One of the earliest pieces for this album I started making in 2020, in the months before the world changed overnight. The original idea for this project was a story based in Ethiopian music, and it was a collaborative effort with a producer I’ve worked with for a really long time. A majority of that album was made and then scrapped due to events that transpired throughout the course of 2020. Some of it was things we all experienced together, like the pandemic. Others were more personal. Friendships were lost. Our literal house went up in flames. And if that wasn’t enough, a war popped off in Ethiopia that has forever altered my idea of home.
The next few singles I’m releasing touch on the effects of that conflict in different ways.
This one is also a collaboration with Tigrayan poet BeeLyn Naihiwet, who’s voice you will hear over three songs on the full-length album. I’m very thankful to her for giving the entire project a perspective it needed to feel complete. You can order a copy of her book and learn more about her work at naihiwet.com
If you are just joining us, the album is called From the Ashes of Our Homes. There’s another album by Khingz entitled A Safe Place For Us being released on the same day, September 23rd. The two albums are connected, and we just so happen to be releasing them on the 20 year anniversary of OutKast’s Speakerboxxx / The Love Below, itself an inspiration to what we can do as a duo. Since the first week of August, we’ve released a song every week leading up to the album launch in September. There’s a few videos as well, and it’s all on the archives you can check at gabrielteodros.substack.com
More soon. …
