“My music comes from a place of hopefulness. Without hope I think a soul as sensitive as mine would just wither away. So, I tend to write my songs with a tinge of optimism even if the subject is a tough one.”

Presenting Mereba, a multifaceted artist who fuses diverse genres in her music, from R&B to hip hop and from rap to folk-soul.

From a young age, Mereba has used music as an outlet to express her emotions. She has been shaping her unique voice ever since, combining her passion with her versatile musical skills and drawing on her Ethiopian origins.

Uncompromising on her identity and her creative direction, Mereba weaves poetry and storytelling into her work, inviting listeners to embrace her music as a means of reflection and personal healing.

Captivated by her music and spiritual outlook on life, Moleskine and Interscope Records decided to develop a “Moleskine Presents” series. Once a month we will bring to you a musician’s personal story, taking a close look at their songwriting, personality and ideation process.
Mereba is the first musician in this series.

We spoke to her about her music, creative method and how she uses handwriting to find her inner voice.

My music comes from a place of hopefulness. Without hope I think a soul as sensitive as mine would just wither away. So, I tend to write my songs with a tinge of optimism even if the subject is a tough one. I guess I’d just like for my music to help people. It sounds simple but I just want it to make the life game more enjoyable. I see it almost as a spiritual support that can help assist in their healing processes.

Being a musician has connected me to the world in a way I’ll always be grateful for, man. I guess you could say that it’s kept me curious. It’s kept a wonder inside of me. When I write songs, they come from a place of wanting to solve a problem inside of myself, seeking answers to internal questions. I think that makes me more patient with people in general, knowing just how many emotions we’re all working through on a daily basis, and how confusing life can sometimes be.

Notebooks have been a part of my process since I was 7. I’ve had probably about 100 of them by now that I’ve filled up with songs, poems, and short stories. They are just the best companions to creativity, to me, because it’s hyper-personalized. I write my most intimate thoughts and expressions in them. The handwriting and the scribbles and scratched out ideas… it all tells a story that only that one person could tell. I love that. They’re like fingerprints.
It makes my creative process fluid and I have weird ways of piecing ideas together that span over a few different journals. I’ll wake up and frantically go through a journal from 4 years ago knowing that an idea is hiding inside of it, and that all of the sudden is clicking for me alongside newer ideas. It’s a powerful personal archiving tool – like encyclopedia volumes telling the life story of one creative.

The closest thing to a thought I carry with me at all times is this: Stay True. I strongly feel like these modern times are most difficult to be truly content with being yourself and thinking for yourself. Every single day you can be exposed to hundreds of other people and what they’re portraying out to the world, and it can make it hard to know exactly who you are as an individual. Stay true. First to yourself then to everyone else.