“Tracy Chapman was the reason I started playing guitar,” says Kenyan-born US singer-songwriter Naomi Wachira. “I was enamored with this black woman who was not singing R&B, she was just singing her own thing, and I was like “Oh! You can actually do that? You don’t have to fall into these set categories.”
Naomi hopes she can enjoy the same longevity as the legendary singer and guitarist whose 1980s catalogue still resonates across generations of music fans.
After a hiatus of almost five years caused by a combination of creative burnout, and the emotional turmoil of midlife, she has just returned with An Anthology of Love, a self-produced 6-track EP released on July 11, 2025.
“I got really burnt out in 2019 and the pandemic forced the hiatus to go even further,” she explains during a chat earlier in the week from her home in Seattle, Washington. “Coming back with this EP felt like the first time that I really tuned into my voice as an artiste.”
She wrote down the album title seven years ago and then started figuring out songs that would fit into a collection of stories revolving around different experiences of love.
Producing her own album for the first time, Wachira says, is testament to her preparation in the period when she was not actively recording or performing.
Having written enough material for three albums, she made a choice to start with a project that was “pretty easy”. She picked the best of her songs written over the last 18 years that would express the multifaceted nature of love. “Midlife has taught me to really trust my own voice,” she asserts.
The 48-year-old single mother of a teenage daughter has lived in the US for 30 years, having first left Kenya to pursue a college education before later acquiring American citizenship.
Even though her new music is inspired by her experiences with romantic relationships, she stresses that her priority now is helping her 15-year-old daughter thrive in life.
Incidentally, Naomi herself started writing songs at the age of 15, though it was much later when she first picked up the guitar through which she captured all the melodies that she had internalised for years.
Kenyan-born US singer-songwriter Naomi Wachira.
Photo credit: Pool
“I want to write the kind of music that even if somebody only understands basic English, they will know what I am talking about and they can relate with those situations,” she says.
The music is contemporary folk, characterised by vocal harmonies, acoustic instrumentation, and introspective storytelling. She also cites country music as a major influence on her sound, having grown up listening to Dolly Parton and other icons of the genre.
Naomi started playing the guitar at 27, learning simple melodic chords and in the process transforming her songwriting. She starts with strumming chords on her guitar from which a melody develops and eventually lyrics flow. “I never try to force a song. If it doesn’t feel like it is working, I’ll be like ‘you know what, it will come when it is ready.’”
The opening song on her new EP, New Beliefs, is an imaginary conversation with her younger self about changing her self-beliefs and thereby attracting the right people into her life. As she says, “It is about knowing who you are and understanding that that will determine the type of people you attract into your life.”
Never Again is drawn from the lessons of a previous relationship that she describes as “really terrible”. “Women are not taught to go with their intuition but rather to heed to the expectations of society,” she reflects. “A lot of times we ignore the red flags because you need to meet these expectations.” Her advice is, “Listen to your body because it will tell you the truth about somebody even when you don’t have the language to express it.”
Good for Both of Us is about having learned that a relationship is about mutuality and reciprocity. “It is about the exchange that happens between two people where there is understanding, compassion, growth and challenge. You are not trying to seek a perfect relationship, but it is a journey that you are on.”
Kenyan-born US singer-songwriter Naomi Wachira.
Photo credit: Pool
Naomi wrote Missing You for her dad who passed away in 2013, and for her daughter who at the time was in Kenya living with her grandmother.
After living in Chicago for 11 years, she moved to her current home in Seattle in 2007 and the challenges she faced during that transition inspired Don’t forget Me.
The EP closes with I Only Wish You Well, a brave and compassionate farewell to a relationship that has run its course. “Maturity teaches you that you can walk away from a relationship without it being toxic and without hating the person,” she says.
The break from music has left Naomi rejuvenated about her career. “I feel like my joy is returning to do all things music,” she gushes. “A new chapter, wisdom, depth, and self-assurance than can only come when you have gone through some things. It feels like chapter two of my career.”
