Multidisciplinary artist Vivek Shraya and singer-songwriter Donovan Woods have teamed up for a duet about the complexities of interracial relationships. The song is a bonus version of "Colonizer" from Shraya's album Baby, You're Projecting, released last month via Mint Records.
"Being a brown person — let alone a brown person who explores the impact of white supremacy and racism in her art — and dating a white person has often felt fraught," Shraya said in a press release. "I am literally sleeping with the colonizer! I am constantly aware of our differences and of his privilege. At the same time, I am wildly in love. I wanted to write a song that captured this tension…while also being, at the core, a love song."
She added that she had originally asked her real-life partner to sing it with her, but when he "emphatically" turned it down, she "replaced him" with Woods.
"I was thrilled to be asked to feature on Vivek's song," said Woods. "Her melodies are so wonderfully novel to me and have a kind of old-world quality. I can't really describe it — close intervals, almost like classic show-tunes, a sound uniquely her own. She makes melodic choices again and again that would never occur to me and it was a joy to learn them and sing them. I'm proud to be a small part of the story."
Check out the bonus version of "Colonizer" below.
"Being a brown person — let alone a brown person who explores the impact of white supremacy and racism in her art — and dating a white person has often felt fraught," Shraya said in a press release. "I am literally sleeping with the colonizer! I am constantly aware of our differences and of his privilege. At the same time, I am wildly in love. I wanted to write a song that captured this tension…while also being, at the core, a love song."
She added that she had originally asked her real-life partner to sing it with her, but when he "emphatically" turned it down, she "replaced him" with Woods.
"I was thrilled to be asked to feature on Vivek's song," said Woods. "Her melodies are so wonderfully novel to me and have a kind of old-world quality. I can't really describe it — close intervals, almost like classic show-tunes, a sound uniquely her own. She makes melodic choices again and again that would never occur to me and it was a joy to learn them and sing them. I'm proud to be a small part of the story."
Check out the bonus version of "Colonizer" below.