Samora Pinderhughes Unveils New Track 'Better,' Confirms New Album
His two-part album is set for release October 18.
By: Josh Sharpe Aug. 07, 2024
Acclaimed pianist, composer, vocalist, and multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes has confirmed a new two-part album, Venus Smiles Not in the House of Tears. The first LP of the series is set for release October 18 via a collaboration between Pinderhughes’ own Machel Records and Good Cloud Day—presave/preorder here. This marks the debut release for Good Cloud Day, headed by the former director of 37d03d and the Secretly Group. Ahead of the album, Pinderhughes unveils the first single, “Better”.
The new track is a tender, beautifully detailed and rhythmic foray into the genre-dynamic project to come. Featuring vocals from close collaborator Dani Murcia, “Better” introduces the heart issues of the record, addressing the difficulties of overcoming the cyclical patterns of mental health struggles. Pinderhughes recalls, “This was ironically the last song that my producer Jack DeBoe and I finished for the album. I always saw Venus as a movie, where myself as the main character is going through the memories of this relationship gone wrong, in order to answer the questions of why it went wrong. I wanted it to also feel like a real conversation, and so my amazing friend Dani came through and sang the response part beautifully.”
“Forgive Yourself. Learn to live with yourself. Don’t hurt yourself.”
This is the mantra of Venus Smiles Not in the House of Tears, the third full-length effort from Samora Pinderhughes. Made over 8 years with loving detail and written entirely by Pinderhughes and his longtime producer Jack DeBoe, the album is a deeply personal exploration & reflection of mental health in the modern age. It tells a non-linear story about a relationship that didn’t last, and the lessons learned through it. How can love exist when grief is in the way?
Venus is an open-genre exploration of music-making itself with wide-ranging production and a dynamic landscape of feeling and spirit. A Juilliard-trained pianist, composer, and vocalist, Pinderhughes weaves a cinematic quality throughout; songs about depression, anxiety, social pressures, forgiveness, and healing take on the musical details of their stories. From quiet, contemplative piano pieces to hard-hitting and soulful full band jams, to expansive and full-throated choir celebrations, Venus is a fitting accompaniment to a multitude of daily human experiences.
Featuring musicians & singers from Pinderhughes’ tight-knit NYC community including his sister Elena Pinderhughes (flute), Joshua Crumbly, Kyle Miles (electric bass), Burniss Earl Travis (electric bass), Gabe Schnider (electric guitar), Riley Mulherkar (trumpet), Andy Clausen (trombone), Jehbreal Muhammad Jackson (vocals), Brad Allen Williams (electric guitar), Elliott Skinner (vocals) and more, the crew represents a wave of new artists who thread the ethics of detail, honesty, vulnerability, and care into their work.
Says Pinderhughes of the album, “Mental health isn’t solitary; it’s about how our feelings, fears, traumas, and conceptions of self meet the world around us. Like so many, I’ve struggled with depression, anxiety, and isolation within a complicated matrix of identities. I wanted to make a project that would be brutally and lovingly honest about what it feels like to try to sift through the debris of time. A project that really engages with what it means to love, in the midst of a society that teaches us all the wrong lessons,” he continues, “Hopefully through the prism of these songs, you can feel something that resonates with you in your own life and experience.”
These have been a landmark few years for Pinderhughes, who has collaborated on several albums that were nominated for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, including Aja Monet’s when the poems do what they do—of which Pinderhughes wrote and played on the entirety of the record—and Meshell Ndegeocello’s The Omnichord Real Book featuring Pinderhughes’ original song “Gatsby.” He has also received IDA and Cinema Eye Honors nominations for Best Music Score for his work as the composer, pianist and vocalist on Michéle Stephenson and Joe Brewster’s documentary, “Going to Mars: the Nikki Giovanni Project,” which earned a place on the Oscars shortlist and was nominated for an Emmy.
The announcement of the new LP follows Pinderhughes’ latest album, GRIEF, which was released in 2022 as part of Pinderhughes’ The Healing Project to widespread praise from The New York Times, NPR, Forbes, KQED, San Francisco Examiner and more. Listen to the record here.
ABOUT SAMORA PINDERHUGHES
Samora Pinderhughes is a composer, pianist, vocalist, filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist known for examining sociopolitical issues and fighting for change through his art. Lauded as “one of the most affecting singer songwriters today, in any genre” by The New York Times and “a magical being” by Forbes, Pinderhughes is shaping new worlds through his art, his honesty, and his vulnerability.
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Pinderhughes began playing music at two years old and went on to study music at Juilliard where he met his primary artistic mentor, MacArthur-winning playwright Anna Deavere Smith. Pinderhughes has collaborated and performed with a number of artists including Common, Robert Glasper, Karriem Riggins, Kyle Abraham, Sara Bareilles, Daveed Diggs and Herbie Hancock, and his works have been commissioned by institutions including Carnegie Hall, the Sundance Film Festival, The Kitchen, Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, and the Kennedy Center.
Pinderhughes is the creator and director of The Healing Project, a massive multidisciplinary project that examines trauma & healing from incarceration, detention, and structural violence. Pinderhughes was the first-ever Art for Justice + Soros Justice Fellow and a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2020 Visionary Award. He is also a United States Artist Fellow, Creative Capital awardee, and Sundance Composers Lab fellow. He graduated from Juilliard and is getting his Ph.D. at Harvard University.
VENUS SMILES NOT IN THE HOUSE OF TEARS TRACK LIST
SIDE A
1. Better
2. Inertia
3. Gatsby
4. Hands
5. Slow Time
SIDE B
6. Venus
7. Storm
8. Drown
9. Erased
10. WCID
11. Forgive Yourself
SAMORA PINDERHUGHES LIVE
October 7—New York, NY—Blue Note
October 8—New York, NY—Blue Note
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Photo credit: Sonia Broman |
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