Founded back in 2010, Yemen Blues are:
- Yemeni-born founder and audio guru Ravid Kalahani (vocals, gimbri).
- Israeli-Uruguayan Rony Irwyn (percussion), whose work is deeply inspired by salsa and his ability to find strength in fragility
- New York-based Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (bass, oud), who’s a mainstay in the local avant-garde scene. He has worked on over 150 albums that routinely see him bringing the twin poles of extreme noise and simple melody together
- Dan Mayo (drums), the last member to finalize the band’s lineup. He brings a hip-hop inspired thump and a metronomic sense of groove to the band’s work
With each of the members of Yemen Blues being spread across the world, the band specializes in a polyglot mélange of Bedouin folk, funk, blues, Arabian classical, psych rock, jazz, avant-garde rock and more.
The global outfit released their fifth album, Only Love Remains earlier this year. While we’re in the midst of dangerous political, religious and cultural polarization rooted in xenophobia and ignorance, the album sees the band attempting to create a color-blind, all-embracing celebration of gyrating togetherness anchored by love.
Only Love Remains‘ latest single “Miss Ballad” is a swaggering and expansive track that’s one-part desert blues, one-part slow-burning psych blues
anchored around a scorching, slithering guitar line, industrial meets-gnawa-like percussion featuring Kalahani’s expressive vocal singing lyrics about self-love and self-acceptance — often in the face of cruelty and racism.
As the band’s Kalahani explains, the song was written about his daughter Eli, who lives in Finland with her artist mother. “In a world where others don’t always accept people who look different, Finland can be confusing for a mixed-race girl,” says Kahalani. “This song is to remind Eli that she is magic – her curls, her skin, her blend of cultures…everything about her. The title came from Shanir (Blumenkranz, Yemen Blues bassist/producer), who called me one morning and said he had a dream about a big awards event where we were receiving an award for a song called ‘Miss Ballad’. So I wrote this story about Eli around the title ‘Miss Ballad.’”
The surreal, fever dream-like visual for “Miss Ballad” was directed by the band’s Blumenkranz and shot by the band with an iPhone in a German Airbnb between shows of a European tour. All costumes and objects in the video were bought in a local Japanese dollar store.
