Today, Southern-bred multidisciplinary artist Mereba announces her new album The Breeze Grew a Fire due February 14th, 2025. Alongside the album, Mereba also announces her signing to label Secretly Canadian and shares her new single and video “Counterfeit,” which serves as her first release since her 2021 AZEB EP. “Counterfeit” provides a taste of the album’s emotive and fluid nature, introducing themes of authenticity, resilience, and self-love. The lyrics were first inspired by Mereba’s observations of people around her, yet as the song grew, it took the form of an anthem that fit into her life and self-image.
For Mereba to hone in on her latest album, it was necessary for her to reconnect with her inner child, a narrative that closely follows the project’s ethos of honoring nostalgia and inseparable relationships. While she peacefully transmutes her beginnings on the 13-track LP, Mereba looks upon her closest kinships and friendships with understanding. Surrounded by the gentle Breeze of these relationships and recollections, Mereba is empowered both as a creative and mother, while also being reminded to nurture her childlike wonder.
Following the release of her debut album The Jungle Is the Only Way Out, Mereba welcomed the birth of her son in 2021. Naturally, the assumption of her role as mother and nurturer shifted her self-perception and as a result, the methods and drive behind her creative output. Through this approach, her album draws from new lived experiences and early influences and in tapping into her maternal instinct, Mereba rediscovers space for her truest self. Speaking on the early stages of The Breeze Grew A Fire, she shares, “For this [album], it went back to me being on my own for the creation of a lot of the songs, and it was really important for me at this time of life because I was a little disconnected from the world, and from who I was. So I was trying to find my way back to myself first. What do I like? What do I want to hear? What do I want to say to people now?”
To aid in this creation, Mereba tapped her longtime production collaborator Sam Hoffman to co-assemble the album’s rich production, which parallels its folklore-like warmth. Although Mereba is a true double Earth sign–Virgo and Virgo rising–the development of Breeze was anchored by experiences and memories from Atlanta to L.A., Addis Ababa to Greensboro, an intention that speaks to the album’s fluid nature.
Mereba’s entry into songwriting began through folk music. Mereba shares, “I learned guitar from a folk guitar teacher as a young teen in North Carolina and that really shaped how I write songs to this day, focusing on simple stories of everyday life.” The diverse Atlanta music scene continued to shape Mereba’s artistry growing up. Mereba notes, “Coming up in the ripe underground music scene in Atlanta as an indie musician influenced my journey and sound so much. I was playing every kind of show, folk shows, reggae shows, rap shows, R&B shows. It was there where I honed my skills as a performer and also a rapper and R&B singer, branching out from the super folk-centric space. I formed relationships with Spillage Village, the rap collective I’m still a part of with other members JID, Earthgang, 6lack, and others. We all came up together in a really organic and beautiful way, going from playing shows for 30 people to playing shows for thousands together.”
Mereba’s debut album The Jungle Is the Only Way Out and follow up AZEB EP were both released to critical acclaim and sparked a global cult following with lead singles performed on Tiny Desk, COLORS and at the BET Awards. During the tail end of making her debut album Mereba was mentored by Stevie Wonder and he encouraged her to take control of her music as her own producer. Mereba was also featured on Dreamville Records Grammy-nominated album Revenge of the Dreamers III and four of Mereba’s songs have been featured on HBO’s hit series Insecure.
