The weight of Ravyn Lenae’s coloratura soprano sounds powerful enough to uplift the brokenhearted. Her sound descends from Deniece Williams’ high-pitched croons about love and liberation and the fierce falsetto of Minnie Riperton. Lenae, a classically-trained singer, is well-aware of the history that influences her.
But, at 25, she’s more focused on her future — crafting a musical language that’s as thoughtful and experimental as she is.
With her latest album Bird’s Eye, the Chicago native (who now lives in L.A.) is learning to wade in the growth of knowing that things will be okay. The 11-track album, out Aug. 9, celebrates her evolution over the past few years. The failed romances. The family trauma. The quest for belonging. Lenae takes listeners on an experimental trek through jazz, reggae, folk, and funk to fuel her search for self-exploration.
It’s a voyage that Lenae started nearly a decade ago with the release of her debut EP Moon Shoes. At that time, listeners were introduced to the 16-year-old whose R&B musical ingenuity was well beyond her years. Now, she’s leaning on her strengths while creating her most expansive sound yet.
“I'm so proud of myself,” Lenae says during a Zoom call about her new album. “So proud of the growth and the amount of vulnerability I've allowed myself to express with this music. I'm so proud of my team for really honing in on these ideas and these feelings that I wanted to put out into the world and putting a visual around that that makes perfect sense to me, that feels like my best videos and my best work so far.”
Ahead of the album release, Teen Vogue spoke to Rayvn Lenae about Bird’s Eye, refining her sound, and using music to heal old wounds.
.jpeg)
Ravyn Lenae: I think coming off the heels of [my 2022 debut album] Hypnos, I felt that it was important for me to really break those boundaries or break those barriers that I feel I might’ve created in the past around making music. It just felt necessary to be able to acknowledge all these parts of my brain sonically and all these different emotions I've carried with me up until now versus doing what felt comfortable or what felt easy.
RL: I think around like Hypnos, there was just a lot of overthinking, a lot of thinking into myself in a really weird way. I love Hypnos. It served as a big transitional period for me. Without Hypnos, there is no Bird’s Eye. But I can also acknowledge that I feel that I just wasn't in the best space emotionally and obviously that affects how I approach music, so [I was] kind of freeing myself of those expectations in those parameters around what I felt my music has to be and who it had to connect with and what influences I had to kind of portray. It was about letting go of all of that, and really leaning into what feels impulsive and what feels striking and honest to who I am and the music I listen to, and what I've been through.
RL: I’m feeling a lot more exhilarated and encouraged about my life and the path I’m on. I think, around Hypnos, the state of the world had a big factor in where I was emotionally and how I felt creatively, and what I was inspired by, so having those limitations lifted, physically in the world, I think allowed my brain to be able to fly and and feel kind of limitless and invincible.
RL: Yeah, it was exactly the time when I moved to L.A., and in the thick of COVID. I was just going through a lot of transitional things and being unsure about who I was as a person, as an artist, as a friend, as a girlfriend. I think there was a lot of hesitation and doubt around me. I think that translated into nearly kind of isolating myself in a lot of ways and not feeling beautiful at times or not feeling like myself. I think kind of sharing all of that and heading in a direction that feels like I'm getting closer and closer to who I am and my purpose.
RL: That's something I'm still breaking down, I think. And the closer I get to the release, the more I think about what that era of my life was and what was the moment that switched in my brain. Even before turning 25, I asked a lot of people in my life who are over 25 what that age felt like for them, and a lot of them described it as stilted not knowing a lot, but feeling like the lights are turning on a little bit and you're feeling more like yourself and more confident in your decision making and the people you surround yourself with. I think just getting older and maturing had a lot to do with it [and] getting out of a long-term relationship and flying free of this box that I put myself in.
RL: It was kind of a mixed bag. Janet [Jackson] is always in the mix for me. But then there were some other flavors like Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, a little bit of Fleetwood Mac. Merging all these worlds that inspire me and seeing what comes out of that is my favorite thing.
RL: I just wanted to make things that I wanted to hear — the songs that a 12-year-old me would have run home and downloaded and burned on a CD. [I was] getting back to that little girl in me and the things she was excited about and what made her want to do music in the first place. I think that was something that I wanted to stamp, in a way. “Candy” is one of my favorites, too. It started off a little more pop-leaning I guess then I felt like something about this song could feel more dancehall, easily. When I told Dahi [the executive producer of the album], he was like, ‘Oh, I feel you’ and then he went back in and did that. I was like, ‘Okay, this is the feeling I wanted from the song.’ Also, me having Panamanian/West Indian ancestry, I thought it was so fun to kind of have something that felt like where my people are from on the album.
RL: I feel a sense of relief. Honestly, I feel like I really got something off my chest that has been there my whole life. And obviously, having this line of communication open with my father, not just around the song but prior to that, feels like a really big moment for the both of us to connect over and to continue to talk about. This has been so special and meaningful for the both of us. There was definitely a lot of anxiety, especially the day of. I was like, “Oh my God. This is really happening.” But now, seeing the responses from people made it even more validating and fulfilling for me.
RL: The songwriting process wasn't hard. It actually felt pretty simple and easy. I think the hardest part was getting over that hump of addressing this part of my life publicly. I've had a habit in the past of separating or compartmentalizing parts of my life and my brain away from music or away from anything that felt too scary or felt too public, so being able to merge these parts of my life that make me who I am has felt natural and empowering.
RL: I was thinking about that a lot and how it has been almost 10 years. Sometimes, it feels like that, but doesn't feel like that in a lot of ways. I wish I could transport back there and be like, “Girl, it's okay. Keep doing what feels good. It'll work. It'll always work.”
RL: My fans and I always bring energy. I always bring thoughtfulness to how I want them to experience the music live, but they match my energy every time. So it's an equal thing. I need them there just as much as they need me there.
