Q&A: R E L "Featherlight"
☆ By Sophie Gragg ☆
TAPPING INTO THE RAW AND POWERFUL SIDE OF HER EMOTIONS - R E L brings an authentic and heartfelt approach to her work. Releasing music since 2015, R E L has created a foundation always in tune with her emotions and genuine passion for music. Her latest track “Featherlight”, created with friend Jynjo, highlights R E L’s love for collaboration, a practice she’s been enjoying and bringing to her music since she was 18. “Featherlight” finds a sweet balance between endearing production and the natural instrumental sounds R E L is drawn to.
R E L remains active despite the times, performing virtual shows and releasing music that radiates feel good energy. Check out her latest track “Featherlight” with Jynjo and read below to learn more about the evolution of her creative process, upcoming plans and more.
LUNA: How have you seen your creative process evolve over quarantine?
R E L: My creative process is always evolving...I’ve come back to my roots in some ways, that being a more organic way of creating - singing and writing, alone, and more meditation too. It’s interesting because I would have thought I would spend more time producing and working on the tech side of things. That being said, I’ve gone a lot more “analog”/”organic” in the past few months being quarantined. I was doing so many co-write sessions the past couple years, which I love! I’ve done a few virtual sessions, but have spent a lot of time creating and writing solo. I’ve spent more time playing guitar with my dad (who is a guitar wizard) while I’m home with my parents. I’ve been writing songs since I was little, and used to write the lyrics down and then these squiggly lines for the music. I didn’t know notes or chords at that time so I would draw the way the words were sung.
I’m not doing that squiggle technique now (I learned music theory! Although I don’t explicitly apply it when writing), and am grateful for the wonderful tools that are voice notes and iphone video camera :) So that’s my updated way of demo-ing these days. Writing and singing are how I process my emotions, and connect more deeply with myself and the world. So, I’ve been doing a lot of singing to myself and around the house - stuff I make up on the spot as I sing, and also songs I wrote anywhere from 15 years ago to 1 month ago...and then other people’s songs as they pop in my head. I’ve also been doing “live” virtual concerts - which is so fun, different and intimate! How special to play music from my room, live, with people tuned in from around the world. Technology is such a blessing in that way.
Still, I find myself drawn to organic sounds, more than producing, and then doing live sets from home to share. Being quarantined brings me back to my creative roots and to myself in ways I wouldn’t have imagined.
LUNA: “Wish I Could” has a really emotive feel throughout the track. Can you touch a bit on the making of this track and what it means to you?
R E L: Yes, absolutely.
I got hurt by someone I love, and it surprised me. Then they wanted to come back and pretend like nothing happened. “Wish I Could” is about that experience. Trust is precious. If you toss it in the air and it falls, you’ve gotta pick it up with great care. You are lucky if it doesn’t break; at that point, it’s so tender. We can heal together–with love and honesty. We stayed together, I tried to talk about it with them, but they never wanted to. It became this big elephant in the relationship. We couldn’t talk about it, so how could we heal?
Honesty is so important to me. I’ve known that always but it stands clear now. Maybe if they could have been honest and open with me, we would have healed, but the door stayed locked, key tucked behind their lips and they wouldn’t give it to me. And then they were mad at me for not trusting them fully again sooner.
“Wish I Could” is about that experience- wanting so badly to trust someone, because you love them, but they’ve hurt you. And it’s almost beyond repair, and you want to believe them, and you keep giving them chances, but they’ve gotta rise to meet you or there isn’t a chance. And it happens again, in a different way. They break your trust, and expect you to give it fully.
They bring up the past, try to level their mistakes with ones you’ve made but if we live in a bubble where nothing painful can be discussed - and I don’t mean argued - but discussed, then the love isn’t enough. We need to hear and listen, give and receive, hold and ultimately let go. So it hurts but when I tried to share my feelings and understand why and what and how and they couldn’t give that to me but wanted everything the same as it was- better even, more intense, I couldn’t give it. Not truthfully. And that part hurt the most probably. Because I so wanted to. I tried so hard but I couldn’t make myself trust without truth. And love is so beautiful. And the love is real. But I couldn’t believe him anymore, not fully. Actions speak louder...
“Wish I Could” is about love, trust and truth. Speaking your truth, even when it’s hard. If you can’t give that openly, freely, and to someone you love, then it’s hard to grow together from there. EVOCAPOP Side A was about shining a light on yourself - seeing yourself for how you are. Side B is about love–healing the heart– and that comes intimately with truth. Sometimes it’s painful, but that pain teaches important lessons. I wrote “Wish I Could” with Paul Gutierrez, at our first session, actually. We started talking about the experience of having your trust in someone who you love broken. He produced the song, too. Even though I wrote “Wish I Could” about my own experience in a relationship, it feels resonant with some of what’s going on in the world and in our country right now. I hope it resonates with anyone listening.
LUNA: In addition to the single, the video for “Wish I Could” is just beautiful. Why is bringing the visual side of your work to life important to you?
R E L: Thank you! I love storytelling. Music is a sensory experience - you hear it and it moves you - in your heart and body. Adding visuals makes the experience that much more powerful. It’s vivid. I’ve always loved movies - when I was three my mom took me to see the movie, Fairies, at the theater. The theater owner let us in for free because he figured that a boisterous three year old wouldn’t be able to make it through the two-hour movie. But, I sat mesmerized through the entire thing and when it was over, tears streamed down my face because all I wanted was to “go up into the screen and be with the fairies.” Story and song are my passions - how I connect with the world around me and combining music and visuals is a special magic.
