The FADER: Hi, I’m Vivian Medithi, Senior Reporter at The FADER, and we’re joined here at the offices today by Ravyn Lenae. Ravyn, the album just dropped 12 hours ago. How are you feeling?
Ravyn Lenae: Every time an album drops, it always feels bittersweet in a really weird way, because obviously I’m excited for people to hear it, but once it’s out, it’s out. You open up your heart in a way, and hopefully it’s received. So I think it’s being received.
The album is titled after Blue Island, Illinois. What was growing up in Blue Island like?
I didn’t grow up in Blue Island. I was just born there. It’s a hospital there, I don’t even know if it exists anymore. But honestly, growing up on the South Side of Chicago was a really beautiful experience for me. I don’t know if a lot of people know, but Chicago is one of the most segregated parts of the United States, and being able to grow up in such a culturally rich, Black space was important for me growing up.
Then going to high school and going to an art school in a different part of the city really opened me up to different types of people and culture and music, and other artists and other mediums. So I got this really colorful palette of people and inspirations in Chicago. And I think that’s why so many cool and unique artists come from there.
Why was Blue Island the right title for the album?
One, I like that the name in itself sounds like a mystical place. And sometimes it’s really fun to find the beauty in the mundane, or the things that we cross every day and don’t really think twice about. It just felt right for this point in my career [with] this album feeling like a point of arrival for me, especially after the last album and the success of it, and really having to come back to who I am as an artist and what I want to leave here.
Whenever you have a really good [or] crazy moment in your career that you’ve been dreaming about for so long, there’s a lot of change that comes with that. So a lot of [Blue Island] was me reconciling that change, the good, the bad, the indifferent. And understanding that there was a new lens on me, a new visibility, and new questions around my identity, my blackness. And it really made me look at myself and ask myself hard questions about what type of artist I want to be.
This album feels like it’s standing in that artist, you know? I’m someone who really likes to go against the grain and blend multiple genres and influences, and just making peace with the fact that I am this layered person, an artist that likes to blend worlds. Thinking of it as a gift really gave me some new perspective on who I want to be.
