Artists
Album Info
Release Date: 2023-12-05Label: Beevine Records
There is suffering that exists on a deep, fundamental ‘living thing’ level, where our spirits recognize that what’s happening isn’t right or just,” says BONZIE aka Nina Ferraro. “When I made the song, I was thinking about my own experiences, and even my great-grandparents who escaped a terrible genocide. And then, there are current social and humanitarian issues that exist as forms of spiritual violence. I really wanted to pay attention to the energy in and of itself because everyone, even bigoted people, have experienced their own personal kind of spiritual violence. It’s sort of a spiral on itself – that trauma begets trauma – and the song is trying to squash that spiral; that’s how I wanted to feel when I wrote it. When I sing the lyrics ‘spiritual violence ends now,’ that’s the sensation that I want the song to elicit.”The collaboration with Teo The Artist began when BONZIE heard a song from the Chicago rapper on a local Chicago public radio station. While writing “Spiritual Violence,” she created a space for his verse and sent him the song. Teo and BONZIE worked closely for months as Teo wrote a rap verse on the song. BONZIE recorded her vocals and piano, and Teo added beats and synths. As two Chicago artists, they finished the production in their hometown at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio. The end result is a balance of two perspectives that resonate with the song’s universal message.