Steady Breath by Rhymedics

You know, sometimes a campus night shift feels like a lifetime. That’s what `Steady Breath` is. It’s not just an album; it’s like walking through those hours with us, from that first tight intake of breath when the pager screams, all the way to the quiet path home when the gloves finally come off. We really wanted to grab that feeling – the rush, the self-doubt, those quick moments of real connection, and that deep, hard-earned calm you find at the end. We asked ourselves, and maybe you too, who are we really when all the noise settles and it's just us?

Musically, we tried to build something that breathes. You’ll feel those velvet kicks and brushed snares hitting warm, strings arcing like halos. We wove in the actual pulse of a shift: EKG ticks keeping time, Doppler siren tails softening out, the soft tap of viola col legno like knuckles on a dorm desk, even the hum of a vending machine tucked under a verse. It's all played by a tight live unit because that human feel, that shared rhythm, means everything. It’s how we figure out how to steady each other. We even rigged a stethoscope mic to let you hear a heartbeat up close in those really intimate moments, showing how a shared thud can calm a panic.

This journey threads through a few scenes—jogging through maple-lit paths while you’re almost talking to yourself, counting steps up dorm stairs, those quiet talks at the zine table about consent, kneeling down when someone’s really having a rough time. It all builds toward a central moment where we’re all chanting together, remembering how to count by compressions, reminding each other, ‘breathe, we’re not alone.’ And then there’s that peak, at the library steps, when the band pulls back to just a heartbeat and then swells with a choir, a plea turning into a roar of ‘Hold the line till help arrives.’ It’s raw, yeah. It has to be.

For us, music can be more than just something to play in the background. It can be a practice, a trigger. This whole project is about taking that care ethic, that deep steadiness you need in a crisis, and pouring it into conscious hip-hop and neo-soul. We hope it’s something that feels good in your ears, but also sticks with you, something you can just carry into your own life. Something that makes you want to hum that chant on the walk home. Maybe even something that makes you think about holding the line for someone else. We put a lot of ourselves into this, hoping you feel it too. It’s for the critics who dig deep for meaning, and for anyone who just needs to take a breath.

We pour life into every word, every note. Raw honesty meets a tender sound. For the ones needing a voice.