Interview Dua Saleh: Life On Earth
Sudanese-American singer Dua Saleh on their romantic-apocalyptic trilogy, working with Bon Iver, and finding hope in the darkness.
Dua Saleh has always been a precocious child. In fact, they pinpoint the exact moment their artistic side awakened: aged five, at a refugee camp in the Eritrean desert, having just fled from their home country Sudan. “I was playing with a scorpion, and I got stung,” they recall. “My mom heard me scream and she cut her thumb at the same time, so we both had to go to the hospital. I feel like it made me stronger because I started orating poetry after - and I have a lot of Scorpio on my chart…”
Since their debut EP ‘Nūr’ in 2019, Dua has produced a string of genre-blending R&B pulling inspiration from all the places they’ve lived before. Shortly after living in Eritrea, they hopped around cities in the US, eventually settling in Minnesota - the state hosting the highest number of refugees per capita in the US. Meanwhile, their stint as Cal Bowman on TV series Sex Education would acquaint them with the Welsh countryside, and DIY calls them today from their home in California, where they’ve lived for the last few years.
Where their debut album ‘I SHOULD CALL THEM’ felt otherworldly - perhaps owing to the influence of fantastical anime and futuristic synth work - Saleh’s new album ‘Of Earth & Wires’ is a much more grounded affair. The rich, warm visuals were shot in the Palm Springs desert, placing Saleh in the womb of their creative birth, while narratively continuing from where their debut began.
“It’s part of a three-pronged project,” they tell us. “It’s all related to my homeland, Sudan. And it’s using an imaginative take on what would happen if the world were to end and two lovers survived through that, being like, ‘wow - you’re actually my soulmate. We’re going to survive through this’.”
“I feel like [the LA fires] did make everyone a little bit more kind to one another.”
Saleh sources that doom from the ecological disasters that followed them through their life. Their last album referenced the intense flooding on the Welsh Sex Education set (“I think it flooded ten times, I was shell shocked!”) and the destructive Enbridge Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota. This time, the devastation of the LA fires played heavily on their mind, which they were evacuated from. “I was being suffocated by the clouds and smoke - the sky was pink, day and night,” they recall. “I was like, ‘what the…’.”
The record’s title also refers to the “rapid technological proliferation of AI” and its usage in warfare, which Dua laments to us. “I’m witnessing actual family members pass on as a result of it because [governments] are literally using AI technology to surveil and bomb, similar to what’s happening in Palestine,” they explain.
To reflect this, ‘Of Earth & Wires’ often pits organic instruments with digital elements. Saleh blends the delicate plucks of a Sudanese oud with gauzy ‘80s-inspired synths on ‘I Do, I Do’, creating a sound that’s innovative and personal. “I do want you to remember my heritage and remember that there is a wealth of culture there, but also just to be cognisant - like, ‘let’s all be there for one another’,” they comment.
There’s so many Sudanese folk singers, they add, that it’s impossible to escape its allure. “People will bust out into choir singing,” they reflect. “My sister sent me a video clip of women in Sudan singing together. I was like, ‘what the heck?’ But they sound really indie! I also can’t escape because Sudani music sounds like country music, and my dad used to play a lot of country when I was younger.”
Of course, it also helps when you’ve recruited one of the biggest indie stars to sing on your album - especially when he’s a Midwesterner like Saleh. Bon Iver, a proud Wisconsinite, produced multiple songs across the record and contributed vocals to three, while Iowan Billy Lemos (SZA, Omar Apollo) added his genre-blending magic to executive produce the record. “It’s really amazing to be surrounded by mentors and musical wealth like that,” they tell us, adding that Bon Iver “legitimately is a ball of sunshine in the studio.”
They also praise Bon Iver’s outspokenness on ICE’s presence in Minnesota despite significant backlash, adding: “It’s really nice to have that political messaging subliminally on my album, just because the entire album is about solidarity with different movements.”
“Everything feels like a cartoon right now — everything’s so terrible that it’s kind of funny.”
In a world filled with environmental decay and death, it is surprising that Saleh comes to a hopeful conclusion on album closer ‘All Is Love’. But Saleh points to the aftermath of the LA fires as the reason for this optimistic sense of closure. “That was wonderful to experience - I feel like it did make everyone a little bit more kind to one another,” they explain. “It’s hard to do that, considering it’s a rough and tumble place. It’s remarkable that people could be softer to one another.”
Ultimately, Saleh finds hope because everything is so ridiculously doom and gloom - there’s nowhere to go but up from here. “Everything feels like a cartoon right now - everything’s so terrible that it’s kind of funny,” they chuckle. “We have a reality TV star for a president. Everything’s hilarious, but maybe that’s reflective of my life because I’m finding bits of joy where I can.”
Saleh had plotted out the direction of their trilogy since they presented their debut to their label, Ghostly International. But having now worked with Bon Iver, they admit that they’ll most likely scrap their plans for their third album: “[Bon Iver’s] sound is so refined, it’s hard to go from that to the original plan that I had in mind. I was gonna go for more of a hip hop vibe and now it does not aesthetically make sense with the evolution of the albums… I’ll figure it out though.”
Either way, Saleh is not content to rest on their laurels. Whatever’s next, they want to elevate their craft, move forward - and most importantly, find ways to heal through their music. “You start getting to a certain age…” they begin, comparing growing older to “the meme about rappers where they’re like, ‘you can’t be rapping about hoes and and drugs forever’.”
“Maybe I need to start making ‘adult’ music,” Saleh ponders. “It’d be soothing - and the world is in chaos…”
‘Of Earth & Wires’ is out now via Ghostly International.
As featured in the May 2026 issue of DIY, out now.
Featuring Yard Act, Death Cab For Cutie, Graham Coxon, Maisie Peters and more.