Artist of the Month Raffaella Wants to Be as Honest as a Kid
The post Artist of the Month Raffaella Wants to Be as Honest as a Kid appeared first on Consequence.
Artist of the Month is an accolade bestowed upon an up-and-coming musician or group who is poised for the big time. For August 2022, we interview singer and songwriter Raffaella about her brand new mini album, LIVE, RAFF, LOVE (Act I).
Upon entering Raffaella’s childhood home in New York City last weekend, a few things stand out to me: The walls are covered nearly inch-to-inch with both art and musical instruments, signed photographs and records decorate the hallways, and the busied look of the apartment feels quintessentially New York. Today, however, Raffaella is merely a visitor in her old abode — and she’s brought an exciting and radiant new collection of songs home with her.
This Friday (August 12th), Raffaella — who is Consequence‘s August Artist of the Month — will release her eclectic new mini album, LIVE, RAFF, LOVE (Act I). Among many illuminating lines and choruses, Raffaella primarily uses the effort as a way of channeling her twenty-something angst and confusion, constructing a theatrical narrative that demonstrates her unique skills as a singer and songwriter.
There’s a big emphasis there on “theatrical”: LIVE, RAFF, LOVE will be divided into two parts, with Raffaella explaining that the first part (Act 1) is intended to be “very bright, very pop-y, very pink, and shiny,” and the second part (Act 2) “a lot darker and a lot more introspective.”
Raffaella, photo by Ben Kaye
Though we’ll have to wait a bit longer for the darker second half of LIVE, RAFF, LOVE, the album’s first act isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The opener “come to nyc, pls” begins almost solemnly, and closer “LIPSTICK” adds a discernible sense of doubt to Raffaella’s effervescent anthems. But in between are songs that feel seriously unserious with some playful, wacky choices alongside powerful realizations about growing up, love, and maintaining relationships. There are moments of pop punk bombast; some folk-leaning melodies; images of grocery stores, Malibu, and “sunshine lobotomies”; and cathartic, shout-along choruses.
But a title like LIVE, RAFF, LOVE — a play on the common decorative phrase “Live, Laugh, Love” — implies a cheeky attitude towards the so-called “artist statement.” “I thought it was funny, but I also thought that it’s very indicative of how I write music, which is just taking the joke seriously,” says Raffaella.
According to the singer-songwriter, she intended for the album to follow the arc of a stage play: “It sort of follows the narrative of a child of divorce learning how to love for the first time,” she tells Consequence, before clarifying, “at least do it in the right way.”
Though that air of drama is swimming through LIVE, RAFF, LOVE, Raffaella maintains that she wasn’t quite the theater kid growing up. “I grew up in New York City where people took [theater] very seriously, and I was never great at group activities, unfortunately,” she reflects. “I always wanted to be a theater kid, but the theater was very dramatic and I was too sensitive.”
Indeed, theater in New York is somewhat of its own high-pressure sport, and it wasn’t until Raffaella attended a theater camp in Wisconsin that she began to appreciate the art form’s potential. “My mom was born in what was Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, and then moved to Wisconsin when she was eight,” she explains. “She was Jewish, had curly hair, was a year younger, and a had a weird Northern Rhodesian/South African accent… she was very bullied. So she was sent to this theater camp and she thrived. Then, when she was older, she sent me and my siblings there and I, too, thrived. I loved it there.”
Raffaella may not have been auditioning for every school musical, but she was undoubtedly surrounded by music throughout her childhood. She’s been singing since she “could make sounds with her mouth,” she grew up with grandmothers who played piano and wrote music, and has been encouraged by her family to pursue music unconditionally. And at this moment in her career, Raffaella is prioritizing authenticity first and foremost: “I’ve been trying to find the honesty that I had as a child. I feel like I’ve lost that and I’ve found it in this album.”
She praises the creative partnership she has with her real-life partner, Hippo Campus’ Jake Luppen, who produced the record in Minneapolis, where they both live. “I think working with somebody that I know so well allowed me to not have any barriers or artifice,” she says, “and if I did have artifice, he’d be like, ‘Hey, why are you doing it like that?’ and I would be like, ‘I don’t know actually, thanks for pointing it out!'”
