Acharya is at the core a two-piece band from Northern California. Josh Grayem on vocals and guitar and Daniel Blackburn on drums and percussion. One of the biggest driving interests of the duo is working with friends and influences. Their debut EP “Tilt” was recorded with Daniels brother Dryw Owens at Little Russia Recordings in Rocklin California and features Matt Coate on bass and vocals, Rachel Wagner (who co-wrote the song “Stand” from the EP) on vocals and piano and Josh’s brother Melvin Grayem on vocals.

Josh and Daniel met through Josh’s brother/Daniels friend Melvin. The three of them took a drive to Berkley from Sacramento to see Lorde on the Pure Heroine tour.

Tilt EP has been considered Avant-pop, Dream pop, Alternative. It has been compared to Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab for Cutie, Alt-J, Tears for Fears and Morrissey. Each track on the EP was written with a different process intentionally, some starting with guitar some with drums some with phone recordings from the beach in organ some from conceptual ideas in Ableton Live. The EP was thoroughly demoed then recorded at Little Russia Recordings over the span of two weeks in February of 2018. Working with Dryw Owens was an inspiring pleasure for Josh and Daniel. Dryw shaped the sound masterfully and well as adding direction for additional guitar parts and lending his vocal harmonies to “Continuum”.

The tracks on Tilt are in the same order as they were written and tell a rather meta-story of the process of writing the EP as well as self-imposed positive guidelines for how to organize and react to existence. Josh has vast experience obsessing on the negative and needed to set up pillars of positivity to perceive life through, and that is what this EP is.