Pache.co Information Technologies

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In the past year, while many entertainment sectors struggled with online work during the pandemic, Tenawai thrived.

The music collective, set to release its debut album on June 25, pronounces its name “10 away” — a reference to a text the bandmates would send when they were 10 minutes away from gathering at their recording session in Lorain this past spring.

Tenawai brings together six musicians with six unique monikers: akaFayaven (Fayaven Barbee), WestSide Lo (DeAngelo Avent), Speed Demon (Raymond Housteau), DJ Steve (Bradley Warnkin), Bermuda (Kathleen Deluca) and Will Y (Will Ybarra). The group also works with two designers, Olivia Abbe and Olivia Pacheco.

Four of the band’s members are based in Elyria and Lakewood, while two are based out of state. (Deluca lives in Atlanta and Ybarra lives in Nashville.) The members first connected at various points over the past several years, producing beats for one another or guest-starring on each others’ solo tracks. This past year, those collaborations led to a full-fledged original band, focused on hip-hop, rap, R&B and funk sounds.

“The universe really aligned us all together, within a three-month span,” Avent said. “Everything happened the way it was supposed to happen.”

Avent was the force that pulled the musicians — a mix of rappers, singers and producers — together for initial virtual sessions in early 2021. They sent beats back and forth, forming ideas and adding their own touches, churning out tracks.

Tenawai moved at a brisk pace, sometimes creating a handful of demos in one night through a constantly active Slack channel. The bandmates said they push out anywhere between 10 to 15 tracks per week.

“It’s been more productive than any of us expected. We all knew each others’ styles and what kinds of music we could make, but once we got in there and started doing it, it was so natural,” Warnkin said. “It’s really been nonstop. It’s like a 24-hour machine.”

After a few months, they brought their demos to Broadwaves Studios in Lorain, where Barbee works as an audio engineer.

“We decided we needed to meet up and make this happen in person,” Barbee said. “That’s what solidified us: getting all in one room together, even though we had been working for a couple months over the internet. Once we all got in the room together and saw what everyone really had to bring to the table, we decided, this is it.”

“We didn’t even have a name the first time we met up. We were just making records, and after that, things just fell into place,” Deluca added. “We got some sense of direction, where we were going, what we wanted to do, what audience we wanted to speak to. It just went from there.”

The recording session marked the first time the group bonded in person, all in the same room. It also led to an album’s worth of material.

“It’s not even that we worked so seamlessly together in terms of comfortability, but we were just efficiently creating meaningful and important records for what Tenawai is,” Housteau said. “The stuff we got done the first day is a good bulk of the first album.”

“That’s the funny thing too,” Warnkin said. “We didn’t go into it with the attitude of making an album. It was just like, let’s get in the studio, make some songs and see what happens. Afterward, it all worked together. These songs could be grouped together nicely. It wasn’t like, let’s link up and work on this album — that was very after-the-fact.”

Tenawai’s debut album is titled after the group’s official mantra: “Leave Your Ego At The Door.” The project arrives next month with several singles and music videos leading up to the big release, including the sultry track “Sugar.”

“Leave Your Ego At The Door” consists of 16 songs, grouped into four thematic sections.

“The first part is what we consider to be pop,” Barbee said. “Side B is the R&B side, Side C is our hip-hop-based sounds and Side D is what we call the cookout side. It’s these songs that feel really good. Feels like family.

“I would say that’s what Tenawai is. It feels like family.”

Tenawai will perform live this summer in downtown Elyria, as part of Blank Slate Elyria’s outdoors “Third Thursdays” series.

You can find more information about Tenawai at tenawai.com.

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