Ania Tarnowska (aka “I Ya Toyah”)

Bitter Jester Music Festival Judge

Ania Tarnowska, also known as I Ya Toyah, is an industrial electronic / alternative artist with music that blends smooth, cutting edge vocals, surreal guitars, hypnotizing beats and multiple synth elements arising into dark arrangements that - when combined with storytelling lyrics - respond to the paranoia of everyday reality.

She is a one woman army with a live show unveiling her passion and empowering the audience with the message of strength and independence of a solo artist. The meaning behind the name “I Ya Toyah” sustains these values - when spoken out loud, in Polish it means “It’s Just Me.” Her logo art emerging from peace and anarchy symbols highlights the rebel psyche - Ya Toyah’s true nature.

2022 kicked off strongly for I Ya Toyah, as she embarked on the successful East Coast tour marking the first time on stage since the beginning of the Pandemic, finally giving her an opportunity to promote her latest Out of Order record’s material in live settings. Prior to tour, the E.P. was reviewed by Brutal Resonance as ‘one of the most solid releases in 2021.’ The music videos for the first two singles, Out of Order and Concrete won the Video of the Week award and competition by Transmission / Transmisja European music blog. The Out of Order single has been added into rotation on World National Indie Radio’s ‘2021 Best Female Artists'. This release featured new creative physical products in I Ya Toyah’s merch store: in May 2021 she announced the launch of her lipstick line: Death’s Kiss by I Ya Toyah - a tribute to the fourth single on the record. The lipstick immediately sold out and increased demand for what is now called a ‘brilliant product’ by makeup influencers all over the United States.

In August she released a limited edition Out of Order transparent blue vinyl record with 15% of each physical sale going towards the support of suicide prevention with AFSP. Her song Pray was nominated to 2021 W.A.M. Awards for Best Pandemic Song category. I Ya Toyah got an additional nomination and an Honorable Mention Award for a Female Artist of The Year.

2021 also brought I Ya Toyah’s first own studio remix works, including PIG: New Disorder remix. Her other involvements include cover works with The Joy Thieves: Tribute to Pink Floyd: Don’t Leave Me Now, and The Killing Joke cover of Money is Not Our God. She wrapped the year with the release of the Stabbing Westward remix of her song Pray that immediately got worldwide attention and brought her name to the top of the Industrial Electronic charts on bandcamp.

Currently I Ya Toyah puts all the focus on her private music studio/creative hub design. She is planning to share the progress of the remodeling process via her soon to be available subscription-based fan platform alongside other exclusive content. At the same time, she is deeply engaging in new collaborations- with the most recent one being a release of a Come Together cover featuring I Ya Toyah alongside Faith No More, Stabbing Westward, Rammstein, Filter, THE HARDKISS, The Joy Thieves, Agnostic Front, Basement Jaxx, and more, with a goal to raise the funds with UNICEF for people suffering in Ukraine and Eastern Europe due to the current war. She is also working on new remix material releases while awaiting more show dates confirmations for 2022.

She is excited to join the Bitter Jester judges and help discover new talent that pushes the boundaries of what’s expected.