Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, oktehya is a fresh and exciting voice in music with the ability to seamlessly blend alt-pop, contemporary R&B, and rap into a cohesive, deeply personal sound. Her latest 5-track EP, ‘a changeable feast’, just dropped this past Friday and showcases her growth in sound and relatable songwriting.
“I think that we’re always changing and altering our perception or people’s perception of us, and I do that quite a bit.”
Entirely self-taught, oktehya grew up influenced by the creatively all around her, starting with her funk drummer father and Seattle’s rich music scene. When her family relocated to Pennsylvania, a headstrong oktehya chose to stay behind, bouncing between living situations, including a houseboat and working multiple jobs to support herself. This period of “expedited independence” shaped her resilient, spontaneous nature that led to teaching herself music production and finding her voice. Her leap into the Los Angeles music scene was equally unscripted, prompted by a serendipitous party conversation that led her to move just days later. Just as fortuitous, oktehya unexpectedly landed beauty and brand modeling campaigns that helped fund her musical passion. Currently signed to Neon Gold Records, oktehya is more focused as she evolves, noting the themes of the EP, “The throughline of this project didn’t really come together until after the songs were chosen. It was an interesting process uncovering the overarching message and meaning behind the project,” she shared, “I realized that this EP reflects my internal growth and understanding of self through the lens of relationships of all kinds. There’s a lot to be defined in ourselves by the way we connect, attract, attach to, and treat others”
oktehya spoke with B-Sides host Pete Mar about constructing songs from ambient field recordings, managing the sudden pressure of viral fame, and capturing acoustic warmth in remote studio spaces, and more.
