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While some bands form for no reason other than to play rock n’ roll, there are others, like DUNUMS, arise from unusual and extraordinary circumstances. The band presents their new single “Honeycomb art on a billion twins”, today. It is from her upcoming new album I was not this thoughtThe release is scheduled for October 4th.
Under the direction of Sijal NasrallaDUNUMS is more than just a conventional band. Nasralla has taken a more comprehensive approach to the group, turning it into a multimedia collaborative project that pushes musical boundaries. The songs are wide-ranging and expansive, taking on the characteristics of loud post-rock, progressive rock and bedroom fake jazz.
In his discussion of “Honeycomb Art on a Billion Twins,” Nasralla explains:
“This song is an impressionistic poem I wrote for two children, loved by two families, born from two portals, in the year of two 20s. A reminder of the everyday miracle that my child was born at the same time as his dear friend, from the work of our dear friends, in the time of curfew, side by side.
“I wanted to write a song that felt kaleidoscopically fixated on the number 2. What repeats happens twice, it may all seem strange, but it’s still even. Things that sound similar are, when they happen again, a little different. When you listen more closely, everything is somehow jumbled. What looked like just two when you zoomed in is now the innermost branch of neighboring cells in a brooding candy cane stretching across infinities. One small phenomenon, side by side, becomes big billions – and so on.
“This song has special guests. One of my oldest friends Casey Malone (Zodiac lovers) plays gentle synthesizer melodies while the parents of the two children sing their despair in this vague hymn. “In my mind we all pledge allegiance to the mystery we cannot count.”
With their Palestinian heritage, DUNUMS have a higher purpose in their songwriting. Their songs blend memories and reflections of their homeland and translate them into sound. These songs are about family, love, anger, and how God is always bigger. The band writes music in direct response to social and political events in their homeland. They see their work as crucially connected to their history rooted in Palestine and how they have managed to integrate into the culture of the American South in their home state of North Carolina.
I was not this thought was written primarily from the perspective of Nasralla’s daughter Tasneem. Nasralla sought to interpret and convey her youthful perspective in the songwriting by highlighting certain significant moments. He considers Tasneem’s earliest impressions of the world, her first pains, her first traumas, her wonder, and more. Ultimately, it is an album about love and the power inherent in it. He views love as the truest means of displacing oppression, and he connects this concept to his experience as a Palestinian in the United States. I was not this thought was a very well conceived album, both sonically and thematically groundbreaking and highly original.
DUNUMS “That was not my thought” album cover
