An Unprecedented Summer, cont.: Amader (“Ours” in Bengali)

Between you and me, I had a tough first half of the summer. I decided I needed to spend time with family for a while (and a trip was long overdue), to get some fresh New England air and home-cooked eats and — most importantly — clarity and peace of mind. I took a trip to the east coast for nearly 6 weeks, traveling mostly around Boston and Brooklyn. When I returned, I had my first gig back in LA — the Dreamgirl Producer Bag Party, which I posted about a few months ago. A few weeks later, I got invited to play a show at PLZR Studios as a featured local Bangladeshi artist at Amader, the first show of it’s kind: a charity event focused on gaining awareness on the student protests that have been happening in Bangladesh this year, protests in which students and their families as well as minority groups have been killed and injured.

This show, frankly, changed my whole mindset about being back in LA. I told myself that I was going to find my people this year, my community. And guess what? They found me. Amader is where I connected with my people; my family away from family. West coast fam reminding me about all the love I hold back with my East coast fam. And the ever-growing love I have for my West coast home.

I remember sound check, and how helpful the new artists I was meeting at the time were, such as Aniqa Anjum capturing candid moments on video and Outside World helping me make sure my vocals were clean on the monitors. Throughout the afternoon and evening, I met so many fun, cool artists and creatives (and we were there from 2/3pm-ish to midnight!), like Siddzartha and Millksheikh, Saumya and Jbbrsh, Rah and Ayesha. I got to see Sanjoy, Muza, and Xefer perform live too — that was really dope. I could keep naming people who made a lasting impression on me, but the point is, I felt a complete sense of ease and peace being around these brand new (and relatively new) people in my life. Plus, I performed Jawline and Honey + M for the first time LIVE which was crazy. Jawline in particular was a hit, and I got a lot of positive feedback about my voice and performance. That made me feel pretty good, since I was a little nervous performing those for the first time (shoutout to the homie Simpatico for the incredible production on those songs). I feel really grateful, and I can’t wait for the next Amader show.