LAYA WIG is a self-taught music producer, Spanish speaker, and multi-instrumentalist who has studied folk music across the Americas through various travels and spells of vagrancy. California born artist moved to the bay area at the age of 18 to attend University, and there developed an affinity for language study and ultimately travel. After several years of learning Spanish through music, being a street musician in multiple countries, and participating in various bands based in Oakland and abroad, Laya began the journey of creating a personal sonic signature that has thus far been expressed through live performance. After 4 years as a founding member of the Afro-Latin inspired band Calafia Armada, Laya created BOMBSNAX(X); a musical project that promotes black femme liberation, diy skill acquisition, and empowerment through collaboration. Through this journey of self-teaching, Laya seeks to establish a production style informed by the Black diaspora and inspired by the ingenuity and innovation of Black and Indigenous peoples. Laya is currently writing and recording a debut release of all new music and is working with several members of the Black Banjo Reclamation Project to create a co-operative style label structure that focuses on the creativity and collaboration of Black womxn and queer people.
“I Allow Myself to Dream” (Pura Presencia), is the second title off the first recorded release by BOMBSNAX(X) and the first official visual release from the project. The song was written, produced, arranged, and recorded by Laya Wig in a diy studio setting. The “on location” visuals and all editing were also done by Laya in a first attempt at self-taught film making. This song was written to capture the experience of allowing oneself to succumb to sleep and the subsequent dream world thereafter. Much like the act of creativity, sleep cannot be forced, and the act of it is not an act at all but an allowance. Through participation in the first cohort of the Black Womxn Dream Lab, Laya first learned of the idea of sleep reparations, and the disparity between the quality and deepness of sleep that Black people experience compared to others. To explore these themes visually, Laya uses images of an ethereal sleep realm alongside the unique and otherworldly landscape of Yosemite Valley. The sleeping figure awakens in a dream of a distant ancestor, where images constantly shift, change, and overlap to submerge the viewer in a stream of subconsciousness and self-love. Adorned in a 3 piece garment all made of chains, the figure represents an imagined ancestor of the Black American in California; Calafiana, the descendant of Queen Calafia. One who has native roots to California but carries the memories of the chains broken through fighting colonization.
