#sabiyha

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Sabiyha - Five Months

‘Five Months’ was written just after the end of a long relationship, where Sabiyha felt she’d begun to change ‘aspects of myself and held myself back to fit into his world.’ Having been told that he’d been thinking about ending the relationship for the past five months, this sentiment stuck with Sabiyha and she channelled all her frustration into songwriting. The track is powerfully relatable as Sabiyha sings of bending over backwards to save her fleeting relationship through effortless lyrical poetry, ‘just perspiration from trying too hard’. Juxtaposing fragility with great courage, producer Andrew David James expertly mirrors the concluding chapter of this story as hopeful brass melodies swim beneath Sabiyha’s vocal, just as it’s on the edge of breaking. The writing on ‘Five Months’ is as bare as it comes, but with an underlying sense of personal growth and coming to terms with her feelings, Sabiyha’s music is always so much more than just the sum of its parts.

[findasongblog]

Find a #singersongwriter song

Sabiyha - Wolf

Heavily inspired by a love of folklore, ‘Wolf’ finds Sabiyha reflecting on her personal journey to independence through a beautiful tale of the supernatural. ‘The song tells the story of a young female wolf and the moon. The moon falls from the sky and the wolf is left in darkness, losing her pack and being forced to survive the dark by herself. The stars ask the wolf to help find the moon, and in return they offer her the howl of a thousand wolves. The wolf sets off following the scent of the moon and the sound of its lullaby, eventually finding the moon stuck under a frozen lake. With the howl of a thousand wolves she breaks the ice and sets the moon free, returning to her pack who once called her child.’ The symbolism in ‘Wolf’ reflects a time in Sabiyha’s life when she had to grow up quickly and support her parents, ‘a time when I realised they can be just as vulnerable as children'. With her father embodied in the moon and her teenage self in the wolf, producer Andrew David James expertly heightens the emotional strength behind Sabiyha’s words with a rich tapestry of orchestral embellishments. ‘Wolf’ is a powerful return and a track that once again sets Sabiyha apart from her contemporaries.

[findasongblog]

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Sabiyha - Bird

Debut single by the London-based musician.

‘Bird’ tells a personal tale of heartbreak and how Sabiyha was ‘torn between my heritage and trying to assimilate into a world where I didn’t truly fit in’. Referencing her Indo-Caribbean descent in the recurring lyric, ‘to red, to green, to white and gold’, she proudly paints the Guyanese flag all over ‘Bird’. The track begins delicately with just an acoustic guitar before Sabiyha’s chilling vocal stops all in it’s path. Building in intensity from verse to verse, the bite of the staccato strings and ascending choral harmonies grow to an explosive climax. The EP was produced in full by emerging talent, Andrew David James, and by relying on a resourceful community of musicians and friends they were able to bring a very cinematic drama to this low budget project. ‘Bird’ ends with Sabiyha paying homage to the music she was raised on by singing a Carnatic influenced melody in ‘a moment to reflect my history, pride and the power I feel being a person of colour.’ 

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Sabiyha releases new single ‘Undone’

Sabiyha releases a new single ‘Undone’, co-produced by Drew Jodi & Avi Barath out of Dave Okumu’s (The Invisible) studios in Deptford. The new track follows Londoner Sabiyha’s first single of 2021, recent release ‘Lullaby’, a proud celebration of her British-Guyanese heritage.

Accompanied by striking artwork created by body positive illustrator Betty B, ‘Undone’ is an uncompromising celebration of sex positivity articulated very purposefully from the perspective of womxn. The track - propelled by skittering beats beneath Sabiyha’s alternately staccato and snaking vocals - was written out of her frustration at the perceived disconnect between gender-stereotyped attitudes to sex. Sabiyha says; “I had just hooked up with this guy and knew it was a casual thing, I had no intention of wanting anything serious with this person. But he assumed that I would get feels and want more than just sex. People constantly assume that womxn can’t just have sex without attaching emotions to it. I hate that - it’s such a tired stereotype. Some womxn just want sex; no we don’t want to marry you; please get over yourself.”

