NADUH TAPS `DIVINE FEMININE ENERGY'
All-female hip-hop and R&B group pools resources for a `collective of individuals'
Naduh is a new all-female hip hop and R&B collective coming out of Vancouver. The group's name is taken from the Nahda, the Arabic word first associated with the 19th-century Arab Renaissance and later connected to the Arab Spring.
While those connotations are clearly political, Naduh makes its statement in a more personal way on its debut track Mawnin'.
The slinky tune came out of a writing session where members discovered common ground in their taste for morning lovemaking. Showcasing the varied “queer, femme/tomboy identities” of the five and showcasing a smooth, flowing vibe, the tune is available online in both studio and acoustic versions. Spurred on by the success of their first co-write, there is more coming soon.
The group — Taraneh or T, Jenny Lea of I MU R, Rosita Al can tara, Giorgi( Giorgi) Holiday and Larisa Sanders — are all established solo artists in their own rights. They came together over a shared vision of empowerment and the need to bring “divine feminine energy” into the music biz as well as following their stars — literally. In a wide-ranging Zoom interview, the subject of astrology was frequently mentioned. So was meditation and tapping into inner spirituality.
Naduh is definitely, strictly West Coast. All the members vouch for being very in tune with Venus.
“We were all friends beforehand, working together through collaboration and giving each other shows and vice versa,” said Taraneh. “Then, in 2020, we came together to do this. Great timing with COVID landing.”
From major events such as Shambhala to the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle and even in India, members have performed in various formations. If not always together, someone might have been behind the scenes working backline. It almost seems inevitable that the group would come together to create.
“T actually has a tea company and is a huge advocate for leading us in journeys and having some kind of a group reconnecting, catching up, meditative practice together,” said Sanders. “From that it will flow really naturally into writing, making beats and coming up with melodies or themes. It just snowballs from there, and it's so easy, that we often can come up with something in a day.”
All agree that the process is both natural and easy-flowing. It's not unusual for this many cooks in one kitchen to get in one another's way, but having solo outlets helps. Plus, there is a powerful draw for all to be making music together.
“It's cool, because we all have such different tastes and writing styles, but our output is so different,” said Giorgi. “But our voices all sound really nice together, and I love that. When we have a song where we all share a verse, it's amazing how you can hear that distinct style from each one of us.”
“We're a collective, but very much a collective of individuals,” said Jenny Lea.
Mawnin' may be the opening tune heralding Naduh's arrival, but the members all admit that the majority of the music they make is typically more upbeat and “banging.” Naturally, the restrictions of making music in a COVID world are significant. But the crew says that their notebooks are getting filled with lyrics and ideas and making more music is key. Given how sweet the acoustic live version of the song on the group's Youtube channel is, it seems that making new material won't be dependent on getting into the studio.
“It's exciting to see women coming together to create, because the narrative in this industry is too often that women are pitted against each other,” said Lea. “More now than ever, it's important for us to be out there doing it together. The amount of fun we're having translates into the music.”
Taraneh stresses there have been fans right from the start who were on board with what the group was doing. The rewarding thing is having more people coming on board every day.
“Each one of us had our pocket of the scene, so when we did come together it was something that everyone was already waiting for,” said Alcantara. “Now that everyone has seen that in their face, I think they realized that it was something they needed. Van can be a kind of individualistic place, but we didn't go that way. Instead it was time to bring the five-part harmonies.”
To tap into that bigger scene, the group held a remix contest online to see what kind of magic other locals could work with Mawnin'. The Mawnin' Remixes are all available to hear on Naduh's Soundcloud page. The winner of the contest was Vancouver-based keyboardist and producer Jonny Tobin.