Rakei’s 5th album The Loop is set to release on May 10th with Verve Forecast and Decca UK. The record is self-produced and mixed by Ben Baptie (Moses Sumney, Beck, U2). This new release takes a step away from the DYI sound he was known for in the early days and steps into the world of bold orchestral arrangements.

Kateryna Topol: Hello Jordan, it’s been a while since we last spoke, how have you been?

Jordan Rakei: I’m really good. Thanks. I’ve had a child. I’ve recalibrated my priorities in life. And I just feel generally really excited about my new album, my new journey, and a new chapter of my career.

KT: Congratulations! How is fatherhood?

JR: Yeah, fatherhood is amazing. I think I’m finding it really fun, to be honest. I know for a lot of parents, those first few years are really challenging because of the, you know, lack of sleep or the calibration in lifestyles. I’m loving it. My child’s a crazy little bundle of energy. Very funny, and it sort of helps me sort of relax after a big day of music-making. And I see him just laughing hysterically and that sort of equalizes it and grounds me a little bit, too. I’m really enjoying it.

KT: That’s great! You’ve recently joined Verve Forecast, how did that come about?

JR: I was just up for a new chapter. I was previously signed to Ninja Tune, and I wanted to sort of try and tap into more of a larger audience. And I love the history of Decca and just really wanted to lean into their history and legacy and sort of their experience in that territory, and to explore that part of the world a bit more. So it’s been really amazing working with them. I’m super glad to have them on board – I’m a fan of quite a few artists on their roster too, so I feel like I’m in good company there.

KT: Your new single “Freedom” is doing really well on the charts, is that the kind of vibe we can expect from the full record?

JR: So I think yes, “Freedom” is actually a good representation of the record. I just want you to sort of capture that fun energy. I think that’s what Freedom does best is being like a fun, bouncy vibe. You know, it feels like a party, but it feels introspective. Yeah, that was the mission for me as I made this album. Lots of live drums, lots of big euphoric moments, like choirs singing, lots of switch-ups musically.

KT: Speaking about The Loop, the press release states it’s your “most cohesive work to date” – what makes it so?

JR: I’d say it’s the most cohesive because I wrote all the demos at the same time. You know, I wrote them over like a month-long period. And then I went to the studio and recorded it all at the same time, and then it was mixed all at the same time. So in a way, the music is quite different throughout the record. You know, you have ballads, you have hip hop stuff, you have funk stuff, you’ve got introspective sort of ambient stuff. But I guess what ties it all together is sort of the mood and the headspace I was in at that at each stage. And I think that sort of reflects even in the different genres throughout.

KT: Did you work with an orchestra or any additional live instruments?

JR: Yes, I did work with an orchestra on this album. They’re called Her Ensemble, and I worked with a few different string arrangers. I arranged some of the strings and other arrangements with my research and we had an ambitious element to our arranging – we just wanted every sort of arrangement to feel huge. That was my, I guess, rule I had coming into the whole process, I wanted to make a record that felt just large and that it was played by musicians, not necessarily made in a computer with several libraries or whatever. I want you [the listener] to sort of hear that huge dynamic. Everything is live instruments.

KT: Amazing! You set fairly high expectations for yourself when working on this record, are you happy with how it came out?

JR: I think the releasing of a record is very different from the making of it. So when I made it, I had high ambitions, high expectations of maybe what I expected people to think – like my friends, or my label, or my management. But as the campaign has developed, you realize you can only control so much in this industry, which I find a humbling meditation. You know, I’ve made an album that I’m really proud of, and I’ve delivered it to the best I can, and I’ve worked with a record label to ensure that the marketing and all my strategy, you know, my content has been made to the best of my ability.

But the other elements that I think a lot of artists seem to forget are the fans, and the consumer, and the market. And that’s something you really can’t control, no matter how much you market yourself. It’s sort of in the hands of the listener now. And, that’s like a nice feeling to surrender to – I’ve done all I can, but it’s just in the fans’ hands. I’m just happy to let go.

KT: That’s a refreshing way to look at it all. The Loop opens with “Flowers” which is a love song dedicated to your wife. It starts with a hip-hop percussion, what was the inspiration behind the hip-hop notes?

