Heiraza

Singer, Composer and Professor at Berklee College of Music.

"Inherited" is my debut solo album consisting of selections from over 400 songs written by my father during the 1970s but never released. Even though one of his songs became widely famous, he pursued mechanical engineering due to cultural pressure. He produced one album but the only existing copy of this cassette sits in a drawer. Before I moved to the US, 12 years ago, he handed me sheets of music bound into two books. I didn’t open these books for years. A time of isolation and struggles with mental health led me to start singing these melodies.

My album's first single "Sevilenler" is originally an unrequited love song but I imagined this song being sung to the divine and approached it sonically, and tried to recreate my experience of chanting/meditation which I experienced during my healing process. Therefore it's grand, embracing and static as if it's an experience of one single moment; like looking at a painting.