Alsarah & the Nubatones say hello with ‘Bye Bye’

It’s not always easy to define a band’s sound. How can you pinpoint a genre when it’s a mixture of so many? That can be said for Alsarah & the Nubatones, who have dubbed the music they play ‘East-African retro pop.’

Why that description? “Because we love music from all over East Africa and it inspires us,” Alsarah explains.

But even more important than defining a band’s genre is whether their music grabs your attention, whether it speaks to you. Does it? The answer is a resounding yes.

Alsarah’s story is one of constant movement and overcoming obstacles. She was born in Sudan, but when she was 8 her family fled the country after a coup. The family then found themselves in Yemen before fleeing yet again during a civil war there in 1994.

Her family finally claimed political asylum in the U.S. and wound up in Amherst, Massachusetts.

“It was not…fun,” she told Vice. “I learned the language pretty quickly on, but it took two or three years. Amherst is a nice liberal town. As far as small town America it could have been a lot worse but it was…not nice. People here do [racism] in such a nice and subversive way. It takes a while to figure out that someone is not your friend. So that betrayal is so much deeper. I would much rather someone just not like me right off the bat…. Eventually I just embraced not being friendly.”

This has left a great impact on her music, as she often sings about migration and living as part of a diaspora.

“This is why I wanted to write my own songs,” Alsarah continued. “I wanted to talk about my personal story because I felt there wasn’t anyone else talking to me about it. It really is that simple. I do sing love songs. I sing a lot of love songs. But I also sing about how I have to go to the special room when I go the airport. My body is the intersection of politics whether I want to f**king deal with it or not.”

Alsarah studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, then moved to New York. She founded the band Alsarah & the Nubatones in Brooklyn in 2010. Four years later they released both an EP, Soukura, their debut album, Silt, which NPR described as full of and “deep rhythms, fluttering vocals and serious grooves.”

Alsarah & the Nubatones’ new song, “Bye Bye,” is also one of the band’s first written in English. The song incorporates a lot of traditional blues elements while still maintaining elements of their “East-African retro pop.”

Alsarah’s voice really shines on “Bye Bye” – her emotion and confidence are felt immediately. And the lyrics cut more than a traditional break-up song: “offerings at the alter of your heart,” “chased down the moon and captured stars,” and “stored all my love in a magic jar” are lines that stand out as outlandish and even impossible things to do for someone you love. It’s a unique way to describe how love makes you do crazy things.

Alsarah & The Nubatones released their third full-length album Seasons of the Road on Feb. 10. Check it out if you’re looking for something new and refreshing.