JR: So with “Flowers,” I chopped up a breakbeat loop and sort of made it into the loop in the original demo. So the track generally has a melancholy sort of vibe rolling throughout, but I built it around a hip-hop break. And yeah, that sort of feeling was something I was really trying to lean back into because I grew up listening to hip-hop and drum samples so I wanted to try and recreate that with a live drummer.

KT: Would you say most of the album is somehow inspired by family relationships?

JR: Yeah, for sure. The whole album is about parenthood. It’s about my reflection on my parents and my reflection on me being a parent. And I guess the more metaphorical idea of being a parent to your inner child. So that would be where the inspiration comes from, for sure, reflecting on all those relationships and how they intertwine and impact each other.

KT: There are quite a few personal songs on this record, “Royal,” “Hopes and Dreams,” and “Learning,” for example. Being vulnerable through music is not new to you but this record feels different, like a type of self-therapy? Does making deeply personal music help you process your emotions better?

JR: It does to some extent. I think what’s interesting is when I was writing these demos, it was very personal. A lot of this stuff is very personal. And, I’m just in that little room myself writing it, and you forget it’s gonna come out into the world. So only after the fact you realize that people are going to hear these stories. But so in that sense, I guess it was a really unfiltered expression of some of those things I was going through, but as I… as I’ve now come to release and there is an apprehension of like, people seeing this, the inner workings of my soul. But I think it’s a nice thing to … let people in because I guess they can understand and digest the music in a deeper way. So yeah, it was very personal, but really nice to express myself that way.

KT: How are you going to translate this orchestra production to live shows?

JR: That’s one of the challenges we’re sort of coming across in the live shows. How can we recreate that energy through just a six-piece band because we don’t like to play with a track. But we’ve been working on a lot of the songs, and we’ve brought in a new keyboardist who is leaning into the orchestral arrangements and the horn arrangements, and we’re doing it in a slightly more subverted way, too, like to nod to the original stuff with the same energy, but maybe with a more synthesized version or a mellotron strings or something like that. But that’s something we’re currently working on and really excited to show all parts of the world.

KT: Very exciting, thank you for your time and have a great tour Jordan!

JR: Thank you so much.

Images courtesy of  the Verve Label Group

Tour dates:

September 3—Porto—M.Ou.Co
September 4—Madrid—Lula
September 5—Barcelona—Razzmatazz 2
September 7—Milan—Magazzini Generali
September 8— Munich—Muffathalle
September 10— Vienna—Arena
September 11— Berlin—Huxleys
September 12—Hamburg—Ballsaal
September 14— Stockholm—Kägelbanan
September 15—Oslo—Rockefeller
September 16—Copenhagen—Vega
September 18—Amsterdam—Paradiso
September 19—Amsterdam—Paradiso (SOLD OUT)
September 20—Amsterdam—Paradiso (SOLD OUT)
September 22—Brussels —AB
September 23—Cologne—Stadthalle
September 24—Paris—Élysée Monmartre
September 26—Manchester—Albert Hall
September 27—Bristol—Bristol Beacon
October 1—London—Royal Albert Hall (SOLD OUT)
October 4—London—Royal Albert Hall

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Ninja Tune’s Bonobo and Jordan Rakei have been on a 22-date North American tour since February and the two of them make perfect cohesive sense as duo headliners. Opening the doors to History, one of Toronto’s newest music venues, you could feel the excitement in the air. It was a slow start with arrivals but with a slight delay, the stage went dark for Jordan Rakei just as the room began to get denser. This is not Rakei’s first time in Toronto, he’s been here before and this vocalist, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has a strong fanbase in the city. 

Jordan Rakei is best known for his sultry, composed, shiver-inducing voice, and so naturally his songs are smooth and touching, with hints of blues and jazz.  Earlier this month Rakei released a 4-track EP Bruises as a follow-up to his critically exclaimed 5th studio album What We Call Life (2021) and people’s favourite Origin (2020). The new EP is a very collaborative effort (which he is no stranger to): “Defection” was co-written with Oli Rockberger, strings for “Bruises” were done with Amika Quartet, and “Lightning” is written by Georgia Potter (aka Moreton). It is also worth noting that this collaborative theme will quickly become the theme for the evening and I suppose in retrospect, it always is when it comes to Ninja Tune artists. 