Raffaella, photo by Ben Kaye
Much of that honesty lives in a song like “GROWN UP,” one of the record’s highlights and a perfect example of Raffaella’s unique, personal tone. “I’m grown up now/ I buy my groceries at the grocery store,” she sings in a chipper voice before asserting, “Oh my God/ I’m independent and that makes me hot.” She sounds childlike, but her confidence and overall vision for the song suggests otherwise. “I had this feeling one day, when I went into the grocery store and I had that thought when I was like ‘I can buy whatever I want,'” says Raffaella. “That was my first indication of being an adult, for some reason. Just being at the grocery store and buying produce.”
She goes on by explaining how “GROWN UP” is a symbolic chapter in the narrative of LIVE, RAFF, LOVE: “I was genuinely trying to illustrate what adulthood is seeming like to me and by doing that I sounded so much like a child, which I think is what adulthood is: feeling like a kid while you happen to be doing grown-up tasks.”
That tension between having the agency of an adult while simultaneously not feeling like one is all over LIVE, RAFF, LOVE. Her parents are frequently mentioned throughout, in addition to the general idea of being loved and appreciated by, well, everyone. But luckily, Raffaella’s strengths are always on display when collaborating — even if she claims she “was never great at group activities.”
Since releasing her first EP, Ballerina, in 2019, Raffaella has been busy working with dozens of exciting producers, songwriters, and artists, expanding her overall output while also demonstrating how well she can fit into multiple genres. Her collaboration with California production duo Neil Frances, “On the Lookout,” is a true highlight of her catalog, and contains an iconic and signature Raffaella chorus: “I’m on the lookout/ Hey, someone famous/ Hit me with your car!”
But on LIVE, RAFF, LOVE, Raffaella boasts even more impressive collaborators, including crafting the song “BUICK” with Charlie Hickey and Marshall Vore, known for their work with Phoebe Bridgers. “It’s amazing to hear how a song can exist in one world and then totally change in another world,” she says. “I wrote ‘BUICK’ with Marshall and Charlie in February of 2020, right before the world ended. Emotions were raw, something was coming, we could feel it.”
Though Raffaella claims their initial draft of the song was quite sad, it wasn’t until she brought the song to Luppen that it became the driving indie jam it is today. “I was trying so hard to feel happy even though the context of this feels sad… so it was cool to see both versions exist.”
Meanwhile, Raffaella has a brand new band to be excited about: indie supergroup Peach Fuzz. Comprised of Raffaella, Samia, Victoria Zaro (Ryann), and Sara L’Abriola (Hank), Peach Fuzz put out their debut EP, Can Mary Dood the Moon?, back in July. Peach Fuzz’s origins began in pre-pandemic New York City, but it wasn’t until November 2020 that they got together for the first time to record the EP. “It was the first time we were in a room with more than three people in months because it was November of 2020, and it was also the week of the election. So it was a very heated week,” Raffaella remembers.
Raffaella, photo by Ben Kaye
Peach Fuzz continues much of the playful-but-earnest tone that Raffaella champions, but the freedom of collaboration — as well as having Luppen, Joy Again’s Sachi DiSerafino, and Baby Boys’ Caleb Hinz behind the boards — is what makes their music so irresistible. “They really inspired us to dive into being a little bit freer with creating music, having no pressure or expectations,” says Raffella about recording the EP. “We had no idea what it was when we started writing, we just all went into a room.”
Though there are no current plans for a Peach Fuzz tour any time soon, Raffaella has been over the moon about playing shows this year. She just wrapped up tour dates with Del Water Gap and Maude Latour, and is eager to get back out on the road in support of LIVE, RAFF, LOVE. “I really love going on tour, it’s my favorite thing to do. It can be really lonely making music and that’s sort of the opposite feeling, you really feel like you’re a part of something, and you feel like you’re really working toward something, which I feel like is kind of lacking nowadays,” she says with excitement. “It’s really nice to feel like you’re progressing.”
One listen to LIVE, RAFF, LOVE (Act I), and it’s clear that Raffaella’s progress can’t be stopped. Though it may take a bit of time for Act 2 of the story to be told, there’s a confidence in Raffaella’s songwriting that’s parallel with her growth as a person. “I’m just trying to make people love me,” she sings on “GROWN UP.” Luckily, for Raffaella, that’s the easiest part.
Raffaella, photo by Ben Kaye
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Artist of the Month Raffaella Wants to Be as Honest as a Kid
Paolo Ragusa
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