I Ya Toyah releases ‘White Walls’, dark pop single benefiting Backline Care
I Ya Toyah released the dark pop single “White Walls” on 9 October 2026 via Femme Fatale Records, benefiting mental health charity Backline Care.
I Ya Toyah releases the dark pop single ‘White Walls’ on 9 October 2026, independently through her own label Femme Fatale Records. The release lands around World Mental Health Day on 10 October, and proceeds from the single’s release weekend, along with new Patreon sign-ups throughout October, go to the musician-support charity Backline Care.
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I Ya Toyah describes ‘White Walls’ as a song about the distance between what we show and what we survive
I Ya Toyah wrote and composed “White Walls” herself, and produced it with Johnny K, who also mixed it; Howie Weinberg mastered the track and Angelica Dulany supplied the cover artwork. She set up the song’s premise in a statement issued with the release:
“White Walls came to life in a very personal place, on one of those days when the darkness became almost unbearable, when being inside my own mind felt louder than anything happening outside of it. […] That is where White Walls lives: in the distance between what we show and what we survive. It is the noise behind the silence. The exhaustion of carrying an invisible weight. The strange loneliness of standing among people while feeling completely unreachable.”
A companion video, directed, filmed and edited by Alex Zarek with documentary clips by Allison Ciletti and makeup by Janet Debris, accompanies the single on I Ya Toyah’s YouTube channel; a donate button on the video also directs viewers to Backline Care. “White Walls” is available on Bandcamp and on streaming platforms.
I Ya Toyah tours the UK in December
I Ya Toyah joins the performance art collective Little Miss Nasty for a UK tour in December 2026: Newcastle Upon Tyne’s The Cluny on December 9, Glasgow’s Ivory Blacks on December 10, Birmingham’s Asylum on December 11, Brighton’s Patterns on December 15, Bristol’s The Fleece on December 16, Manchester’s Rebellion on December 17, Swansea’s The Bunkhouse Bar and Music Venue on December 18, and London’s Underworld in Camden on December 19.
About I Ya Toyah
I Ya Toyah is the solo project of Ania Tarnowska, a Polish-born musician, producer and engineer based in the Chicago area; the name comes from Polish, where the spoken phrase reads as “it’s just me.” She trained on classical guitar, piano and voice as a child, studied music business and audio engineering at the SAE Institute in 2016, and started the project in 2017 with the single “Funeral For Love.” The debut album “Code Blue” followed on 26 October 2018, self-released, with the single “Farewell – Mirrors Don’t Lie” alongside it.
The catalogue moved quickly from there: “Code Blue Reloaded” and “Code Blue Revelations” both arrived in 2020, the five-part EP “Out of Order” in 2021 and the acoustic EP “Ghosts” in 2022. “Panic Room” followed in 2023, produced with Walter Flakus of Stabbing Westward, whose US dates she opened that year; Flakus also worked on the “I am the Fire” EP and the album “DRAMA,” both 2024. She has been a member of The Joy Thieves since 2019 and toured with Pigface the same year. Remixers and collaborators across her catalogue include Rhys Fulber, Tim Skold and Julian Beeston of Nitzer Ebb, and she has toured the US with Orgy and Cold, played European dates supporting Front Line Assembly, and returned to Europe as direct support on KMFDM’s tour in 2026. Her own label, Femme Fatale Records, has carried her releases since 2024, including the Nine Inch Nails cover “Closer” and now “White Walls.”
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