Akira Galaxy performs during BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on May 24, 2024. Courtesy.

NAPA, Calif. — Akira Galaxy Ament had moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career, but it wasn’t until the pandemic had struck in 2020 and she went back home to Seattle that the singer-songwriter had begun to find her sound.

Ament, who creates and performs as Akira Galaxy, thought she was going home for a couple of weeks but ended up staying for eight months. During this time, she wrote what became her debut EP, What’s Inside You.

“It was interesting stepping away and coming back [home],” the 24-year-old said shortly following her performance at BottleRock Napa Valley in May. “There was some full-circle moment of having a deep connection with Seattle and everything going on at the time; the world standing still. Seattle played a big part in that: the air, the nature, having a certain guitar that’s only in Seattle. All of that transformed me.”

Akira Galaxy—her real name, which fits well with her ethereal soundscapes and beautifully husky, weighty voice—grew up in a musical family. Both parents are visual artists, who met at the release party for the Seattle-based film “Singles,” directed by Cameron Crowe and taking place in the grunge era. Her mom is primarily a painter. Her dad has designed concert and artist posters, among other work. Her uncle is Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament.

Her dad took her to her first concert when she was 3: the Gorillaz. When she was 10, her mom got her guitar lessons in a school fundraiser auction.

“I remember learning ‘Smoke on the Water,’ which is a classic,” Akira Galaxy said. “That same age is when I had this voice transformer; it would transform your voice into an alien sound or a monster sound. I wrote my first song to my brother with that voice transformer.”

She went through various musical phases, like any kid.

“There was definitely a moment in time where I was into Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus, and sometimes you kind of have to venture off on your own and come back to your roots a bit,” she said. “I really started getting into [making music] when I was 15 years old.”

She then discovered her dad’s large record collection and played in bands through high school. At 16, she recorded her first song using Garage Band, with childhood friends, in a closet. She worked at Seattle Record store Easy Street Records and volunteered at performance space The Vera Project. Her passion grew from there, but it took time to start developing her sound. She didn’t release her first single until spring 2023, at the age of 23.

Her five-song EP, What’s Inside You, followed earlier this year. Its songs are filled with emotions like wistful longing, unsustainable love and realization. Those themes are paired with beautiful, guitar-driven dream-pop and alt-rock, and that thick, smoky alto voice.

“Wanna Be A Star” claps back at artists who prioritize fame over talent. The hazy “Silver Shoes” looks for love that’s no longer there. There’s also a dramatic and faithful cover of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” (one of the highlights of her set at BottleRock). But the most intriguing song on the record is the pandemic-influenced ode to online relationships, “Virtual Eyes.”

Akira Galaxy photographed during BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on May 24, 2024. Sean Liming/STAFF.

“It was somebody I met once. We fell in love with each other through our phones,” she said of the ended relationship, without getting into any specifics. “It was really romantic. It kind of reminded me of when your lover goes off to war and you’re forced to send letters back and forth. … We really got to know each other in a real way where there’s not physical distractions.”

For songwriting inspiration, Akira Galaxy read lots of poetry and Greek mythology; she has a bookstore near her home in L.A. Add to those influences, classic black and white noir films, and her heartbreak, and you get the vibes and aesthetic for the record. The end of the relationship heavily influenced these songs.

“It did, as any deep true love would,” Akira Galaxy said. “It’s was a really rare experience where all the time you could spend to get to know someone; that will never happen again. … There was something really special about that world we were living in together.”

Following a July tour, she said she plans to head back to the studio and record her debut album, the songs for which are done (and she performed a few at BottleRock).

Ament said she would have ended up an artist even if she wasn’t making music, whether it be performance art or directing, poetry or storytelling via novels. Acting was one possibility, but even before she began performing her music on stage a year ago, she became interested in mime on a trip to the U.K. several years back.

“I was talking to a friend; he was talking about how he was craving more intention in people’s performance and going to a show and seeing something different and weird,” she said. “Then he started going into Kate Bush’s study of mime and Bowie’s study and how he [Bowie] went to mime school. It really inspired me.”

When she returned to L.A., she looked up mime classes and found Lorin Eric Salm, who’d studied under Marcel Marceau in Paris. Initially, she learned core mime, but she has since applied it to her stage performance to be able to “choreograph what I’m saying.” She shows Salm her lyrics and shares songs’ emotions, and he helps her articulate that with her movements onstage.

“It’s all about the gradual build and release, and what the storyline is, making sure the audience can gauge that,” she said. “It’s kind of infusing that into my art.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter. Follow photographer Sean Liming at Instagram.com/S.Liming.