When Heems returned earlier this year with his first solo album in nine years, the Lapgan-produced LAFANDAR, he suggested that more music was coming sooner than later, and he’s already made good on that promise. He just announced his second album of 2024, VEENA LP, due August 23 via his own Veena Sounds. This one was produced entirely by Sid Vashi, and its first single “MANTO” is a jazzy rap song featuring an actual jazz musician, Vijay Iyer. Other guests on the album include Hasan Minhaj, Mr. Cheeks, Pavvan, Ajji, Navz- 47, and Cool Calm Pete, and the album also features voicemail skits from No Doubt’s Tony Kanal, Bollywood director Zoya Akhtar, Heems’ Swet Shop Boys partner Riz Ahmed, Arooj Aftab, Avan Jogia, and Ankur Tiwary. Heems says that “several of the voicemails are real.”

“MANTO” was inspired by the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan, and it comes with a video directed by Nardeep Khurmi (Land of Gold) that features the women in Heems’ family, including two elderly aunts who are among the last generation of survivors of the Partition. Khurmi says:

Heems sliding into my DMs after he saw my debut feature Land of Gold to tell me how much it meant to him was a career high point. I grew up with his music. Felt seen with his music. It was the first time I’d heard someone speak my language with my perspective. “MANTO” started out as a love letter to one of Heems’s favorite artists, Joseph Cornell, and his film Aviary, and evolved into an exploration of inherited trauma and sharing our love for the women who made sacrifices in order to raise us, all to a sick beat. It was an honor to help bring out what’s in Heems’ heart.

Heems adds, “These two inspirations, these parts of me creatively, Joseph Cornell’s The Aviary and Guru Dutt’s Mr. and Mrs. 55 were released the same 1955. This wasn’t that long after 1947’s Partition. So along with S.H. Manto and Amrita Pritam, all these thoughts were going around in my head.”

Sid Vashi, who also has a background in psychiatry, adds, “Inter- and trans-generational trauma is something that is starting to be spoken about more in psychiatry. The way Hima discusses it on Manto is so visceral and I think it really highlights the emotional impact of historical traumas that can sometimes be overlooked in theoretical discussions.”

Heems also discusses the clothing he’s wearing in the video by Stoffa, a NYC brand co-founded by Indian designer Agyesh Madan. “Getting fit for Stoffa was better than therapy,” he says. “When two creative people spend enough time together, they figure out a way to turn that into work, so work feels less like work. The idea of the outer borough flaneur came about with Agyesh’s eye for design looking at Guru Dutt’s clothes.”

Check out the song and video:

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Tracklist
1. VEENA
2. RATATOUILLE
3. MANTO with Vijay Iyer
4. BOURDAIN featuring Mr. Cheeks
5. UNDERBELLY
6. RAKHI featuring Pavvan, Ajji
7. FLOWERS featuring Navz- 47
8. JUHI with Hasan Minhaj
9. DAME
10. BANSHEE featuring Cool Calm Pete
11. RIGHTEOUS