Q&A: Rakey Releases Her Poetic and Sonically Delicate Single “The Ghosts I Know”
NASHVILLE-BASED ALTERNATIVE-INDIE ARTIST — rakey has released her new single, “The Ghosts I Know.” Ushering in a new creative season for the singer-songwriter, she’s found herself seeking fresh inspirations. She’s sonically inspired by the analog production of artists such as Novo Amor and The Paper Kites, but her lyric-writing process is largely introspective.
“The Ghosts I Know” is the first release from the singer-songwriter in about two years. In the meantime, rakey has been leaning into her reflective style.The first step in her writing process is primarily meditative, as she processes her stories with compassion and aims to shift her focus away from external validation.
With the release of “The Ghosts I Know,” it’s clear that rakey has found her perfect recipe. The single is laced with ethereal vocals and earnest poetry. Read on below to learn more about rakey and her new single.
LUNA: With “The Ghosts I Know” being the lead single to your upcoming album, what makes it the perfect introduction to this project?
RAKEY: What album? Just kidding, but the official announcement for that isn’t for a little bit, so anyone who’s reading this is getting a little early sneak peak with that info. Since the last EP was a much different sound, it made sense that “The Ghosts I Know” would be a natural choice for reintroducing people into a [new] sound and fresh era. And, to be honest, new subject matter that’s a little bit more vulnerable or scary for me.
LUNA: Your lyrics are so introspective and sincere. As a songwriter, how do you get yourself in that headspace to express those feelings creatively?
RAKEY: Wow, thank you. I think sincerity is all I could hope for people to feel from me. I hope this doesn’t sound bad, but my initial songwriting process before demos and production and everything has always been a very selfish process. It’s not something I do with the thought of other people listening in mind. It usually starts with a gut feeling or story dropping into my mind from nowhere that feels overpowering, and I can’t forget about it until I get to the bottom-line truth of how I feel about a situation or how I felt at one point in time.
LUNA: When you’re feeling uninspired, do you have any methods for grounding yourself in your creativity?
RAKEY: Yeah, I’m a songwriter more than anything else, so I’ll just speak to that kind of creativity. I think I’ve figured out that feeling uninspired usually means I am reverting to a headspace of judgment or of avoiding some uncomfortable emotion. So grounding myself looks like turning inward with compassion and curiosity for what’s going on inside. And that is what tends to invite creativity to come back. It’s sometimes so difficult to choose that kind of curiosity over avoidance, so I don’t mean to make it sound like this effortless thing I do all the time. Also! Getting into reading fiction this year has opened up new spaces in my imagination, and that’s really helped me.
LUNA: Do you have any new inspirations that have influenced this upcoming era?
RAKEY: Musically, organic, analog instruments have been something that Benja (my producer and partner) and I have been obsessed with over the past couple of years. Novo Amor and The Paper Kites have always been on a pedestal for me as musicians — [they] use those elements beautifully. But recently I have also been very enamored with the band Toledo. I am such a fan of their songs and the feeling they create. In sort of a different vein, I’ve also found myself more and more inspired by visuals and movie scenes and things like that.
LUNA: I love learning about artists’ hometown music scenes and how that has influenced their current art. What was your relationship with music like growing up?
RAKEY: I am one of those people who grew up in a small southern town where there wasn’t an established music scene (or at least one that I was aware of). My exposure to music was going to this place called the Logon Cafe — back then it was a super eclectic, dark internet cafe with these rows of computer monitors, some cafe tables, and a really small stage. I would go there to watch my older brother’s parody band. And then when I got older, that’s [when] I went to play my songs during their Wednesday night open mics for my family and whoever else was there.
So my relationship with music was definitely something personal from the start… I didn’t have really any friends who also wrote songs and played them out. And the internet was a bit different. I had YouTube and Tumblr, but I couldn’t connect with other people like me as easily as now. It would have been very, very cool to have spaces like TikTok that make it so natural to find other people in your genre and connect.
LUNA: What has been your biggest area of growth recently as an artist? What are you most proud of?
RAKEY: I have made a huge effort to shift my perspective about what music is for me. I think I used to have a really delicate relationship with it, and it was something I felt a lot of pressure around — so much was tied up in perception or markers of success. The past year or so, I have really leaned into the idea that making music is something I do to listen compassionately to my own self and to make space for my stories and the stories of others. That deliberate choice has (on good days) allowed me to let inspiration show up really naturally and to take some of the ego out of it.
LUNA: Do you have any song from your upcoming album that you’re most excited for people to hear?
RAKEY: Yeah, there’s a song called “Olympian.” People who are fans of female rage will be really into that one, I think. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I sometimes feel like I might develop superpowers or something when I listen back.
