FSD Feature: Catching up with Ravyn Lenae on the Telefone Tour

I bring up an older interview she did, where she mentions that she still plans to keep at school alongside her career. “That was a really old interview then,” she scoffs, almost at the idea of herself saying that. I ask what exactly changed her mind. “I think after a while, I grew more confident in myself. At one point, I thought, ‘Ehhhhhh. This isn’t for real. Or at least as real as I wanted it to be.’ Maybe in that moment it was not. But now, I’m seeing the growth, and asking what does my gut say? What does my heart say? Whatever it says, I’ll run with it. I don’t wanna wake up one day, still in school and regretful. I feel like the stars have aligned for me and I wanna hop on them. Why not ride it while you still have it? School will always be there. But this? This is now. It could be gone next week.” She mentions that she’s never been asked that question before, but I get the sense that she’s gone over it many times in her head.

Upon being asked the difficult question of just why she thinks her music resonates with people, she contemplates her answer for a few seconds. “People definitely like things that sound pretty, and I think I try to put that element into my music. Prettiness, and flowery, and… light. But people also resonate with my unique approach to writing and lyrics. Everyone talks about love and relationships and stuff, but it’s how you manipulate that into your own thing that can be understood on a broader range. I try to make it that spacious for people. Something can mean this to you today, but mean that to you tomorrow,” she says. I tell her that she’s good at that thing no English teacher seems to be good at succinctly explaining, “show don’t tell.” It won’t feel like she’s explaining to her listener the happenings of a relationship, but going over what that relationship feels like. It’s hard to describe sufficiently without looking slightly pretentious, I think, but I must’ve done it, as she understands me. “Yeah! See? We’re here,” she goes, gesturing between our headspaces.

The initiation of what has undeniably become her signature sound wasn’t purposeful, though. “I didn’t even know [having a sound] was a thing! People kept telling me I had one and I was like ‘What do you mean? Duh, it has a sound, it’s music!’ But for people to be able to pick out my music, like, ‘This is Ravyn Lenae’, it was weird. It wasn’t purposeful at all.” I mention that while some songs have begun to sound like her, tracks like “Free Room” and “Venezuela Trains” show a clear departure from other smoother records she’s put out. “I try to maneuver and dip and dab. I don’t like to box myself in,” she says, smiling, cooly, but I can tell how serious she is about it.

She pauses to gush over the job done on her makeup. “I love it,” she jokingly sings, which honestly still sounds great. “I think Solange did something like this,”. She’s obviously pleased with the work her friend has done.

Solange is an artist that the songstress has found herself listening to lately. When I press for more of Ravyn’s Current Hot list she smiles, ready to talk music. “I’ve been listening to Childish’s new shit [Awaken, My Love!]. I’ve been bumping Sampha[’s new album, Process]. Like, it’s such good quality. He produced that whole album by himself, you know that right? It took him years, but his writing, and everything is just very polished. So, I rock with Sampha.” That approach of taking one’s time to craft a great work, regardless of what the masses or others might tell you needs to happen, is something Ravyn herself subscribes to. On the topic of this leading to radio success, she was fairly blunt, “I feel like when radio is the goal, you’re doing music for the wrong reason. You know? I don’t make songs like ‘Oh, this is going to the RADIO!’ That’s just so lame to me. Like, make music. If it happens to get on the radio, cool. But who even listens to the radio anymore?”