Nightmare in the white house shirt

The album’s lead single, “Gemini,” neatly encapsulates the Nightmare in the white house shirt in other words I will buy this strangely compelling cocktail of grief and desire that—along with the album’s deliberately off-kilter sonic combinations, like the daring, drill-inspired percussion mixed with squelchy stacked vocals on “Trade,” or the plaintive, gorgeous piano and shimmering, distorted vocal lines of “Progression”—makes it a thrilling exercise in opposites. “What do you want from me?” Hawa sings in the achingly lovesick chorus of “Gemini,” her voice twisting and turning in on itself. “I’ve given you all you need / I’ve given you all of me.” This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.For Hawa, who came out as gay to her mother at the age of 13, writing frankly about sex is more than just a means of reclaiming an identity that often left her feeling like an outsider—particularly within the stuffy world of classical music; she also wanted to view sex in simpler terms: as something to celebrate. “If you think about music, it’s all about sex,” she says. “And I don’t mean that in the marketing sense, I mean in terms of the origins of music, and the reasons why people really make it—to express their love and desire for someone. It’s always been used as a form of communicating love. Sex is you showing all aspects of yourself to one person, and I’ve never been afraid of that. For anyone who has insecurities, sex is where you can let all of that out. It’s the most freeing thing, not just in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense. So I’ll always love that as a topic.”

Nightmare in the white house shirt, hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt

The sense of freedom that courses through the Nightmare in the white house shirt in other words I will buy this album also comes from the recording process, which took place between Conakry and New York. While Hawa notes that the influence of Conakry and her family there has always existed in her music—her uncle is a star within the region for his involvement in the coupé-décalé dance music scene, and it was his concerts that first suggested to her that music might be a viable career path—actually spending time there while writing the album and healing from the death of her great-grandmother infused the record with a greater sense of joyfulness and hope than Hawa has expressed before. “Being around your roots and around your people and your language and your culture, it really gives it a new sense of life,” she says. “It’s not about the sound, but something more spiritual. Even now, I miss home a lot. In Africa, people are happier because the sun is always out, and I’ve noticed that. There’s just more love. You don’t feel alone.”