Meklit & Quinn cover artists from Stevie Wonder to MGMT and will play at Busboys and Poets

“I’m a real doer,” Meklit Hadero said, and it’s hard to disagree. The self-proclaimed “project junkie” has co-founded a number of artistic initiatives that span the globe, traveling and encouraging musical collaboration along the way. She released her first full-length album in 2010 to jump-start a solo career, but, true to her nature, she’s putting that aside for the time being, embarking instead on an album release tour with her good friend (and musical match made in heaven) Quinn DeVeaux.

There are quite a few videos online of Deveaux and Hadero’s duets, which are primarily covers of other artists’ songs. In each, the two stare at each other lovingly while quietly strumming guitars and harmonizing. It’s incredibly intimate, almost romantic. Hadero insists while the romance isn’t there, the chemistry certainly is.

“Honestly I think that’s why we made a record, because we have that,” she said. “And it’s not romantic, we’re not a couple, but for whatever reason, you have chemistry with certain people. Quinn and I have this vocal and musical chemistry, where a connection between us — which was always there from the first time we sang together — has this kind of weighted intimacy. And it gives people something.”

Hadero and DeVeaux will be showcasing this intimacy at Busboys and Poets in Washington tonight. The clear connection between the two, which comes across in their studio recordings as well as their videos, is what inspired Hadero to form Meklit & Quinn, a full-fledged side-project complete with a tour and album set to be released Sept. 18.

“When it comes to collaboration, you have to let those types of feelings dictate why and when you collaborate,” Hadero said. “Because if you allow that chemistry to breathe, it’s gonna be good.”

The duo’s album has a couple of traditional soul covers – Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home To Me” and Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made To Love Her.” But what distinguishes the album from others is the source material of the other tracks.

“They’re these songs that for the most part come from this indie-rock and art-rock tradition that is not something you typically see black people with their guitars playing,” Hadero said of the covers, which include music by Arcade Fire, MGMT, Talking Heads and Lou Reed. “It’s a little bit different.”

Hadero said the only true thing connecting the songs on the album is she and DeVeaux love them all. “The record was a way for us to go into these songs that we love in a public way, and kind of get to the bottom of them — to wrestle with them, try them on and break them down and build them back up again.”

Still, there is a common theme running through quite a few of the tracks — “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” by Arcade Fire, “This Must Be The Place” by the Talking Heads, the aforementioned “Bring It On Home To Me” and several others all deal with the concept of home. Hadero said home is an idea she has explored in all her music, which may have been a subconscious factor in choosing songs.

More than anything, storytelling ties the music together, which comes through best in a live setting.

“It all comes together, in the experience of being in a room together for two hours and a whole audience being in a room together for two hours and [using] those two hours as an opportunity to just let your guard down,” Hadero said.

Hadero said that Busboys and Poets in particular sets itself apart from other hybrid restaurant and music venues because it has a space set aside as a true listening room.

“I think that’s really special,” she said, “because a lot of times you play places that are more restaurant and their environment — you know, the noises can be really distracting. But Busboys and Poets does so well because they set it up so that the music, the sound and the space to really listen is there, as well as the community life and the everyday feeling that really makes art more accessible.”

As for whether or not DeVeaux and Hadero’s harmonies sound as good live as they do on the record, Hadero says there’s no question.

“Everybody should be better live. If you’re not better live, there’s a problem,” she said.

“When people can feel each other, they’re gonna get it, and they’re gonna feel more, they’re gonna be moved more. In all human history, when you look at how music was made — we’ve had recordings since about 1900. But for most of our history, music has been with a person, in a room, where you can hear the floors and you can hear the space. It’s the air between you that is producing the sound, and there’s something tangible about that that can’t be replaced.”

Meklit & Quinn will be in the Cullen Room at Busboys and Poets on 5th and K tonight. The performance is free, from 9–11 p.m.

offitzer@umdbk.com