Everyone keeps something in their back pocket. But some of us keep it there for a little longer than we had planned. In search of what I thought was stability, I focused my career and personal life entirely around the art of building things on others’ terms. Yet in 2019 after a graduation, three moves, a new job, a break up, and significantly more free time, all of life’s signs pointed to reclaiming my music as my own, or “taking it out of the back pocket”.
This rekindling of music as a form of processing is the gift that keeps on giving. Pain comes in many forms and is a sensation we share as humans. And beneath the layers of our current collective pain as a society, there is a a thousand stories of our own individual pain, or the pain of those we love, that drives us to act. We navigate a wandering heart, deliberate a choice, negotiate a fight, or fly a little too close to the sun in preparation for the next action we need to make.
For a long time, I thought my pain was not important. But the events of my past two years have outlined the steps I needed to take to return to myself, and ensure that I never detach from my role and identity as a creator. Part of that process is creating and releasing my first album. I hope that the music I make moves anyone to take action towards creating a life lived on their own terms.
Stay tuned for awelia’s debut album released at the end of 2020.