The writing of ‘Undone’ also brought Sabiyha to square up to her own prior expectations of what is ‘permissible’ pleasure for a womxn to take from no-strings-attached encounters, particular in the context of her own Indo Carribean heritage. “I used to shame myself and even other women for enjoying sex” she admits, “which seems completely ridiculous to me now! But it was so socially ingrained in me to believe that it should only be within the realms of a relationship and I should be selective with who I sleep with because I “wouldn't want to get a reputation”. After my first relationship, I started to lean in more to my sexuality and explore both myself and the idea of casual sex.”

Photo credit: Shingi Rice

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Sabiyha celebrates her Guyanese heritage with new single ‘Lullaby’

South London’s Sabiyha releases her first single of 2021, ‘Lullaby’. A vivid celebration of her Guyanese heritage, the track has been produced by close friend Drew Jodi.

Furthering themes of honouring cultural and familial heritage which threaded through Sabiyha's striking debut single ‘Choorile’, ‘Lullaby’ pays tribute in particular to her Nanny, matriarch of the vibrant extended family Sabiyha grew up around in Croydon. Whilst ‘Choorile’ reclaimed a previously dismissive Guyanese term for powerful women, ‘Lullaby’ sprung up around the tune her Nanny would sing to hush Sabiyha - and twelve other small cousins - to sleep when they were in her care. Lifting the sound of nanny’s looped chant for its intro, Sabiyha fleshes ‘Lullaby’ out with beats built up around a childhood clapping game played in her Nanny’s house. Its lyrics - very purposefully sung in broken english - summon up memories not only of a burgeoning sense of identity and belonging - ‘she does tell me of she history / she does tell me of bloodlines’ but the uncomplicated promise of ‘Curry rice and roti, fried chicken if we’re good’.

‘Lullaby’ also incorporates soundbites of her large family get-togethers — bringing the track’s ideas on family ties, identity and heritage full circle. Says Sabiyha of the emotions that played into the song-writing; “My Nanny is the reason we’re all so proud of who we are. Coming from an immigrant family, people like us can be shamed into changing our identities in order to fit in to a British society. However, my Nanny taught us the importance of repping our heritage and being proud of our roots.

“I wrote it in broken English to represent what I hear, and the beauty that comes with our language. There can be such a culture in England of mocking accents and language and I want to show that we’re proud of ours and it’s nothing to be laughed at. I love being Guyanese and I love exploring my culture. My Nanny had a very hard life and had taught us about her own resilience and how she has overcome real pain and struggle. That has definitely influenced me.”

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Sabiyha releases debut single ‘Choorile’

Emerging British-Guyanese artist Sabiyha releases her debut single, ‘Choorile’, produced by Avi Barath out of Dave Okumu’s (The Invisible) studios in Deptford. A reclamation of a Guyanese term derived from a folkloric tale about a banshee-like creature, the word “Choorile” has become short-hand for women who are perceived to be too loud, unruly or assertive. Born and raised in South London’s Croydon amongst a large, extended family - headed up by matriarch ‘Nanny’ - Sabiyha wrote ‘Choorile’ in recognition of powerful womxn, informed first hand by the strength and guts of her whip-smart Mum. “She was quite strong willed when she was young, and whilst she didn’t let me act out growing up, she encouraged me to speak up and have my own opinions” says Sabiyha; “She’d ask me ‘Are you a leader or are you a follower? She was quite hard about that - she didn’t want me to just go along with what people were saying, and that’s what has shaped the way I am. You don’t want to get in an argument with my Mum! She’s tiny but there’s plenty of fight in her. She’s the person that I was thinking of, writing ‘Choorile’.” It’s this uncompromising inhabiting of space which spills over into the takedown of ‘Choorile', with her supple vocals caught up between bars of broken English and elements of South India’s Carnatic traditions. Growing up in Sabiyha’s house was never silent, her teenage world sound-tracked by the latest tracks from Choice FM and Channel U, with Grime and soca playing at day-to-night parties round BBQs. It’s a balance which reflects the broader interplay between her cultural heritage - brought into sharper focus by an affecting recent trip to Sabiyha’s parents’ former home, Guyana - and the ease of Croydon’s multicultural dynamic.

[songsinmyheadofficial]

Sabiyha - Wolf

[allegro-ma-nontroppo]

Sabiyha - Bird