Aneesa Strings is woke and she hopes to make people aware of what’s really happening in the world with her new single “The Awakening.”
Over a jazzy instrumental, which features trumpeter Sean Jones, Strings shed light on issues that some people continue to overlook in our nation. From the senseless shootings of unarmed Black men and women (“Y’all done killed too many of my sons and daughters”) to Black history being tampered with by colonizers (“You take my history and you rearrange it”), Strings doesn’t hold back one bit.
Speaking on the inspiration behind the song, Strings tells Rated R&B, “‘The Awakening’ is a song that was written out of frustration with the way the world is currently being ruled and the way people are so comfortable with the ever-present injustices committed daily.”
She continues, “The melody came to me as I was driving and I think that influenced the up-tempo groove and the funk of it. I immediately began driving faster as if I was headed to a new world: a place of liberty, recompense and equity.”
“The Awakening” is the first single from Strings’ forthcoming project that will release later this year.
Strings is a talented bassist, vocalist and composer from Oakland, California. She began her musical journey at the tender age of 13, when she recorded her first jazz album. She continued to study music and earned her Bachelors of Music in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California in 2014. In the same year, she released her first solo project, A Shift in Paradigm, in collaboration with SFJAZZ Collective.
Listen to “The Awakening” by Aneesa Strings below.
