aquarian convergence + an EP drop

Houses + Homes, Part I is a product of apartment-dwelling and contemplating the unchosen ways that humans find themselves connected, and the impact of next-door connections on individuals and society.

A discussion of houses and homes naturally raises questions about equity because more is at stake than just a roof over one’s head. A safe, sheltered dwelling is a blessing, to be sure, but it is one that does not guarantee peace. In thin-walled apartments, serenity is often at the mercy of the people living next door, above, or below. From behind closed doors, people wage wars against their neighbor-strangers—assaulting them with the bangs and slams of frustrated lives. Anxiety and an exaggerated startle response are the legacies of my time living living in apartments. Meanwhile, a sleep-deprived populace wanders through shared public spaces, irritable and unrested, and we feign confusion over the reasons that our society has become a hotbed of anger and violence.

At the heart of Houses + Homes, Part I is my lifelong search for home.

I was raised in a house in a middle-class neighborhood that bore all of the signifiers of a happy, suburban home life. It evinced the hard work of my parents, who grew up Black and poor in the Deep South and overcame every obstacle to achieve the proverbial American Dream. They made every sacrifice to ensure that my sisters and I had a more comfortable upbringing than they did. I remain in awe of their accomplishments and proudly have applied their work ethic to my own life. But the house, at least for me, was not a home because of the lurking presence and gurgling fears of generational ghosts that drove me, for a time, into selective mutism as a child. My affinity for music emerged during this period, becoming my language. “Upsize” is my declaration of independence from forced silence.

My search for home took me from my hometown in South Carolina to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Los Angeles, from Los Angeles to Charlotte, from Charlotte to Brooklyn and back to L.A., back to the Carolinas, and on to Boston, where I now reside in the first home I have ever known. “Too Many Moons” reflects my grief over things lost and broken amid numerous geographical relocations—in search of home.
I wrote Houses and Homes Part I, in fragments, between 2019 and 2025 amid the worst circumstances of my life and, simultaneously, the best. The EP is a meditation on the elusive search for home that has haunted my life, but it also glimpses the healing forces of the universe and the divine, guiding powers of the stars.

“Interstellar Dweller” is a testament to found family, which includes animals, and a celebration of the rare celestial meeting that led me to the person who became my home, and whose own harrowing circumstances placed us in a house that is also a vibrant, thriving home pulsating with creativity, where life and love are works of art from which all else extends.

“Uneven Floor” was inspired by the first and only apartment we shared—a spacious but ramshackle building built in 1910. We moved in during mask mandates in the pre-vaccine days of the pandemic. Our love for each other, and nearby hiking trails, anchored us to sanity. The photo on the cover of Houses and Homes, Part I—by Dani Shaw, my partner in interstellar dwelling and all things—features the building with uneven floors, where for two years we occupied the bottom floor. But the version of “Uneven Floor” that appears on the EP is the version I started with in 2021 while living on an uneven floor.

On January 25, 2025, three days before the EP’s targeted release, I grabbed a guitar and began strumming a riff I’d been playing around with since 2007, when I lived in Brooklyn. Within minutes, it was clear that this riff from almost two decades ago was meant for this song. I got to work rerecording the song while getting established at a job I started four days prior. My intended EP drop date—January 28, my birthday—would not happen. I considered releasing Houses and Homes, Part I on February 28, my grandmother’s birthday, who lived to 99 and for the first time in her life voted for an African-American president.

It was important to me, though, because of the astrological significance of these songs, that I send the EP into the world during Aquarius season. I spent January 28th reworking the track. At the end of the session, I decided that my new release date would be February 8th — 2/8 (visibly 28), still Aquarius season, and the day Davíd Garza, the musician who has inspired me most, was born. I climbed the stairs from my basement studio/office to celebrate my special day with Dani, who insisted I open all of my gifts within the hour or so left of my birthday (contrary to my habit of saving them for a time when I fully savor them without the distractions of tiredness or work-related distraction).

We ate yummy Indian food for dinner—buttery chicken, naan, vegetable pakora—and sipped wine. Then she handed me the one gift I had to open before midnight:

On another day I may share the other side of the handwritten track list. 

I listened as Dani told me how she acquired this treasure from the musician she has heard about from the first day we met, how her engagement with DG over email, someone she has never met, provided light during a week of strain. His kindness and generosity were a mirror of her own—a deserved bounty.

The Aquarian convergence that happened on January 28th, though, is the biggest gift I’ve received for any birthday. It aligned all of my favorite people and things in ways I never imagined possible. All I can say on this 2/8 release day is—Happy Birthday, Davíd!

And thank you to anyone reading this missive or listening to Houses and Homes, Part I.I can't wait to share Part II with you in the coming months.

xO!
Anwuliazuka 

​Credits
released February 8, 2025
Written, performed, and produced by Anwuliazuka.
Cooper Shaw: keyboard solo on "Uneven Floor" and "Outro"
Dani Shaw: bass on "Uneven Floor"
Cover photo and design by Dani Shaw
Art, handwriting, and other images by Anwuliazuka
Recorded  between 2019 and 2025 at Cloud Exile Studios, in Massachusetts, in a Volkswagen Jetta, and in an apartment with an uneven floor.
Copyright 2025 Anwuliazuka Tamryn Spruill.