Photay is the stage name of Evan Shornstein, an American DJ and electronic music producer from Woodstock, New York.[1]
While a student at Purchase College, Shornstein took a trip to Guinea to study drumming, and the influence of this exposure led to the creation of an EP, released as Photay in 2014 on the label Astro Nautico.[2] He released several remixes for the Ninja Tune label soon after.[3] A full-length album, Onism, followed in 2017 on Astro Nautico. In 2020, a sophomore full-length, Waking Hours, arrived on the label Mexican Summer,[4][5] and in 2022, he released On Hold, a record stitched together from samples of telephone hold music.[2]
