JAMILA WOODS NEEDS “PRACTICE” FT. SABA
Chicago musician and poet Jamila Woods shares “Practice,” the fourth and final single from her upcoming third album, Water Made Us, out this Friday, October 13, via Jagjaguwar. Funky and catchy, “Practice,” produced by McClenney, features fellow Chicago native Saba and arrives with a video that playfully constructs faces using an array of body parts. The song comes along with the announcement of a US, UK and European tour. Kicking off in Seattle on February 1st, 2024, the thirteen-date US tour will feature support from Kara Jackson on all dates, hitting San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, DC, New York, and more before ending with a hometown Chicago show on February 23rd. She’ll then head overseas for a handful of dates in April. Tickets for the tour go on sale this Friday at 10:00am local time. The full dates are below.
On “Practice,” Jamila Notes:
Practice is a song I made with McClenney about releasing the pressure we put on ourselves in relationships. I was trying to shift how I often evaluate relationships based on their potential for longevity rather than on how I feel in the moment. The song is about how we can learn to just enjoy ourselves and be present with someone without needing to ‘get everything right’ or ‘have everything together.’ My friend Carlos López Estrada came up with this concept of creating faces with bodies in a way that’s sensual and silly at the same time. The whole process was very playful and experimental, which suits the song perfectly.
McClenney adds:
“Practice was such an important part of completing this album. We went through 2-3 different versions of the song to end up with the final you hear today. Where it sat in the sequence was important because it has a familiar rhythmic groove that celebrates the joy of exploring a new relationship while bookending the “honeymoon” phase of the album’s themes as the next few tracks move onto heavier & more vulnerable topics & tones. It was a puzzle piece Jamila and I spent so much time making sure we got right. Saba has been a consistent collaborator of her’s and it felt like the perfect track to capture their synergistic creative energies with something both familiar and new; he killed it.”
On Wednesday, October 11 in Los Angeles Jamila Woods is partnering with Earth Sessions and Intersectional Environmentalist to present Listening Room at In Sheep’s Clothing. Centered around music, art, and the environment, the event includes intentional listening sessions of Water Made Us introduced by Woods, breathwork by Open, and tarot readings. Woods will also join environmental justice advocate and author Leah Thomas for a conversation centered around music, art, and environment. All ticket proceeds go towards supporting future Earth Sessions programs.
Photo Credit: Elizabeth De La Piedra