Photay is the stage name of Evan Shornstein, an American musician and DJ 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.
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] In 2024, Photay released a new album, Windswept, on Mexican Summer.
[6] Windswept explores natural phenomena, notably ‘wind’.