Video: Watch Araya's 'BLEACH CUT' Produced By Frankie Scoca (New Jeans)

New York native and interdisciplinary artist Araya shares the newest glimpse into his neon, hyperpop-meets-RnB world with "BLEACH CUT," produced with his longtime collaborator Frankie Scoca (New Jeans, Druv, Dreamer Isioma). He'll also play Jaded's FRIENDS: FOREVER SXSW showcase this Friday, details below.

"BLEACH CUT" is a spacey track on which, following the use of the VOCALOID DAW on "MAKIMA,” Araya samples Google Translate, deepening the playfulness between what is scripted, drawn, or predetermined, and the direction we choose to go on our own volition. Synth arpeggios and other lift-off sounds flit around twitchy percussion and the vastness of Araya's vocals for an otherworldly experience. 

Of "BLEACH CUT" Araya says, "'waiting for the bleach to cut into what's left.' This song is about a sort of artistic rebirth that I felt emulated the process of bleaching your hair. The chemicals that burn and lighten our natural pigment to a blank canvas allow us to be new and choose our own pigment; re design our selves."

Born and raised in Long Island, NY, Araya attended FIT and trained to be a graphic designer and photographer, while dreaming of pursuing a career in music. He has always grappled with purpose, identity, and spirituality through his music as he mixes vintage and futuristic sounds into a transfixing blend of R&B, soul, hip-hop, and electronic music. Araya uses music as a medium to comprehend and channel life experiences into reflective tales of self-acceptance and understanding.

As a queer person coming into his truer self each day, and growing up with both Thai and Chilean cultural influence, the lens we get to peer through while experiencing this luxurious-with-jagged-edges album shows us the influence of loving matriarchs as powerful dragons, first true loves revealed to be dark and torturous voids, and the chosen community as a young creative in New York realized through his visuals. 

Recalling artists like Tirzah, Erika de Casier, or Blood Orange, Araya has fans at NPR Music, Teen Vogue, Remezcla, SPIN, i-D China, and more. In February of 2022, Araya released his sophomore LP, Ethos, to significant acclaim just over a year after his breakout debut Atlas. Since the release of Ethos, Araya has been steadily collaborating with a myriad of producers & artists such as CLIP, Y2K, Yeek, Monte Booker, Junior Varsity, Cautious Clay & more while piecing together his most recent EP ARENA, as if it were a puzzle of his very own beating heart. This next chapter is the natural continuation of his heart's journey expressed through his music.