Photo credit: Zayira Ray
Today, Sheherazaad announces her long-awaited debut full-length album ‘Khudgarzi’, due for release on November 20 with Erased Tapes. She also shares its haunting, anthemic first single, “Andhera,” which is accompanied by an intimate acapella version of the song, captured by French filmmaker Vincent Moon in his renowned La Blogothèque-fashion in Victoria Park, London. Listen to the single version, then get a raw emotional feel from the acapella version. Both in the links below.
Sheherazaad explains the background of ‘Andhera’: “I wrote Andhera (Darkness) after I’d met the love of my life, where for some reason, romantic gloom and obscurity was still bleeding out of me. The song was largely composed in an ex’s coat closet as I tried to keep my volume down lest I interrupted what I felt was his “real” work outside. So I’d sing at the rock bottom of my vocal range, praising feminine darkness and the ancient murky cosmos. It became a frilly goth anthem, with eyeliner running down its cheeks, where the beloved is essentially just the color black.”
Sheherazaad – Andhera (Erased Tapes Session)
‘Khudgarzi’ (English: Selfishness), is the anticipated follow-up to the American songstress-producer-theatre artist’s highly praised 2024 EP ‘Qasr’. The record encompasses a woman’s forensic deep dive into the space between duty and autonomy; sacrifice and survival. While composing, Sheherazaad became consumed by the figure of the so-called Khudgarz Aurat – the “Selfish Woman” – a label she had heard since childhood, levelled at women whose desire for agency was often met with suspicion or exile.
“Selfishness became a kind of silent prayer,” Sheherazaad recalls. “A portal into a haunted universe of anxieties and desires. I was made to fear a ‘selfish’ kind of woman – embracing her felt like stepping into a forbidden forest I’d been running away from.”
Written in the aftermath of a broken engagement, ‘Khudgarzi’ carries the emotional debris of rage, guilt and grief, while imagining an alternative mythology populated by women who shapeshift between storytellers, courtesans, historians, survivors and witnesses. Across ten theatrical pieces, Sheherazaad refuses neat resolutions, instead creating an oral archive where feminine survival is neither sanctified nor condemned, but revealed as an ongoing ritual of performance, strategy and insurgency.
Tour Dates:
30.08. Kelmarsh, UK — Shambala Festival
06.09. Larmer Tree Gardens, UK — End of the Road Festival
03.-07.12. Pattaya, TH — Wonderfruit Festival
20.01. Liverpool, UK — Royal Philharmonic
22.01. Edinburgh, UK — Sneaky Pete’s
23.01. Glasgow, UK — Glad Cafe (Celtic Connections)
25.01. Bristol, UK — The Lantern
27.01. London, UK — Cafe Oto
28.01. Margate, UK — Arc
30.01. Fribourg, CH – Fri-Son
01.02. Amsterdam, NL — Paradiso
02.02. Antwerp, BE — De Roma
03.02. Utrecht, NL — Tivoli
06.02. Berlin, DE — Supermolly
07.02. Jena, DE — Trafo
08.02. Prague, CZ — Palac Akropolis
11.02. Porto, PT — RCA
12.02. Braga, PT — TBA
13.02. Lisbon, PT — ZBD
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