How Mereba’s Momentum Was Reignited

Six years ago, the multi-hyphenate artistMereba — born Marian Azeb Mereba to an Ethiopian father and an African American mother — released her outstanding sophomore album,The Jungle Is The Only Way Out.

It was a radical shift from the folk-inclined ambient guitar songs from her 2013 debut,Room for Living, which floated somewhere between the confessional nature of Joni Mitchell's lyrics and the carefree youthfulness of Tracy Chapman. She had spent the intervening years releasing more music and honing her artistry with a loose collective of musicians now known as Spillage Village. She also taught herself audio production, a decision she says empowered her to produce the type of sound she was hearing in her head.

Listeners from different spheres of life took to X, formerly Twitter, to express how much The Jungle Is The Only Way Out had impacted them. "There was a time when I was going through a lot; this album helped me maintain my sanity, calm me, and gave me a place to rest my mind. Thank you, Reebs,"a user posted.Another said, "This album has carried me through so much. Forever grateful for the album and you."

And so it went, with tens of people quoting lyrics from the album or sharing how the sprawling body of work, with features from her Spillage Village family, impacted their lives.

That album also changed Mereba's life, or at least it was supposed to. Her moment in the sun was cut short with the announcement of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. "So many things were happening for me, and so much was going on. And then, one day, everything stopped. I had worked for a long time, so it felt so jarring to be like, 'Okay, I'm finally here and ready to go!' Then, the world stopped. I did have to go through the feelings of grief, of 'okay, I thought it was gonna be this way, and I was ready to answer that call, and now it's this way, and I don't know when it'll ever be like that again.'"

Mereba admits that it was initially "hard and painful" to have her dream deferred but says she became accepting over time. The producer, singer, songwriter, and rapper realized that none of us are in control of anything and that lifeline led her toward healing. She humbled herself to life's unpredictable currents and let go of what she thought her path would look like. "I [had] to step into whatever it was meant to be in reality. My son's coming was also woven into that lesson of 'I still have something to say in this world, and I still have my vision and I still have my music, but there are other things in life that I also want, and I'm answering that call now.'"

Her new album comes off the back of her 2021 EP,Azeb. It centers on the calming, comforting, and consistent relationships in her life: with friends, her son and her spirituality. "I just love that idea that something as soft and unassuming as a breeze can grow something passionate, fiery and purposeful inside of you," she says.

There couldn't have been a way that Mereba — who was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and raised across Philadelphia, North Carolina, and a small stint in Ethiopia — could've known that there were going to be fires in Los Angeles, where she's been based for a couple of years when she named the album The Breeze Grew A Fire. "It's a healing album, and it's meant to celebrate the relationships there for you through everything. I think it even applies to the fires and how the incident brought us together as a community."