Hi Shab, how have you been?
I have been doing great! I’ve been doing a bit of traveling over the summer when not working on my upcoming album and having our very normal family life in our hometown of Dallas.
What have you been up to lately?
For several months how I have been working on finishing up the songs that will appear on my ONE SUITCASE album as well as all of the stuff associated with the release of the first few signs and videos for the album. Despite the fact that I have been quiet for most of 2024, I have been working hard – and good things will be soon happening!
Can you share an early memory from when you first got into music?
The thing that immediately comes to mind is our shoot in the California high desert for My first single, SPELL ON ME – which you can see on YouTube. It has a Mad Max motif and I had never really been on a production like that before. We were driving miles across the dry and barren lakebed where the shoot transpired – and there were 60 people working with tents and food trucks and portable bathrooms. It was a realization that was going full-time into music!
You recently released a new music video for your electrifying single “Afterglow.” What inspired it, and how do you think it reflects the song’s overall meaning and sound?
I had worked for a couple weeks with my relative Co-Directors Eli Sokhn & Richy Jackson and we eventually landed upon a dance club scenescape. Although you would never know from the video that the room where it was about was maybe six meters and five meters deep – and with all of those moving bodies in motion within the room, it got really warm and sweaty.
Are there any memorable moments or highlights from working on the video that stand out to you?
Something that You would never guess from the video is that all of the dancers were friends of Richy Jackson – he is also Lady Gaga’s long choreographer and faithful confidante – with the kicker that my love interest, the buff black hunk over whom I was crawling – was Richy’s brother Brandon, who is actually an accomplished personal trainer in the Sacramento area. It was cute as Brandon is not a professional actor and got a little shy at times with me basically slathering my body all over his muscles in a room full of people.
Have any particular life experiences significantly shaped your art or music?
As a refugee who had a real choice but to flee fundamentalistic persecution and oppression, I am particularly fixated on the concepts of personal liberty and freedom of choice. People in the West who feels themselves oppressed by their governments really have no idea as how crushing and hateful that institutional oppression can be. It’s one of the greatest beauties of our life in the West: and I stand against oppression and hate in all of its manifestations.
How has your sound or style evolved since you started, and what has influenced that growth?
I think that my listeners are going to be surprised and find the songs on ONE SUITCASE to be far more complex – and probably more interesting – than my prior releases. We decided to move from beyond Western dance melodies and to musical influences with which I grew up as well as those to which I now listen. You’ find Middle Eastern influences, AfroBeat & Latino grooves and some adult themes. The album also includes my first ballad, the title track called ONE SUITCASE, which chronicles the heartbreak associated with having the leave behind everything that one has known and in favor of a better Ife.
How has your journey as an artist shaped your personal life or worldview?
While I am never one to fall into Victim Mode, the experiences of my family and myself as refugees from the Gangster Regime that holds power in Iran and having to make the transition to the West is probably the most defining experience of my personal development. I have had to redefine and reshape all of my personal concepts about womanhood and sexuality as well as my place in the world. Well I am thoroughly Americanized today — and with most people surprised know my background, much less my status as an immigrant — I think that I appreciate far more than most as to how blessed that we are in the Americas and Europe.
You’re been working on your upcoming album, ‘One Suitcase.’ Can you give us some insight into what fans can expect, both musically and lyrically?
Well, while my co-writing partner as many years Damon Sharpe remains my primary producer: and Damon & I teamed up with JHart, who is one of the new hit making songwriters in Hollywood and a total joy with which to work! I think that we collectively co-composed five of the songs on ONE SUITCASE — including all of the first four releases, AFTERGLOW, SWERVE,SAY IT WITH YOUR CHEST and DIRTY.
Yet on this album I also worked with a variety of other incredibly talented individuals.
I was extremely blessed to be able to work with legendary producer Dallas Austin at his home studio in Atlanta and was completely freaked out to be in that intimate environment where Dallas had worked with a number of legends, including Madonna, Pink, Janet Jackson and numerous other superstars. Together we came up with A LITTLE LOVE and the title song for the album, ONE SUITCASE — the latter of which is the first ballad that I have ever made.
Further, over the past year, I have also had an absolute blast working extensively with Eric Zayne, who is an incredibly talented musician, singer and producer, and his songwriting partners, Naz Tokio. Beyond being an incredible vocalist and songwriter, Naz has become one of my best galpals – and going into the studio with Eric & Naz is exhilarating as we never knew what we were conjure that day. A number of the songs on the album were co-written with Eric & Naz and I can’t wait for people to hear them!
Do you consider recording this album a significant milestone in your career, and if so, why?
Hell yeah! The title of ONE SUITCASE harks to the reality that I came to the United States at the age of 14, unaccompanied on a Lufthansa flight to New York, speaking no English and carrying all of my possession in a single hand-carried suitcase. ONE SUITCASE is all about the places I have been, the physical and psychological distances that I have traversed and where I am today. All of the songs speak to moments or stages in my life or otherwise signify the precepts that form me. And I hope that people are paying attention.