For this performance Jordan was on stage alone, situated in the center under a blue spotlight, occasionally adding guitar into the mix for songs like ”Sorceress”. Tonight’s hour-long performance was a mix of old and new tracks, highlighting “Defection” and “Bruises” from the latest EP. Rakei’s live performances take on a life of their own, “Midnight Mischief,” originally created with Tom Misch, took on a much more jazzy, abstract perspective. This tasty twist continued through other tracks as well, “Say Something” and “Family” specifically, while “Mind’s Eye” built up slowly to a powerful conclusion, bursting the room into applause.

After a brief break Simon Green, better known as Bonobo, took the stage accompanied by a full band. Green’s latest release Fragments (2022), is a work of art but was a struggle to make. Pandemic had a massive impact on his creative process, there were no clubs to test-drive the tracks in, isolation took its toll, and at times he was not even able to go home. For Bonobo, this was “the most emotionally intense record yet to create,” but these broken processes gave root to experimentation and collaboration. Ideas came from all directions and in time bonded into a cohesive record that Ninja Tune called “crossover electronic records of the year”. Now, having lived out in the wild, the record is a triumph over personal and collective struggle and a “surging, joyous return” to enjoying live music together.

Green has been performing with a live band for a few years and this band, flute and trumpet included, is a force to reckon with. The skill of each individual band member was showcased at one point or another throughout the set but combined their sound will rock any stadium. Set in front of a full-size screen projecting visuals from the record and Green’s escape into the wild the concertgoers were transported to the Canadian mountain ranges and Utah valleys in kaleidoscopic and slightly psychedelic visual plays.

Naturally, the set began with songs from Fragments (“Rosewood” “Counterpart”) but soon enough the band was joined by singer Nicole Miglis for “Surface” (Migration, 2017). Dressed in pink bell-bottom pants and an oversized ruffled yellow top Miglis looked like a dandelion in full bloom, floating across the stage, occasionally hiding her hands in the yellow petals. The set moved across

Green’s entire repertoire of songs in no particular order from “Kiara” and “We Could Forever” (Black Sands, 2010) to “Cirrus” (The North Borders, 2013), to “Outlier” (Migration, 2017) and back to most recent releases with “Tides” (originally performed by Jamila Woods). Jordan Rakei came back out for the soul-wrenching “Shadows” and Nicole Miglis graced the stage for “Break Apart” (originally performed by Rhye) and “Day by Day” for the encore (originally performed by Kadhja Bonet). At one point Miglis’ dress lit up like a Christmas tree, pulsing tiny lights to the beat of the music, in an oddly classy kind of way she became one with the light show while belting out the lyrics with grace, palm reaching out to the sun. 

A handful of songs (“Kiara,” “We Could Forever,” “Bambro Koyo Ganda”) built up into heavy dance tracks, accented by pulsing strobe lights and constantly moving background images. Here we are, on a wilderness adventure together, journeying to the sounds of “Kerala”, exploding into cheers and applause as the song, and the show come to an end.

Seeing Jordan Rakei and Bonobo again, and on the same bill, was a truly tasty treat and a fantastic start to what will hopefully continue to be a fresh new music season.  

The post Bonobo and Jordan Rakei remind us about the joy of live music appeared first on Quip Magazine.

The ten-track album begins with the song “Family” which is a perfect way to introduce the album which Rakei boasts to be an album all about looking back on his life. Within the first few lines the song already feels extremely personal and intimate with lyrics like “wrap my hands around you” or “family, you’re still part of me.” Rakei’s voice is soothing and peaceful, almost like he’s singing a loved one a lullaby.

The fourth track “Unguarded” is arguably one of the strongest from the album and was released as the fourth single preceding the album. It’s a mesmerizing song from start to finish and Rakei’s melodic voice carries the listener through the track. There is a full pace change around halfway through the song where there is pretty much a halt in the background instruments and it goes back to just drums, bass, and Rakei’s vocals. This part of the song really does sound unguarded by other instruments and Rakei’s vocals go into a lower register making them much softer.

