“I went back to albums that my parents loved when I was a young kid living in Japan like Omar's ‘For Pleasure,’ ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,’ and ‘Street Songs’ by Rick James,” explained Bardo, who spent several of his formative years in Asia. “At the time, this music was too slow and mellow for my taste, but for my parents it represented comfort and familiarity in Japan’s seemingly homogeneous society where we were obvious outsiders. I didn't know it at the time but those songs would cement themselves deep into my memory and subconscious. So much so that fifteen years later, they produce emotions and reactions inside me that are so strong they're almost impossible to control or explain.” Bardo continues: “The Roots have the ability to take me back to being seven-years-old, sitting in the kitchen of my family's apartment in Tokyo, looking out of the window at the casino across the street with the huge neon lights,” Bardo shares. “And Jill Scott and Erykah Badu’s music puts me back on my bike, riding past all of the older people washing laundry in Kawasaki, Japan.” "I took what I loved about all of those artists and fused those with my experience traveling in Brazil, Spain and the Caribbean over the past couple of years. I really wanted to convey that almost constant feeling of desperately wanting to, but not completely belonging, and then returning home as a black man, and not feeling like I belong there either" "I'm so extremely grateful to have been able to work with so many great musicians on this project" Contributors include: -James Treichler -Adam Wayne -Reggie Chapman -Marcus Tenney -Emily Blue -Cii La'Cole -Kelly Uchima -Jake Schweitzer -Graham Young -Antonio Robles -Joe Meland -Evan Opitz -Nathan Saffold "Thank you for listening" - Bardo