LOS ANGELES – Music has always been an emotional salve for Dawn Richard. In the early days of her career, she processed life’s adversities by dancing onstage and escaping in the grandeur of performance.
Now, the former member of Danity Kane is choosing to lean into stillness, forcing herself to rest in the moments between pain and freedom. Richard’s latest album, “Quiet in a World Full of Noise,” is her time to be vulnerable, showcasing her journey to stand in her truth, take time for herself and find hope at the end of the tunnel.
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“I promised myself that if I did do this (album) with Spencer (Zahn), in the end, there would feel and be hope. And every musical journey I’ve been through, my music has had that hope at the end," Richard said.
Richard made headlines in September after she filed a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, her former boss and collaborator, alleging that he manipulated and assaulted her. In the lawsuit filed Sept. 10, Richard is suing for unspecified damages as well as millions of dollars in income that she says she was denied. Combs' representatives have accused Richard of making “an attempt to rewrite history.”
Combs has been indicted on sex trafficking charges and has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his Sept. 16 arrest.
Richard doesn’t directly address her lawsuit or time with Combs during an interview to discuss her new album. She says her new music — melancholic and poetic —was inspired by the loss of a family member and the stress of having parents who were in and out of the hospital.
“There was just a lot going on for me that added to the reality that if I don’t start speaking, I’m not going to be in the right place,” she said. “And it’s something that I think for me, music has always been a piece of therapy that has saved me.”
She says she’s been standing up for herself since the early days of her career, both as a member of Combs' “Making the Band 3” group Danity Kane and as a solo artist.
“As a Black woman, I had my story in it, and I’ve been very vocal about what that has been,” Richard says. There were moments when she felt like a product more than a human. She says her album “Goldenheart” was a metaphor for her struggles in the industry.
“(It) was about a warrior who felt she was like David and Goliath, this person that has this one little rock trying to fight these massive dragons,” she said. “And that was literally the story and the message that has been through most of my projects.”
Now, Richard wants others in the music industry to follow her on this new path of freedom, one where she is in control and creates music as a tool for healing and expression.
“I want people to feel like they can speak their truths and do it in whatever way they see they can. I want that change,” she said. “And I hope every woman, queer person, whomever, they feel safe enough to have that comfort to say, ‘I can speak on this. I have that quiet in me to speak on this.’”
Released earlier this month, “Quiet in a World Full of Noise” is Richard’s second album with multi-instrumentalist Zahn. The musical duo, who met in 2018 through indie pop musician Kimbra, previously worked on 2022’s “Pigments.”
“We give each other the space to really be ourselves,” said Zahn. “It’s a space that maybe is harder to access if you’re making music that is set out to be more commercial. Neither of us ever thought about that for better or for worse.”
Richard appreciated that Zahn didn’t judge her lyrics as they were building songs: “If anything, he said, ‘Woo, OK, let me play. Let me build around it.’ And that’s what you hope for.”
She sees “Quiet in a World Full of Noise” as a metamorphosis, a chance to lay bare some of her most intimate moments with the hope that listeners can find solace and comfort.
“I love the person that I’ve become. I love the musical person I’ve become. And this project speaks to what that journey has been and how I feel,” she said. “This is an honest process about me as a person, less about the things I’ve done and what I do, but who I am as a person and who I’m aspiring to be.”
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The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Richard has done.