The following track “Clouds” is exactly what it sounds like and listening feels like you should be laying in the middle of a field watching clouds pass through the sky. This track has a unique way of combining a scarce, but prominent staccato synth with Rakei’s vocals. This synth gives the track an 80s feeling to it and is perfect for the halfway mark on the album. 

What We Call Life gives the listener a glimpse into someone trying to understand their place in life. The track names like “Family,” “Illusion,” “Runaway,” and “Wings” give this away before even listening. As we know from his previous album, Rakei loves asking complex, reflective questions concerning humanity and how our lives change with new developments in the world. Jordan Rakei gives us an earnest explanation of his introspective journey while creating this album.

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This new album, What We Call Life (Ninja Tune), is a departure from Rakei’s past work, it is a conscious shift to writing more openly and from the heart. At this time, Jordan is working on finalizing the album, soaking in the inspiration from some notable collaborations, and has recently announced the UK and European headline tour for April 2022. With so much in the works, it was time to catch up and learn more about this promising new album, set to release on September 17, 2021.  

Kateryna Topol: Hello Jordan, nice to speak to you again, how has 2021 been treating you so far?

Jordan Rakei: 2021 has been a mixed bag, to be honest! The start of the year was difficult because we were in another lockdown at the same time as trying to finish a record! So it was hard to maintain any sort of work ethic! However, after everything has opened back up, I’ve enjoyed it all a lot!

KT: I suspect a lot of us can relate to this. The latest single from your new album What We Call Life, “Clouds,” is touching on some pretty serious issues of race and discrimination, is this something we will see more of on the album?

JR: “Clouds” was the only song from the album that spoke on that. I tried to reflect on a variety of things that therapy brought to the surface – ranging from my parent’s divorce, moving to a new country, marriage, my childhood, and more!

KT: Looking forward to experiencing all this openness! How much influence would you say the events of this past/current year had on the album?

JR: To be honest it hasn’t made much impact on it. I wrote and recorded nearly all of it just before the first lockdown in March 2020. I guess the last year has enabled me the time to really flesh out some ideas and dive deep into the production side of things. But lyrically I had already decided on a concept far before the pandemic hit us!

KT: Makes sense, when we last spoke (in 2019) you mentioned already having 12 tracks for the next album, did some of them make it into What We Call Life?

JR: Yeah I think about half of those made it! I went for another week to write and record with the same crew, and we came up with another 12 or so tracks. So it was really hard choosing my favourites from the bunch [laughs]. It’s like choosing your favourite child. But yeah, I whittled them down to a select few and then started working on them more.

KT: That’s awesome. You also mentioned trying to continually evolve your sound, sonically and such, have you done that for this upcoming album? 

JR: Definitely. And that has come mostly through collaborating with more people, out of my usual ‘sonic world’. We pushed ourselves to make something I hadn’t made before and I think we’ve achieved that. At times it feels like an evolution of some previous works, but at the same time it feels quite fresh to me and that’s exciting!

KT: That’s very exciting! In this album, you write more openly and from the heart, how was that experience for you – liberating, challenging, enlightening?

JR: It’s a mixture of everything really. I never feel self-conscious about lyrics or anything. Because I let the music and lyrics do the talking when it comes to more personal stuff. However, when it comes to talking about those same topics in person, I find it much more difficult. So I use the music as a vehicle for those more touchy subjects and I can really be free and more vulnerable in that sense.

KT: Looking back at your time between Origin and now you’ve done some really great collaborations — Common, Loyle Carner, Nile Rodgers, Terrace Martin etc — can you reflect a bit on some of the highlights from these experiences?

JR: Yeah, working with so many great artists has been amazing. It constantly makes me realize how lucky I am to be where I am. After leaving any of those sessions I give myself a quick reality check like – ‘don’t take for granted the fact you just worked with Nile Rodgers’. Massive boxes ticked from those collaborations. In one sense I feel like it validates all the time and effort I’ve put in to get to this point. I just made sure to be confident of my own ideas in that session!

KT: Are any collaborations going to show up on the new album?

