Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn lean into the quiet moments for their new album

LOS ANGELES -- Music has ever been an affectional salve for Dawn Richard. In nan early days of her career, she processed life’s adversities by dancing onstage and escaping successful nan grandeur of performance.

Now, nan erstwhile personnel of Danity Kane is choosing to thin into stillness, forcing herself to remainder successful nan moments betwixt symptom and freedom. Richard’s latest album, “Quiet successful a World Full of Noise,” is her clip to beryllium vulnerable, showcasing her travel to guidelines successful her truth, return clip for herself and find dream astatine nan extremity of nan tunnel.

“I promised myself that if I did do this (album) pinch Spencer (Zahn), successful nan end, location would consciousness and beryllium hope. And each philharmonic travel I’ve been through, my euphony has had that dream astatine nan end," Richard said.

Richard made headlines successful September aft she revenge a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, her erstwhile leader and collaborator, alleging that he manipulated and assaulted her. In nan suit revenge Sept. 10, Richard is suing for unspecified damages arsenic good arsenic millions of dollars successful income that she says she was denied. Combs' representatives person accused Richard of making “an effort to rewrite history.”

Combs has been indicted connected activity trafficking charges and has been held astatine a national jailhouse successful Brooklyn since his Sept. 16 arrest.

Richard doesn’t straight reside her suit aliases clip pinch Combs during an question and reply to talk her caller album. She says her caller euphony — melancholic and poetic —was inspired by nan nonaccomplishment of a family personnel and nan accent of having parents who were successful and retired of nan hospital.

“There was conscionable a batch going connected for maine that added to nan reality that if I don’t commencement speaking, I’m not going to beryllium successful nan correct place,” she said. “And it’s thing that I deliberation for me, euphony has ever been a portion of therapy that has saved me.”

She says she’s been opinionated up for herself since nan early days of her career, some arsenic a personnel of Combs' “Making nan Band 3” group Danity Kane and arsenic a solo artist.

“As a Black woman, I had my communicative successful it, and I’ve been very vocal astir what that has been,” Richard says. There were moments erstwhile she felt for illustration a merchandise much than a human. She says her medium “Goldenheart” was a metaphor for her struggles successful nan industry.

“(It) was astir a warrior who felt she was for illustration David and Goliath, this personification that has this 1 small stone trying to conflict these monolithic dragons,” she said. “And that was virtually nan communicative and nan connection that has been done astir of my projects.”

Now, Richard wants others successful nan euphony manufacture to travel her connected this caller way of freedom, 1 wherever she is successful power and creates euphony arsenic a instrumentality for treatment and expression.

“I want group to consciousness for illustration they tin speak their truths and do it successful immoderate measurement they spot they can. I want that change,” she said. “And I dream each woman, queer person, whomever, they consciousness safe capable to person that comfortableness to say, ‘I tin speak connected this. I person that quiet successful maine to speak connected this.’”

Released earlier this month, “Quiet successful a World Full of Noise” is Richard’s 2nd medium pinch multi-instrumentalist Zahn. The philharmonic duo, who met successful 2018 done indie popular musician Kimbra, antecedently worked connected 2022’s “Pigments.”

“We springiness each different nan abstraction to really beryllium ourselves,” said Zahn. “It’s a abstraction that possibly is harder to entree if you’re making euphony that is group retired to beryllium much commercial. Neither of america ever thought astir that for amended aliases for worse.”

Richard appreciated that Zahn didn’t judge her lyrics arsenic they were building songs: “If anything, he said, ‘Woo, OK, fto maine play. Let maine build astir it.’ And that’s what you dream for.”

She sees “Quiet successful a World Full of Noise” arsenic a metamorphosis, a chance to laic bare immoderate of her astir friendly moments pinch nan dream that listeners tin find solace and comfort.

“I emotion nan personification that I’ve become. I emotion nan philharmonic personification I’ve become. And this task speaks to what that travel has been and really I feel,” she said. “This is an honorable process astir maine arsenic a person, little astir nan things I’ve done and what I do, but who I americium arsenic a personification and who I’m aspiring to be.”

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The Associated Press does not typically sanction group who opportunity they person been sexually abused unless they travel guardant publically arsenic Richard has done.