Uma

Today, Uma releases new single ‘Send Me Off’ the latest from a mixtape due to be released on Slow Dance this autumn. 
 
It is a rework of the original demo recorded in the kitchen she shares with her partner and chief collaborator Luke Bower in 2016. “Send Me Off”, she says, “is the first song we ever wrote together, a love story foreseen.”
 
It follows previous excellent 2023 singles ‘Filthy Rich’, ‘Tārā’ and ‘Muay Thai’ which have built up anticipation for her upcoming Mixtape and capture the mood of turning nostalgia for the past into nostalgia for the present. As well as 2022 songs ‘Granada’ and ‘Crocodile’, Uma weaves early memories with inner-child wisdom and reflections on parental advice. The Barcelona resident 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 hosts 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. Uma is being championed by 6 Music’s Mary Ann Hobbs and on Radio 1 as Jack Saunders’ Future Artists. She was also interviewed last month by Ben Cardew (Pitchfork, Guardian) for his Line Noise Radio Show on Primavera Radio.
 
Having sold out two consecutive nights at Servant Jazz Quarters in April, Uma also announces she is touring in the UK and EU supporting Puma Blue. ‘Send Me Off’ is out now, and a mixtape is slated to drop in early Autumn.