Berhana

Photography by Drew Reynolds. Interview By Heather Hawke.

 

LA-based Atlanta Native Berhana (Amain Berhane) recently released his debut full-length LP HAN via EQT Recordings (Masego, JPEGMAFIA). HANfollows his self-titled debut EP and his song “Grey Luh” which was featured on Donald Glover’s ATLANTA. The LP draws inspiration from his Ethiopian roots, Japanese culture and food, as well as his time as a film student at The New School in NYC.

 

I want to start from the beginning. What was your childhood like growing up in Atlanta? Was creativity a part of your childhood? Did creativity play a big part of your childhood? 

Yeah, I was a pretty creative kid. I used to write songs in elementary school and got into creative writing in middle school.

Tell me about your artistic upbringing. When did you first become aware that music and film were going to be a part of your life? Did both come into your life around the same time? 

When I was a freshman in high school. I knew I’d be doing one or the other but was never sure how I would go about doing both.

I know you studied film at The New School, but what was your formal / not formal music education like growing up?

I never went music school or anything. I listened to artists I liked and then found out the artists they liked and listened to them and so on. Same with directors.

Let’s talk about your formative years. What was the very first concert you attended? 

My first concert was John Legend at The Fox Theatre. My sister took me. I was sitting next to a couple aunties going crazy.

I read that you see music primarily as a way to tell stories and also for escapism. Has creating music always been this way for you? When did you start writing songs? Do you remember the first song / piece of music you wrote?

Yeah, it has. I wrote my first song when I was around 7 or 8, right after my dad left. I remember showing it to my brother like a year after I wrote it and he told me to keep writing.

While working on your 2016 EP you knew that by the time it was released you wanted to be living in LA. Did moving to LA change your writing / creation process at all? Is that process something that’s shifted for you over time? 

It has in the sense of who I’m able to work with now, but it hasn’t really changed how I write.

Are you always writing? Was there a specific moment when work on HAN began? Or does the line between the writing for both releases sort of blur?

I am. HAN started as an idea before anything else. I had an idea for the first track, wrote the last track, and then just filled in the rest.

HAN was roughly two years in the making. How much did you, and the album, evolve in that time?

A bunch. David (Pomo) and I just kept refining the songs over and over until we were happy and felt all the details were there.

I read that HAN draws inspiration from your experience with Japanese culture and food, your Ethiopian roots, as well as the your time as a film student in New York City. With all that culture influence do you feel that when you travel you soak in everything knowing you want to be inspired from your travels or is it more organic, like you realize how inspired you were from everything and then you create? 

As a writer, I always try to be cognizant of what’s going on around me, whether I’m traveling or not.

What was your favorite part about the writing / album creation process? 

Doing something different and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. Being able to see the whole process through was really special.

How important is it to you for the art that accompanies your music to represent the sound and the lyrics? Do you aim for a conversation between the two, or are you more interested in an aesthetically cool package?

I’ve always loved packaging. Music, videos, artwork, rollout, etc. In terms of execution, I never want to do it the same way twice. The product just needs to be tight-knit. No holes.