After a long decade of touring, putting out albums, & managing his first band Apophenia, Nadeem was burnt out. He took 5 years off from his professional music career to focus on a career in Aviation. During this time he was rediscovering his techniques and voice on acoustic guitar. His style was being influenced by finger picking guitarists like Michael Hedges. After recording one song after the next on a cheap tape deck as a therapeutic practice, it was only after showing his original bassist in Apophenia, Charles Jourdan, did he realize he had enough material for a few albums. The two helped each other record each others first solo albums in Nadeem's parents basement, an extra bedroom was completely acoustically treated with common materials they had lying around. This was still before home studios had achieved the sleek modern image of home studio fame. The result was a noisy, moody, usually one take, performance based album titled 'Rose Garden In The Gospel Of Now.' The album was largely an homage to divine love, Nadeem had recently tied the knot and the new couple had moved soon after its release to Boston for her undergrad. Allston Pudding, a large and beloved music blog took notice of their recent acquisition to the scene and included the album on the Locals Mixtape of 2012, which garnered Nadeem's new project its first major publication. During the time Nadeem was in between NYC and Boston, he worked on his second release, mixing it mostly during flights. The result was a humdrum acoustic record with more space and less warmth, like a cold winter that persists on lasting forever. A song off the album was featured on Dingus, a major voice on all things DIY, calling it an "amphetamine driven style of music." When Nadeem and his wife moved to Brooklyn the following year, he began playing open mics avoiding make a fuss of it. Eventually performing his first acoustic shows with new band members.

 

While it would take him some time to release his third record, the album was largely created during his time in Joshua Tree. Nadeem says his experiences under the hot sun, in a heat and substance induced trance, encased in panoramic views of the arid mountainous landscape, flooded his psyche with visions of the time. While his early work focused inward, his mind was expanding outward on the human condition. The result was a 40 min packed psychedelic stew of synth & guitar proggy rock titled 'Return To Nature.' The album garnered Nadeem his largest publication and interview with South Asian Magazine Kajal. 

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"There’s a dream that comes to me often – I’m walking alone through a desert, under a bowl of stars or, occasionally, in the direct light of a midday sun. My body is restless. Everything is silent but something inside me is spilling over. It wasn’t until I found Thaddeus Lowe, the stage name for musician Nadeem Gibran Salaam, and his special brand of psychedelic Sufi rock that I had a waking anchor for this dream. Lowe’s new song, “They Came from Stardust,” is frenetic, there’s a line in the song ‘there are doors to perception that only love can open," that swirls in the air just above us, always moving in one direction and then the other." "It’s a song about redemption," Nadeem told Kajal over email."

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Ahead of the release, Nadeem Gibran Salaam, the singer/songwriter (+ blogger/author) behind the project, sent over some info on the album, as well as the new group behind it, composed of five accomplished musicians who—after years of friendship—are finally getting the band together. In his recent Bands Do BK Interview, Nadeem stated, "Return To Nature  was all about unplugging and returning back to humanism, it’s a concept album, every song moves the story in a direction ending with an opus 10-min track that ends with nature sounds (think Incubus’ Morning View‘s ending) 

Return To Nature (Acoustics) is an ethereal rendition of our live set. it features my bandmates. These dudes are legends in the scene and happen to be my childhood friends, only we’ve never been in one band together!"

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It features a ton of amazing gear like Suzuki omnichord; a wonderful ’80s instrument with character; lots of stomping and clapping and percussion make up the drums; sitars are used but aren’t prominent on the mix because my sitar skills are new! While tons of acoustic guitars and ethereal lead guitars help make this acoustic record sound large, that’s what I really set out to do. I didn’t want a folksy record. I wanted what Thaddeus Lowe would do in the stripped-down format. The result, I believe, is a little taste of things to come, now that Thaddeus Lowe is no longer a solo project.