PAGE 4 • GO! MAGAZINE
THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
ALL THINGS MUSIC
LIVE
MUSIC FOR
THE WEEK
p.6
bendbulletin.com/golisten
SHIREEN AMINI BREAKS
FREE ON NEW ALBUM
Album release show set for Friday at Volcanic Theatre Pub
BY DAVID JASPER
The Bulletin
S
hireen Amini has been a major part of the Central Oregon music scene
for the past decade, known for her work leading the Latin-funk group
¡Chiringa!, as a guest artist lending her talents to others’ recordings
and, last but not least, through her solo efforts.
Now, Amini has emerged from with a
highly personal artistic statement in the al-
bum “Break Myself Free,” also the album’s
namesake second track and first single.
Amini will celebrate the album’s release, as
well as the premiere of the video for the al-
bum’s namesake tune, “Break Myself Free,”
Friday at Volcanic Theatre Pub.
“A lot of these songs came during a time
when I was really just starting to come into
my own authenticity, in a number of ways
— a lot of which are counter-cultural — but
which are just deeply true to my being,” she
said.
In recent years, Amini has taken a deep
dive into her beliefs and values, embracing
the fact that she is queer in sexual orien-
tation as well as gender identification, she
said, and the wisdom gained emerges in her
songs and lyrics.
As she sings on “Let Go For Now,” the
first of seven tracks on the album: “Holding
on to where you’ve been is just keeping the
magic from flowing in, to carry you where
you’re meant to go and the grace of this mo-
ment a chance to show / This reality, so hard
to face, all you want is to fill the empty place
in your heart, but I believe it’s true / You are
not giving up the love in you, you are just
giving way for something new.”
“Break Myself Free,” the album, also finds
her doubling down on her primal love of
the natural world that brought her to Cen-
tral Oregon in the first place. That feeling is
If You Go
What: Album release party and video pre-
miere for Shireen Amini’s new album and
single, “Break Myself Free,” with Matti Joy
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Where: Volcanic Theatre Pub,
70 SW Century Drive, Bend
Cost: $10
Contact: volcanictheatre.com
or 541-323-1881
embodied by the nearly five-minute “Hippie
Deep,” an upbeat ode to Mother Earth full of
bluesy horns and back-up singing.
PRE-PANDEMIC WRITINGS
The majority of the album’s songs predate
the COVID-19 pandemic, although most
of the recording took place during it. She’d
dabbled in beginning to record at a local
studio in October 2019, but within a month,
she came across an ad for Plaid Dog Record-
ing in Boston.
“Funny enough, it was a Facebook ad that
I found,” she said. “It was intriguing because
it was a studio based in Boston that if they
accepted you as an artist, would help you
create a crowdfunding campaign, and then
raise the funds and be able to record at their
Continued on next page
Shireen Amini will
release her new
solo album, “Break
Myself Free,” Friday at
Volcanic Theatre Pub
in Bend. Gary Calicott/
Submitted photo