There is a specific quality to work born out of forced isolation. In the summer of 2022, I released Nights by the Fire, my fourth studio album. It was a project defined entirely by the constraints of the COVID-19 lockdown—a period where the outside world receded, leaving only the immediate, often uncomfortable, internal landscape to navigate. I made a conscious choice to retreat from the digital noise and the performative nature of constant platform engagement to work in a state of creative solitude.
When you strip away the feedback loops of social media and the daily demands of a pre-pandemic lifestyle, you are left with the raw materials of your own anxieties and frustrations. The objective was to transmute that tension into something tangible—a listenable form that functioned, for me, as a necessary therapeutic exercise. It was an exploration of what happens when a creator stops reacting to the present moment and instead attempts to synthesize it.
The Architecture of the Sound
The production process was rigorous. I took on the roles of producer, mixer, and mastering engineer, keeping the infrastructure of the project as independent as possible. This was not just a stylistic preference; it was an attempt to retain total agency over the final output. The tone of the record solidified with the first beat I produced, "Gorgeous," which features a sharp, rhythmic exchange between Don Michael Jr. and myself over a choppy sample.
From there, the scope expanded. I looked at the thematic breadth of the 17 tracks on the record, which touch on the intersections of personal life, love, political awareness, and spiritual frameworks. One particular track, "Black Sabbath"—originally titled "1969"—emerged as a defiant anthem, reflecting a commitment to Black Nationalist thought. It was an effort to ground the music in historical and cultural reality rather than abstract pop tropes.
Reflecting on this work years later, it serves as a time capsule of a singular, strange moment in our collective history. It stands as a reminder of how we used our time when the world seemed to pause, and how independent creation serves as a vital tool for processing the volatility of life.
You can listen to the full project here: Nights by the Fire.
