Musician/actor/Travis Scott collaborator Dua Saleh gets a lift from Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon on several songs pegged for their new album, Of Earth & Wires, which will be released May 15 on Ghostly International. “Flood” and “Glow” are out now and can be sampled below, while Vernon appears on the yet-to-be-revealed track “Keep Away.”
Of Earth & Wires was executive produced by SZA collaborator Billy Lemos and also features contributions from longtime Vernon musical associate Ryan Olson and producer Psymun. Other guests include aja monet on “ALL IS LOVE” and Gaidaa on “Anemic.”
“These songs came together organically while creating in Minneapolis,” Saleh says of the Bon Iver tracks. “What started as a session tied to a Travis Scott track opened into a free-flowing jam with local producers, including Psymun. I sat back with Psymun’s dog, Synth, listening as a beat took shape, while I turned over melodies and words in my head. ‘Flood’ formed first. Justin freestyled the hook in the moment, and I later wrote to the beat. Watching his cathartic process and hearing the emotion move through his voice pushed me to confront parts of my past I hadn’t fully faced The flood became an allegory for staying afloat rather than drowning in grief, shaped in part by memories of experiencing climate-related flooding while living in Cardiff, Wales.”
As for “Glow,” Saleh reports that it was derived “from that same openness. The session felt unusually fluid. We were all writing together, following instinct. Justin’s enthusiasm, emotional honesty and melodic intuition made everything feel effortless. What stayed with me most was how he continued to show up afterward, excited by the demos, retracking vocals and helping shape arrangements as the songs evolved. I’m deeply grateful for the care he brought into this process, and I hope we find our way back into rooms like that again.”
A Los Angeles resident with Sudanese roots, Saleh found themselves reflecting on the war-torn country while writing new material. “I was just kind of ruminating on where I could find my place as an artist amongst the terrain of AI, and I was lonely and overwhelmed,” they say. “I missed my mom and my siblings. I felt like I was losing my accent being there, just questioning the notion of home on many levels. I started weaving an album around the music that we had made together, that we had collaborated on with other producers from Minnesota, where I grew up.”
