Uma

Today, Barcelona’s genreless and intercontinental Uma releases the resplendent new ‘Muay Thai’, a romantic and life-affirming single which, in her words, is “the second half of [2022’s] ‘Granada’. A love letter to my parents.”
 
Like its predecessor, ‘Muay Thai’ turns nostalgia for the past into nostalgia for the present, weaving early memories with inner-child wisdom and reflections on parental advice. In the mid tempo ambient groove, Uma explores the parallels she finds between her itinerant life as a professional artist and the borderless, romantic and creative upbringing that her parents blessed her with, both at Can Obert and across three continents.
 
‘Can Obert’ - or The Open House - was in fact a creation of Uma’s British mother, a performance artist and festival organizer who developed a community hub of artists and writers around Uma’s childhood home; growing up there, Uma would be surrounded by people expressing themselves and encouraging her to do the same. This naturally instilled in her a certain set of values: that creativity is key.
 
Uma has lived and traveled across the globe, as her parents lived long-distance for most of her youth. She spent a lot of time with her father Tew, who lived in Bangkok—where he was born and where he worked for a nonprofit hospice and orphanage—whilst Uma’s mother’s work provided her with long stints in Canada and Greenland. Uma enrolled in York University to study contemporary classical music and moved back to Barcelona where after some experimentation, decided to launch her version of Can Obert.
 
Now, the name refers to Uma’s Barcelona home studio, Can Obert, where she and her partner and chief collaborator Luke Bower host writing residencies and write and produce for themselves and other artists. Nilüfer Yanya and Rosie Lowe being examples of the hub’s guests.
 
Uma’s first work saw her channeling cult folk artists Linda Perhacs, Josephine Foster and Sybille Baier alongside classical Spanish guitar music. She has put out two EP’s; 2020’s debut EP Bel-li and 2021’s followup The Moth and the Dove, which was recorded during lockdown at Can Obert, with Bower jointly producing. On release, it caught the attention of So Young, Clash, Loud & Quiet, The Needle Drop, DIY, The Line of Best Fit, Metal Mag and Gigwise. To date, her entire corpus has clocked over 8 million Spotify streams.
 
Her next mixtape is both an extension of her tinderbox chemistry with Bower at Can Obert, and a journey deeper into her maturing sound. She now says she’s in a space where she’s trusting her instincts and her idiosyncrasies more than ever.
 
Released last month, the downtempo alt-pop groove number ‘Tārā’ was another taste of new material from her upcoming mixtape, championed by 6 Music’s Mary Ann Hobbs and on Radio 1 as Jack Saunders’ Future Artists.
 
Throughout the first half of 2023, Uma will drop a new single every month until the mixtape comes out on Slow Dance at the end of the year. Uma will be touring in the UK in the autumn and headlines Servant Jazz Quarters (full band) on the 11 April. Purchase tickets here.