Introducing: Tiiva

Blurring the lines between human emotion and digital intensity, Tiiva is back with ‘You and I’—a dazzling hyperpop statement that marks the first glimpse of their long-awaited debut album, landing this June via Moth Day Records. Known for their fearless lyricism and boundary-breaking production, the Lake District-based artist-producer crafts glittering soundscapes where synthetic and organic collide. With chopped vocals, pulsing basslines, and a concept that explores binaries, identity, and transformation, ‘You and I’ isn’t just a track—it’s a vivid portal into Tiiva’s ever-evolving world. Already championed by the likes of Clash, DIVA, and The Line of Best Fit, Tiiva continues to carve out a space for bold, emotionally charged pop that refuses to be boxed in.

"You and I" explores the relationship between synthetic and natural worlds — with 'you' as the computer and 'I' as the human. What inspired this concept, and how did it shape the sound design of the track?    

I come from a folk music and songwriter background, and being from the Lake District id spent a lot of time exploring the natural environment, recording rivers, in caves, trees and being in what felt like an immersive art environment, completely natural and human. Alongside all this I spent the last year and a half developing my production and wanting to merge the heavy and industrial sounds that influenced me a lot from my time living in London. There’s a huge juxtaposition between heavy electronic music, hyper pop and the queer scene that had shaped me, and the world where we’re just outside in nature.  Our relationship with tech is always evolving, and since Ai it’s become more emotive for a lot of artists, there’s a contention around technology that still exists, as well as a celebration of how it pushes music and art further, and I wanted to create an album that speaks about our relationship with that, and how it involves us and shapes our identities. As a queer non binary person I’ve enjoyed merging (or trying to!) two genres into each other, so for me it felt nice to work with synthetic sounds and form a relationship between them and the field recordings I’d gathered. 

Your music blends hyperpop textures with field recordings and natural elements. How do you go about balancing those contrasting influences in your production process?

I built the tracks using cave reverb samples, vocal and guitar sounds, as well as some concertina and melodeon I recently recorded with a friend up at cathedral cave (langdales). I see those soundscapes as being the natural environment, then I gather and rework samples of the heaviest sounds that I can find, warping and retuning, and chopping so there’s the direct and heavier sounds sitting on top. For previous music the focal point was my voice and I didn’t want it to be like that, because I don’t consider myself to be the best singer or hook writer, instead I wanted to draw on the production and create the tracks as though im making them for someone else. It makes me feel less self conscious and removed enough to enjoy the process without the same kind of ego that is there when it’s your voice in the foreground. The drums are always the last bit to go in, I want the pieces to move and hit and have enough energy, so that the drums are just the extra last bit that hopefully will make people want to move to these pieces. I build the drums with samples, taking kicks and claps and looping on repeat till the whole pattern is there. I do use some predefined loops in the hats but i’ve been a bit of a purist about making my own beats for this album. I’d import 5 basses that I like and then whittle them down to 3, it became more formulaic as I went on, so there’s 3 ‘stab’ basses that hit, one sustained and one sub. There’s a layer of choppy vocals from my own and other sampled vocals, I’d retune and loop to create a new instrument with that chop, then place the cave and tree/river sounds in as background with a high pass filter, that’s the sound you head at the start of you and i. Then the vocals come in re pitched, different speeds and to be used as a kind of lead instrument. The balance is finding low-mid-high sounds and placing everything so there’s enough space, making the chop the lead instrumental hook was fun and something I’ve done before. I wanted to draw some syncopation in there so there was a groove, the biggest challenge was taking out the rigidity and the acoustic samples helped a lot with that.

You’ve mentioned queer communities and nature as key sources of inspiration. How do those influences come through on the upcoming album — either lyrically, sonically, or emotionally?

Being queer means the yearning for belonging, it’s a constant journey and it comes from a deeply political place where celebration and joy can sit alongside pain and frustration. Living in London for me was a revelation that you can truly go somewhere as a queer person and feel complete acceptance and peace, without hiding or dulling your identity. And the same for the mountains and being in nature. Two completely different backgrounds and both inspiring acceptance. It’s only recently that I realised the effects of internalised homophobia and overall life that has definitely impacted me, and finding those communities and having friendships with such great people, queer and ally has made me feel so loved at the same time. I threw a lot of that into this album as a means to celebrate, I really wanted the songs to feel driven and dance focussed, I imagined my friends and the people I haven’t seen in a while and I wanted to make these songs for them. I also wanted to rework the hooks so the different songs sound like its a different person each time, there’s no one focussed artist singing on this album it’s (in my head anyway) a kind of curated community singing about love and celebration.

There’s a bold sense of futurism and transformation in your work. Do you see your debut album as a kind of manifesto for your identity and artistic vision?

Thank you that’s kind! I do feel a big shift in my identity, coming from a place where I was a producer before but now I feel like I’m actually producing work I want to make, so that feels good. I think a lot of it has been from moments last year that really instilled confidence and direction in me, working on many projects with different musicians, producers, dancers, theatre makers, residencies. Spending time with friends writing, like Roseau, Nghtblind (who completely mentored me with my production), writing with Andrea Di Giovanni, being on the Kloud writing retreat, working with Liing Heaney who has been a hugely inspiring person- all those people who I look up to and admire. Alongside that I was lucky to receive an arts council grant which enabled me to step back and record literally 40 tracks to then land on that kind of realisation. I have to mention it cause it’s a thing, making music and having time and energy to make music is a privilege - I don’t take any second of that time I’ve had for granted and that’s come from a few years of making mistakes and seeing the grind that everyone in the music industry goes through, particularly people who don’t have access to resources, money and that needs to be talked about more. Anyway sorry that was kind of off topic, but yes I hope this is the manifesto to make more music like this. I’ve started working on album two and it’s taking me to some interesting and hopefully good places!

You’ve drawn influence from artists like Caroline Polachek, SOPHIE, and AG Cook. What have you learned from their work that’s helped shape your own creative voice?

AG Cook and SOPHIE are producers who I’ve looked up to for years, what I’ve learnt from them was that genres can be bent, and one individual sound is way more impactful that 10 layered sounds that don’t quite hit. I’ve learnt that being completely yourself is the only way to make something that feels and sounds like you, making a lot of work and experimenting is good and collaborating is so important. Caroline polachek is an incredible songwriter and singer and the way she uses her voice (almost like a lead guitar) and her hooks are beautiful, there’s also producers who I’ve looked up to like James Rand, S Dimah and Marta Salogni who have definitely been in mind when I’m making something.