This week, Kaleidoscope host Juliet Fromholt interviewed Abiyah, a Cincinnati-based musician who released her first full-length album, Strangers Love Me, on December 8, 2023. Abiyah talked about deciding to record the album after finding a producer, Eugenius, capable of crafting the broad spectrum of sounds needed for the project. She said that the theme of human connection in the face of loneliness runs through the songs on Strangers Love Me, and explained how she navigates society's expectations of her as a woman in her 50s. “I normalized being my unique self, to myself,” she told Juliet.
Abiyah found the concept, and the right producer, for Strangers Love Me during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdowns. She said that despite her efforts to stay connected with friends, she found herself feeling “lonelier than ever” during the pandemic.
“I've generally been an extroverted introvert most of my life, and I do have a unique style… But, even being unique and visible in the world from an outward appearance perspective, I still struggle with loneliness. Not being alone—I love solitude, I’m fine being by myself, and don't want to live with anybody, that whole thing. But loneliness is about connection. Alone is about the physical, but loneliness is about the emotional.”
Abiyah said her feelings of isolation abated during her daily walks, when she often ran into strangers. Rather than simply saying “hello,” and moving on, she began to make an active effort to engage with the unfamiliar people in her environment. “I know that I can always find connections with strangers,” she told Juliet. “Which sounds weird, but it's like I tell people, every friend was a stranger first.”
Abiyah’s new record isn’t her first foray in the music scene. The 54-year old poet and singer released her debut single, “Free Wild Muse,” in 2002, and appeared on LA art-rapper Open Mike Eagle’s 2011 record, Rappers will die of Natural Causes. Yet despite six nominations to the CityBeat Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, and other accolades, Abiyah said she didn’t record a full-length album until recently because “I didn't think I could find one producer to do all of my sounds.” Cincinnati producer Eugenius changed her mind. Eugenius was able to recreate the vibe of reference tracks from a variety of musical styles, from electronica to dancehall to punk, without merely copying them. Plus, she said, they shared a similar musical spirit. “He's like me—he's one of the same tribe that can't help but be that.”
On the song “Still,” Abiyah teamed up with California punk pioneer Alice Bag, who co-founded the band The Bags. She met Bag after Abiyah had an opportunity to open for her show in Cincinnati. Later, Abiyah asked Bag if she would be willing to record backup vocals for “Still.” “I respect her as an artist, as a woman, as a woman of color, as a queer woman of color and as a woman who just recently turned 65 and is still doing things,” Abiyah told Juliet. She said that Bag was a perfect partner to perform on “Still,” a song about defying expectations placed on women over 40.
“The whole theme of that song is the concept that, for women more often than men, people are in amazement that after a certain age–we'll just say 50 and up, but probably more like 40 and up–we’re still here and still doing things… Dolly Parton, Charo, Grace Jones, Alice Bag—women who are over 50, over 60, over 70, and are still standing, still singing, still dancing, still dreaming.”
Strangers Love Me is available now on Bandcamp, or for streaming. For more information about Abiyah, including performance dates and release updates, visit her website, abiyah.com.
Text by Peter Day, adapted from a live interview by Juliet Fromholt on December 6, 2023.
