APEX Express – June 8, 2023 – SURRIJA aka Opera Evelyn from Everything Everywhere All At Once

KPFA - APEX Express

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists.

SURRIJA

Our guest tonight is no stranger to your ears. She is most recently known for being the voice of Opera Evelyn in the song “Opera Fight” in Everything Everywhere All at Once that premiered in 2022. Tonight we’re talking about music, diving deep and doing the work, and everything Surrija.

SURRIJA (self-titled album) is an electro art pop rebirth that plays with asymmetry, textures, glitch, electronic treatment of intense classical training, and holding complex emotions in one place. The album features drummer Matt Chamberlain (David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple, Sean Watkins, Tori Amos, Perfume Genius), co-produced by Surrija, Sophocles, and Maxwell Gualtieri.

After a break from music, she spent four years developing this record and wanted to make music that more closely reflected her feral tendencies. The result is unhinged and off-kilter. Earmilk claims “is simply on a different wavelength … chilling and seductive..”.

Classical piano training, degree in choral conducting, singer-songwriter/folk roots, and theatre work all made for a unique sum in this album. “I’m made of a lot of genres and it was always audible. In the end I still think I’m best at putting my hands on the instrument, being tactile, hearing organics. Electronic experimentations of this landed me squarely in this new sound.” Surrija is about finding voice and is a strong genre pivot from her previous songwriter roots.

Find Surrija Everywhere (All At Once):

• Website
• Instagram
• Bandcamp for Surrija’s Music
• Youtube
• Twitter

About the Host:

Paige Chung is a writer and DJ. Her last project Nail Trap is juicier than your neighborhood gossip and her current project is hotter than your cousin’s mixtape. Listen to Intimate Sounds of the Four Continents on KPFA 94.1 Radio and Sun Salutations on Twitch TV. Based in Los Angeles but she rolls everywhere. She trains at Beat Junkies Institute of Sound in DJ turntablism and studying as Performing and Media Arts PhD student at Cornell University.

For more: https://djxmiu.com/ and everywhere @djxmiu

Transcript

SURRIJA & Opera Evelyn from EEAAO Transcript

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