LUNA: Musical or not, what’s been inspiring you lately?
R E L: I’m inspired by the world around me. These days, it’s been nature, current events (fire, social justice movements, global pandemic and our nation’s response to it…), my emotions, relationships and experiences. I’ve been pretty hardcore quarantined so a lot of what I’m inspired by lately is memories, dreams, emotions and current events.
LUNA: Do you find yourself drawn to any common themes or narratives in your music lately?
R E L: LOVE. Self love. It’s a big one, the big one. Loving yourself is the foundation of being able to love others. And then, inner peace is the foundation of peace. Those things move me. I want the world to be more peaceful, our interactions peaceful. If we can come from a place of love, we will be so much healthier as a people, a nation and a planet. It’s all love.
LUNA: If you could offer yourself a piece of advice to young women wanting to get their foot in the music industry door, what would you pass on?
R E L: I would tell them, “you have the power within!! You don’t ever need to compromise your heart or your self to succeed. It may take longer than you imagined or look different, but do it and do it with love and you will make your mark. It has to come from heart. Mentors are a beautiful thing! Find women (and men) in the music industry you look up to and reach out to them. Believe in yourself, unconditionally. You’ve got this.”
LUNA: Your latest track features your good friend, which I’m sure was fun to make together! What role has collaboration played in your career?
R E L: Yes! It was so fun to make together. “Featherlight” came out on September 21st, both Jynjo and my birthday :)
Collaboration is this amazing way to build a song–a story. If you write something alone, it’s very authentic and has captured a moment in time from one perspective, but every story has multiple perspectives...there’s something so special in co-creating. You bring a story or mood or energy to the table and your creative partner adds their own energy and spin of the story or idea. It can push you to really special places you wouldn’t have necessarily found otherwise. I started writing songs alone - it was my way of processing emotions and sometimes even unearthing them. Then I could release those emotions or move through them– and I also just love singing. I always have. The first songs I wrote were probably when I was about 5 or 6. They were simple. I still remember one so vividly...haha. I continued writing songs alone through high school. I did my first co-write freshman year of college in a songwriting class (my first I took as part of my songwriting minor). We had a prompt; it was “As loud as…” Carol and I ended up writing the first single I released from my debut self-titled EP, “All That Bite.” The opening lyrics are, “As loud as your stilettos, hitting the pavement, the night you walked away, me breaking in the rain. The concrete was your soundboard, booming with each step, the street we won’t forget, the street we won’t forget...” That session, we each shared memories and jotted them down. The song became a collection of our own memories and experiences, where they merge. That resonates beyond either of our own individual experience, into something remarkably shared. From there, I was hooked on collaborating! I still love writing songs alone, but I’ve chosen to spend at least half my songwriting time in collaboration.
The song I just released with my friend Austin (Jynjo) is a part of a collaboration EP we will be releasing soon. He and I have been collaborating since before I put out my first EP! I had booked my first real gig before starting at university and it forced me to put together a band pretty quickly upon starting school. It just so happened that Austin lived down the hallway from me in the dorms. We met, he is an amazing guitar and piano player (and overall musician), and he ended up playing with me for that first show. He continued to play with me over the next several years. We started writing songs together later freshman year, after the co-write assignment “All that Bite” came from. It’s really exciting to be putting out this EP together. We released a song together a few years ago (“A Little Bit Sometimes”) and have lots of songs under wraps that we’ve worked on. We also share a birthday! Our most recent single, “Featherlight” came out on our birthday, September 21.
LUNA: What do you hope your listeners take away from your music?
R E L: I hope they feel inspired, a little more at peace and in tune with themselves. I hope they feel a sense of connection. We are never alone. I hope they feel empowered and moved to love more. I make evocapop music to evoke - thinking and feeling.
LUNA: Where do you hope the rest of 2020 takes you?
R E L: 2020...ah what a year. The year of 20-20 vision, seeing things clearly. I hope it takes us into a more conscious, loving place. I hope we can embody the love that will empower us all. Personally, I’m starting to find a routine that serves me creatively and personally; I’ve often bounced between control and total freeness, and strive to find that magic balance. It’s constantly changing...I am releasing more new music, which I hope will be heard by many, many people, and resonate with them. There will be a song out next month, informed by my own relationships and the current cultural climate, which I’m so excited to share.
And stay tuned for EVOCAPOP Side B...
I can’t truthfully say I think a tour will happen in 2020, but I hope 2020 takes me to a larger global audience that I can play virtual “live” shows for in the time being, and then as the virus gets under control, play live shows for in 2021 and beyond. I hope we move together towards greater peace, in our nation and our world, and that we care for our Earth better. Let’s grow towards a more just, loving world! Music is a big part of how I heal, so I hope sharing my music can help others heal as well.
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RT @i_D: Ian Kenneth Bird photographs young punks on Polaroid: https://t.co/MKT0tMUqO9 https://t.co/a0tTl12ML5
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RT @AnOtherMagazine: #DreamHome – this isolated idyll in the mountains of Lanzarote 🌵 📸 via Nowness, photography by Clemence Blr 🔁 https://t.co/GUusdxD0cg