A Deeper Listen

Moses Sumney is out with the second part of his album, ‘græ.' Sumney, a Ghanaian American, was born in Southern California but spent portions of his childhood in Ghana. He spent the early half of his career in Los Angeles before moving to quiet solitude in Asheville, North Carolina. With different experiences and lives lived across the world, he is not a product of any of these places, but instead a product of a space not bound by geography. Like Sumney, ‘græ' doesn’t come from a clear musical lineage or space, rather it explores the multiplicity of feelings and influences one can have. ‘græ' is a rejection of black and white thinking and instead, a look at the spaces between. 

“It’s essentially all about greyness, about the in between or marginal identity and not living on either side of an extreme,” Sumney says.

We also hear from Jonah Mutono about his new record, ‘GERG.' Like Sumney, Mutono has lived in a lot of places in his life, including the UK, Uganda and the US all before graduating high school. Mutono now lives in California and has released an album under his full name, after previously releasing music under the alias, Kidepo. This album explores his journey through immigration and his sexual identity.

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Thao & The Get Down Stay Down released their fifth full length album, ‘Temple,' on May 15th. Frontwoman Thao Nguyen talks about how her latest album is about coming out to her Vietnamese family and processing her family’s story of war.

“It’s about the idea of existing as my full self and that full self is also acknowledging my heritage and who I come from and my culture,” Nguyen says.

Nguyen’s family fled the Vietnam war and came to the US in the 70s. Their story is addressed in the title track of the album, “Temple":

I lost my city in the light of day
Thick smoke
Helicopter blades
Heaven on earth I've never moved so fast
You'll never know the fear your mama has
I know your father can't call anymore
He never meant to be a man of war
But we found freedom what will you do now
Bury the burden baby make us proud

Nguyen’s father was a helicopter pilot for the south Vietnamese army and her mother worked for the south Vietnamese embassy. Nguyen says that’s “why they truly fled for their lives and they would have been at the very least forced into reeducation camps.”

Nguyen also discusses her powerful track, “Phenom," which addresses Asian American stereotypes and being a woman of color, with lyrics like “first of the secondary class” and “I’ve been so politely at the bottom.” She describes how she was able to make the music video for this song entirely on Zoom Meeting.

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Allen Stone is a soul singer and an actual son of a preacher. He started his music career in Seattle, but now with a wife and child in tow, he’s re-located to eastern Washington. His latest record, 'Building Balance,' was written in his family cabin in his tiny, one-stoplight hometown of Chewelah. KEXP caught up with Stone to talk about his karaoke music tour, having to cancel his album tour on his birthday due to COVID-19, how some of his songs have new meaning while under social isolation, and how he was, indeed, able to find balance through making his latest record.  

“This whole record, Building Balance is really my journey towards center,” Stone says. “I went through several years of my life, growing up in the church and my ideology and world view had been kind of formed through that scope, and then I completely rebelled against that and left the church and was dancing with the devil for many years. Through the process of this record and the evolution of becoming a father and a husband and really an adult, I’ve managed to cultivate my own garden and find my own recipe to that life salad.”

Watch Allen Stone perform Live on KEXP

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Seattle’s 30-year-old Re-bar venue announced on May 9th that it will permanently close its location on Howell street in Seattle. The plans are to reopen in the fall of 2021 at a new space in South Seattle, where it’s more affordable. Re-bar owner, Dane Garfield Wilson says Re-bar has been at risk of closure because his building has been for sale for months. He’s also been having to pay $10,000 a month in rent and operation fees with no income for two months because of COVID-19. KEXP’s Sharlese Metcalf brings us an audio profile of what it felt like to be at Re-bar on a Sunday night. KEXP DJ Riz Rollins takes us through a history of the venue, including DJing for a Nirvana album release show.  We also check in with Seattle’s Clockout Lounge, Tractor Tavern and The Crocodile to see how their independent music venues are faring under the extended "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" order.

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Seattle’s Parisalexa is out with her first full-length album, '2 REAL.' She’s in her early 20s and is already cowriting songs for other artists in LA and has appeared in NBC’s songwriter show, ‘Songland.'

Parisalexa reflects on the lessons she’s learned from the music industry, talks about staying genuine in her songwriting and on social media and about the representation and body positivity reflected in her songs, "Chocolate" and "Slimthick."

“Hearing all the people that ‘Slimthick’ and ‘Chocolate' encourage is amazing,” Parisalexa says. “I think one of the best stories I’ve heard from ‘Chocolate' was a girl who told me that she is a dark-skinned Filipino girl and that in Asian culture there’s a lot of colorism. When I wrote 'Chocolate,' I was talking about me. But she says every time she hears that song, that’s her anthem, because she’s dark skinned and she’s felt different from everyone else and that song empowers her and makes her feel so proud to be who she is.” 

Read more about Parisalexa and her experience in the music industry

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