional power, enforced isolation of the victim, humiliation and dehumanization, leading finally to physical harm or murder. We see the colonizer’s attacks on culture, history and identity in tandem with attacks on the colonized people’s humanity and on life itself. It’s very similar to how personal attacks, criticism and belittling are a part of a larger campaign for total control in abusive personal relationships. 

We might not individually have the power to stop the world’s most advanced military in history, but we do have the ability to state that institutional narratives are outright lies, and to simply refuse to be brainwashed. We can say, “We see you, the richest and most elite people in the world, using all the world’s wealth without our consent, to kill the poorest and the most powerless. You employ weapons of mass destruction to purposely target and kill children, poets, doctors, and teachers, and then you claim a moral superiority.” That has to happen for any other change to take place, and it’s something we’ll always have the power to do. The crack in the facade, and the tumbling of the tower, starts within each of us.

There is a noticeable difference in the sound of Yama Uba vs either of your previous projects, Ötzi or Mystic Priestess. How does the difference in sound palette affect your compositions?

Winter: The difference is there are no bounds in Yama Uba. We don’t limit ourselves with our sound and we embrace fully going anywhere we want to go. We utilize anything and everything we can, constantly experimenting and approaching our music in a way that feels exciting. We are able to break out of our comfort zone to explore and express ourselves in every way possible. One song can portray the energy of tearing down walls and setting fire to everything, while another is about looking at something from a new perspective, and rebuilding everything in a new way. 

Akiko: I think because we have less defined roles in Yama Uba than in a traditional band structure, we can start purely from the intentional and emotional root of a song. We can play improvisationally and build off that if we want to, but it’s not required to have a bunch of people jam together until something clicks, and that alone makes a huge difference. It’s more like, “I’m feeling a song about this subject. Here are the lyrics, or here is this guitar line” – and then if we’re both feeling it, we build a world around that emotion, supporting it with whatever seems appropriate. Of course I’m unlikely to take up guitar or saxophone in this band, and Winter is unlikely to take up bass or synth drum programming, but we can have all or none of those instruments at our disposal. There’s no sense that we have to, for example, write a line so the synth player has something to play. Every sound is purposeful and exists in service to the idea, and that is definitely freeing. I think it’s really advanced us both as artists. 

Winter’s vocals artfully emanate raw emotion on the tracks “Facade,” “Isolation” and “Claustrophobia.” What led to Winter’s singing on these particular tracks? 

Winter: I have always been shown great support from Akiko to sing more. At the time we wrote these songs, we felt it was fitting to capture the raw feeling and emotion in my vocals to signify the atmosphere of those songs. It’s a representation of how overcoming something is not always comforting or pretty. It’s about finding beauty and appreciation in the raw expression of releasing, and to find strength and power within that vulnerability. It’s about truly appreciating and embracing the rawness, no matter what it looks or feels like, because it is the most genuine form of expression. 

What inspires you as musicians?

Winter: I grew up listening to a lot of different styles of music. Everything from jazz, pop, punk and heavy metal. I draw inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. I am inspired by any form of expression that portrays a message and deeper meaning.

Akiko: I’ve always enjoyed all kinds of modern music, but in the past few years I’ve become very inspired by traditional musical forms from Japan. I’m learning several forms of traditional music and dancing arts, and by that I mean going back to 800 years ago! I also meditate and do somatic therapies for my chronic illness, which encourages me to sing and to learn scales from non-Western cultures. I’ve been playing music long enough that it’s become inseparable from life itself, so I view music and life in a very holistic way at this point, and as a sort of spiritual path. Everything in my life influences and inspires my music, and my music influences and inspires everything in the rest of my life. 

What’s next for Yama Uba?

Akiko: The next release after Silhouettes drops is a 2-CD compilation I curated on my label, Psychic Eye Records, that jointly benefits the people of Gaza and the unhoused community of Oakland, California, where I live. That compilation is called The Ancient Wall, and drops in early February. It has over 40 of my favorite bands, so I’m really excited to get that out there. The Yama Uba song on the compilation is actually “Facade,” so I’d encourage anyone reading this to buy the compilation, which will probably sell out pretty fast!

Then, we’ll have a new music video coming out that I’ve worked on harder than any video in my life, so I’ll be proud of it just being out there and existing. Other than that, I’m trying to learn to not always worry about what’s next, and just enjoy the present. I’ve taken a step back from the sometimes manic-feeling cycle of music production and promotion, and I’m just enjoying this quiet time before Spring. Nothing is fully scheduled yet, but Yama Uba will definitely be touring parts of the US, and is likely to tour Italy, in 2024. Japan was incredibly fun to tour in 2023, so we might go back there in 2024, and maybe to Australia. We’re interested in so many things and so many places that I try to just stay flexible, and be open to the opportunities to come to us.