You’re Going to Be Obsessed With Denver R&B Artist HOME

R&B singer-songwriter HOME’s path to a music career began with Brian McKnight’s song “Win.” As a young girl growing up in Denver, she learned the song at school and couldn’t wait to perform it for her mother, who was floored by her daughter’s natural vocal abilities.

“I came home and sang it for my mom, and I guess she’d been having a bad day. She always tells this story, like, ‘I had the worst day ever!’ It just really touched her heart,” HOME remembers. “From there, I just grew into loving music. In second grade, I did my first big solo at school, and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, singing is what I want to do.’”

Today, HOME’s soulful, uplifting melodies have established her as a mainstay in Denver’s R&B scene. In February, she released her debut EP, Letters From Home, and on Saturday, April 25, she’ll take the stage at Equinox Brewing for Fort Collins’s annual FoCo MX music festival. We chatted with HOME to hear more about her lifelong musical journey, the process of making her first project, and how songwriting allowed her to fully embrace all parts of herself.

Once she decided she was interested in singing, HOME joined a choir. As she got older, she progressed to more advanced choirs at the Denver School of the Arts, where she started experimenting with song arrangements. “Doing that is kind of what introduced me to wanting to make my own music,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘I really like this, and I want to take this on as a career.’ So then I went to college for that.”

But HOME’s college experience wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. She wasn’t sold on higher education but it was a non-negotiable in her family, so she started out studying music at Metro State University. “I just went to MSU because they had a jazz program, so I was like, ‘Well, I can just study music and do my own thing while I’m getting this degree to make my family happy,” she admits. She left after a year to attend Santa Fe University of Art and Design. “I was there for a year, too,” she recalls. “I loved that school, and I would’ve stayed, but that school got shut down.”

In the meantime, though, her year in New Mexico reignited her passion for music. “I met a lot of really good people there,” she says, “and I think that solidified my confidence in my artistry.”

She decided to give college one last shot and auditioned for the University of Colorado Denver’s music business program, just days before the audition window closed. She was accepted and ultimately graduated with a degree in music business with an emphasis in recording and performing arts. “When I was there, I did make more connections. I definitely was thinking, ‘Let’s get this degree and get out of here,’ but I did meet a lot of really good people that I still work with to this day,” says HOME. “It’s funny, too, because I remember a professor saying, ‘The people that you’re sitting next to in this classroom are going to be the people that you go out into this world with, and make networking connections with, so really foster these relationships.’ I didn’t think about the weight of it all then, but we’re coming up on the sixth year since I graduated college, and I still have those connections.” 

That includes producer and guitarist don. (aka Brandon Craven). The duo met in music theory class at CU Denver and began getting together for informal songwriting sessions, during which HOME fine-tuned her sound. They ultimately released her recent debut project — entirely produced by don. — as a collaborative EP. 

“Brandon and I started meeting during COVID, and that’s what birthed making all these songs, and giving legs to them, and actually getting stuff out there,” she says. “We both enjoy the exploration of putting new things together, but also, he keeps me honest. If he thinks I can do something differently, or better, we’ll go back and forth. Sometimes we don’t always agree, but we always have a high respect for each other’s artistry. I really appreciate people who challenge my mind, and creatively, don. does that. We just click.” 

With don.’s help, she started bringing her original songs to life. She had been performing covers since 2017 under a different name, but stepped into her own as an artist when she landed on the stage name HOME. “I was thinking hard about what kind of artist I wanted to be known as, and how I wanted people to resonate with my music,” she explains. “That’s how I came up with the name HOME, because I want people to listen to my music and feel comfortable, like they’re talking to a good friend or family member, and getting those raw emotions that you don’t really express outside of the space where you feel comfortable.” 

HOME’s conversational lyrics create a safe haven for listeners to reflect, in the same way some of her favorite artists have made her feel heard, like Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Jhene Aiko and Ari Lennox. “The thing I like to focus on when I’m writing is the lyrics, and making them almost discussional. I think Alicia Keys and Jhene Aiko do a really good job of that,” she says. “Especially Jhene, I swear she was talking to me. Like, this girl understands my struggles! So I definitely value that in the music I write, because I want it to feel like I’m having a conversation or telling a story.”

Her creativity blossoms in quiet moments of introspection, when she follows her organic stream of consciousness wherever it takes her. “I feel like people don’t sit in silence enough,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll go to the gym and not listen to music, or drive home without listening to music, and just be in my thoughts. Just letting my mind wander to see where it goes, and if it gets stuck on a thought, diving deeper into that thought. That is usually what births the ideas for my songs.”

Letters From Home narrates the highs and lows of HOME’s current era of self-discovery. She intentionally released the project in February, in honor of Black History Month and its association with love. “February is the month of love because of Valentine’s Day, and I think the theme of this EP is very closely tied to self-love and self-discovery. I know a lot of times people focus on romantic love that time of year, but I wanted to give a different perspective,” she says. “I’m in a phase of loving myself and wanting more for myself, and standing stronger and more clearly on my boundaries. That has been a strong inspiration as of late. In this current moment, it’s definitely about coming into myself as a woman, and how I want to show up in this world and be perceived.”

Songs like “Masterpiece” and “Breathless” proclaim unapologetic confidence, while “Long Run” and “Boundaries” (featuring a powerful guest verse from elusive emcee DSCRND) take a firm stance on what exactly HOME is and isn’t willing to accept in her personal relationships. 

For HOME, celebrating herself is also inherently tied to celebrating Black identity. “I think embracing who you are and where you come from is part of what makes self-love work. If you don’t embrace what makes you you, then how are you really loving who you are?” she says. “We celebrate this month because for so long, Black people weren’t allowed to celebrate who they were and what made them so unique and amazing. I don’t think I ever disliked being Black, but I was allowing the narrative of, ‘Because I’m Black, I can’t have these things, or people won’t see me in this way,’ to control how I was showing up in the world. Creating this project is what made me start to come to terms with living life on my own terms, like, ‘I’m going to carry myself the way I want to carry myself.’” 

Letters From Home begins with “Unapologetically Melanated,” a melodic spoken-word piece about being a Black woman, setting the tone and introducing themes that continue throughout the project. “My Village,” the penultimate track, features the voices of other important Black women in HOME’s life, like her mom, aunt, sister and friends, echoing lines from the opening song. On “Growing Pains,” the project’s triumphant conclusion, HOME pays tribute to her ancestors and to the way their spiritual presence continues to uplift her. With its chorus of soothing affirmations, “Growing Pains” showers the listener with reassurance, sending them back out into the world empowered.

While HOME’s music comes from a deeply personal place, it also reflects universal human experiences. “You don’t have to be a Black woman to relate to what I’m talking about,” she emphasizes. “You can still listen to it and understand my perspective, which in turn may give you a different perspective on a situation you’ve experienced.” Her vulnerable lyricism invites listeners to join her on their own journeys towards self-love, and share in the wisdom she’s gained along the way; she says she made Letters From Home “for people to look at and think, ‘How can I apply these feelings and these emotions to myself?’” 

Though HOME has been singing most of her life, she’s still just getting started. “I have some new songs that I’m going to be working on and releasing shortly, and other projects that I’ve already done that will be out soon,” she hints. “Continuing to explore all things creative, and working that brain muscle.” 

Letters From Home is out now on all streaming platforms. HOME will be performing at FoCo MX Saturday, April 25, from 6 to 6:45 p.m. at Equinox Brewing, 133 Remington Street, Fort Collins. Tickets for the two-day festival start at $60.