The day after the attack on Manchester Arena that killed 22 people, Nilüfer Yanya got on stage and performed live at the Manchester Albert Hall, a short walk away. “It did feel a bit weird,” says the west Londoner, who opened for Broken Social Scene in front of a mellow but positive audience. “But we really wanted to do it, and the crowd was still there.” Live music, she says, brings people together in a unique way. “People are enjoying the same thing at the same time – it feels really pure. They’re not thinking about or doing loads of different things. It’s like a concentration.”

Although performing live “sometimes feels horrible – I’m not one of those people that skips on stage”, Yanya loves the adrenaline rush that comes with it. The 22-year-old started writing music almost a decade ago; she has also been mentored on guitar by Dave Okumu from the Invisible. “When I’m writing it’s like a burning energy,” she says. “If I come up with something I like, it’s very instinctive, you’re not really thinking. It feels like something you have to do.”

Growing up listening to Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse and Pixies (she does a terrific cover of Hey), she was also exposed to a mix of diverse sounds thanks to her artist parents, who have Turkish, Irish and Bajan heritage. Her husky voice and sparse, lo-fi sound flit between soul, R&B and indie; she describes her music as “raw – even when it’s a finished track it’s still got that kind of unfinished, unpolished edge to it”. There are echoes of King Krule and Kate Tempest, with flourishes of jazz and trip-hop; you will definitely hear it on a sunny rooftop before the summer’s over.

To put some distance between herself and the lyrics but still be able to write truthfully, Yanya often writes as a character. Small Crimes, her first single released last year, is told in the voice of a petty criminal: “Yeah the paper’s nice/ But it’s the rush I like/ You don’t care about the money/ When you’re an adrenaline junkie,” she sings. Although inspired by a time her bike was stolen, the song is more about “the inequality in the justice system – people who commit smaller crimes are often the ones who are penalised more, and they’re kind of tied to them for ever”.

Although Yanya and many of her friends are passionately engaged with politics, she can understand why it can be offputting to some. “There’s just so much information, every day you’re reading and taking things in,” she says. “But you’re also constantly distracted and entertained by other things. And it’s not wanting to grow up, I think – people don’t want to have to think about the future.” But the recent #Grime4Corbyn movement, which gained such traction in this week’s election, shows how musicians can use their platform for things other than entertainment: “That’s not what music is about, but it has the power to do that as well.”

In that spirit, Yanya started an initiative, Artists in Transit, with her sister Molly: a group of friends went to refugee camps and squats in Athens to help out with work and admin and food distribution, as well as art classes, sports and games. Working with the people and children in the camps they created My Friend, a zine that helped fund the trip. “We wanted to create a zine that has their stamp on it and their voice, not other people’s words,” she says. “People don’t know how to connect with refugees – they think they’re different from other people, but really they’re just like everyone else.”

• Nilüfer Yanya’s second EP, Plant Feed, is out 7 July on Blue Flowers. She performs at Latitude festival, 15 July