JR: There are actually no vocal collaborators on this album. I like doing it all myself, as I can really control the narrative of the lyrics etc. However, as mentioned earlier, there was a lot of instrumental collaboration from all of the people I brought out to those sessions in the countryside. We had Jim Macrae, Jon Harvey, Chris Hyson, Imraan Paleker, Ernesto Marichales all contributing to the music and it was such an amazing open musical experience.

KT: You are heading out on your biggest yet UK and European headline tour in spring, what about North America, will we be seeing you in those parts any time soon?

JR: I’m really hoping to come out to North America. A lot is riding on the pandemic and the ability to travel/quarantine and just general stuff like that. It’s more of a logistical hold-up at the moment! But we are definitely hoping to come out there on this tour! The album was made to be performed live, so fingers crossed!

Photo Credit: Joseph Bishop

The post Jordan Rakei reflecting on the making of his upcoming album “What We Call Life” appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Sam Wills is a classically trained vocalist and pianist with a voice that cuts through the air during choruses. Influenced by many things from soul and hip-hop, over the last year or so Sam collaborated with the likes of Disclosure, Tom Misch, Karma Kid, SG Lewis, and many more, in addition to Jordan Rakei of course.

Wills has a very calming stage presence alone with his keyboard on what felt like a rather large stage Sam held his own. Starting with the song called  “Unify,” from his So Bright EP, released in 2016, to “Walking Underwater” from the EP by the same name, Wills shared his favorite tracks and even some unreleased songs with a new audience. For “Kool-Aid” the singer was joined on stage by Imran, Jordan Rakei’s guitar player, allowing Sam to step out in front of the audience and commit to a full-body performance while singing ‘Girl, I want you with the Kool-Aid in the water’ while people swayed enthusiastically to the beat. Will ended his set with “So Bright” perhaps his most MJ inspired song.

Looking back, Jordan Rakei began his career as a bedroom producer at the age of 18, self-releasing his first EP Franklin’s Room. Over the years his continuous pursuit of self-improvement has allowed Rakei to establish himself as a strong voice effortlessly blending jazz, hip-hop, and R&B. With the release of the critically acclaimed second album Wallflower via Ninja Tune in 2017, Jordan scaled up his own ambitions and set the bar for many artists to come. Rakei has a very memorable voice, a voice we’ve recently learned he takes really good care of, so naturally, as soon as he began to sing, effortlessly gliding through the lyrics of “Midnight Mischief,” the room went silent.

Saying he was glad to be back in Toronto, Jordan promised to play both old and new music. For over an hour he seamlessly moved from early albums like Groove Curse (2014) and Wallflower to singles like “Wildfire” (2018) and tracks from the most recent record, Origin. This last album is very special: “I explored territories of songwriting and production that were out of my comfort zone, but it really pushed me as an artist and a producer,” he shared with the album release. Origin explored dystopian futures, in some cases quite literally – “Speak” is inspired by The Handmaid’s Tale. The complete collection, however, is intentionally made dance floor-friendly to offset the heavy theme, he shared with us recently in an interview.

The consistent bridge between the albums, which sound quite different from one another on record, was the jazzy instrumentals and Rakei’s silky voice. For a few songs, like the “Sorceress,” Jordan abandoned the keyboard for the guitar, finally occupying that center stage spot our eyes were drawn to. For some songs, the ones dearer to his heart, Rakei spoke about his inspiration: “This song is about confronting the ego within yourself and it’s about…” he paused searching for words, not finding them and eventually ending with “ummm … yeah” to the crowd’s amusement. The song came to a quite dramatic ending with all instrumentals going quiet in just the right places elevating the vocals. Similarly, “Say Something” was also improvised with playfully mischievous piano notes and sonic electronic undertones.

After a very brief break, the full band came back out to perform the “Mind’s Eye.” As is on record this song carries well sonically but performed live tonight the band took it to a whole new level with Jordan back on the keys, mixing and bending the notes live, it was a loud and epic conclusion accented with strobe-like lighting ending the night like a lunar eclipse.

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Rakei’s live shows are treated as a production that materializes differently from his studio work. Hours are put in working with the band thinking through the live executions and changing up the arrangements. Now with the new album flowering its way through people’s favorites, Jordan Rakei is on tour.

Kateryna Topol: You’ve been on the road since May, how is it going so far?

