There’s something magnetic about a song that leans all the way into the messy parts of wanting someone you know you shouldn’t. That’s exactly where oktehya lands with “complicated,” the focus track from her new five-song EP a changeable feast. Out now via Neon Gold Records / Futures, the song doesn’t try to tidy up the tension. It just sits in it.
oktehya (formerly TEHYA) has been carving out her own lane for a while now, and this project feels like a clear step deeper into that lane. The Pacific Northwest artist grew up around music—her father is a local funk drummer—and she took the self-made route from there. She left home at 16, found her people in Seattle’s Capitol Hill underground scene, taught herself Pro Tools and FL Studio by hanging around sessions until someone finally handed her the controls, and learned guitar, keys, and drums along the way. She writes every topline and lyric herself. That independence shows.
a changeable feast is built around relationships of every kind and what they reveal about the self. oktehya has said the throughline only became clear after the songs were chosen: the EP reflects internal growth seen through how we connect, attract, attach, and treat other people. “Complicated” sits right in the middle of that idea. She describes it as a song about being drawn to someone you shouldn’t be, the thick, unspoken tension between two people keeping a secret. You can feel that push-pull in the Contemporary R&B, Indie Pop, and Alt Pop blend she works with—smooth enough to pull you in, slightly off-kilter enough to keep you uneasy in the best way.
This isn’t her first time sitting with complicated emotional territory. Last month she released “4L,” a track about the kind of all-consuming loyalty that borders on toxic. Earlier cuts like “catch//release,” “the patriot,” “spoons for sweets,” and “trap door” already showed she could write with quiet devastation and genre-fluid production that doesn’t sound like anyone else. “catch//release” in particular sticks with lines about getting hooked and staying attached long after you should have let go. a changeable feast pulls those threads together into a tighter statement.
Being on Neon Gold carries weight— the label that helped launch Charli XCX, Tove Lo, MARINA, and Christine and the Queens. She’s already landed an NME cover and Spotify Fresh Finds placement. She also turned up in a starring role in Love Spells’ video for “Keep It To Yourself.” None of that feels accidental. The work is deliberate, self-directed, and rooted in real experience rather than trend-chasing.
If the current wave of artists blending R&B warmth with indie and alt-pop edges has your attention, “complicated” is worth sitting with. It doesn’t over-explain. It just lets the attraction and the wrongness exist at the same time, which is rarer than it should be.
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What do you think of oktehya’s approach to messy attraction and self-reflection through relationships? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