Jordan Rakei: Being on the road has been so much fun. The album is meant to be played live because it’s made much more colorful, much more vibrant. So touring, particularly in Asia [so far] and really honing the set, playing at the Cotton Club in Japan, was really exciting. We played six sets in three days and were able to improvise most nights, change up the set, really develop our sound as a band. So that’s probably the biggest highlight so far.

KT: That’s awesome, can’t wait to see it live. So about the inspiration behind Origin, that’s a pretty heavy topic, what lead you to go this route?

JR: What led me to write in the album about dystopian futures was my interest at the time in singularity and simulation. I was watching lots of discussions and debates about the future of our humanity and civilization, with like, the tech-heads in America, and it was fascinating and I just thought this would be an interesting topic. As you know, I’ve always considered my future in this world and how I can coexist with future generations of technology. So that’s mainly the inspiration behind the whole album.

KT: Musically speaking, it’s a bit of a departure from your older works, the album seems a lot more dance floor friendly – was that intentional?

JR: Yeah, it’s definitely intentional to make the album more colorful and vibrant because I wanted to offset the negative and pessimistic lyrical content with more positive musical content so that they could juxtapose each other.

KT: Makes sense. You’ve established yourself as a strong artist and strong performer since signing to Ninja Tune, how has it been working with them?

JR: It’s amazing! I think they offer such a great perspective on visuals and music for me to have, you know, back in the past everything was in my head, all the ideas came from my head. And there was no sort of … like, sounding board. But Ninja Tune are able to accept my ideas and then offer either criticism or advice, or anything like that. And it’s helped shape me into more of a …. I guess conceptual and consistent artist. So they add a lot of value creatively.

KT: How does this album translate into a live show for you?

JR: With the live band, [it] consists of five of us: a drummer, percussionist, guitarist, bass player, and me on keyboard and guitar. We try to recreate everything live. So we’ve got no track, and try to make [sound] as full as possible. But again, our focus is to make it all dancefloor-friendly and make sure that people are, you know, fully into it the whole time, taking them on, like, a narrative from the beginning of the show, to the peaks and the troughs and then to the final peak at the end.

KT: Sounds really cool! I’ve read that completing this album was like finishing a job for you – now that it’s out and has gotten quite wonderful feedback are you starting to think about what’s next and how you will approach that?

JR: [chuckles a little] Yeah, I’ve definitely started thinking about what’s next for my career. I think I’m definitely always up for changing my sound, and always up for … creating something, sonically totally different, lyrically totally different. So I’ve started writing again, and looking forward to finishing that, maybe end of this year, early next year, but I’ve got 12 tracks already, [working on writing more], just to get more stuff out as my year, my life goes on. Just no filter, just keep getting stuff out. That’s my goal.

KT: In the past, you also mentioned having a checklist when working on Origin, is that something you do a lot, is there one for the tour?

JR: There’s not really a checklist for touring since I’ve got a routine, but I like to take touring pretty easy. You know, we get into the venue. I’ll have my sandwich. I’ll set up my stuff. I’ll come back. I’ll probably play some Mario Kart. I’ll do my vocal warm-ups. I’ll do my back rolling. Then I’ll do my last vocal warm-ups. I’ll go on stage. I’ll come off stage, do my vocal warm-ups. Maybe pack down and then head straight to the tour bus to make sure I get enough sleep for my voice. So I’m not a big rockstar celebrity that goes out and parties every night [laughs].

KT: Haha, Ok. Traveling can also get quite taxing, do you do anything to stay overall healthy?

JR: I guess the only thing healthy that I do on the road is I try and eat a normal-sized amount of food. When you tour the temptation is very easy to just binge food because there’s food everywhere you go: backstage, after the gig at the hotel, stuff like that. So trying to maintain meal sizes [laughs]. And also meditation is amazing, helps me like, center and makes me relaxed.

KT: What do you like to do in the cities you visit before or after the shows?

JR: A lot of the cities I’m visiting, I’ve never actually been to in America. So this is like an exciting little half-holiday, you know, half what’s it called? Work/business. So we always get coffee and breakfast because the two of us will arrive in the morning, go out explore the city as much as we can, get breakfast, walk around, maybe go to some vintage shops. And then after the show, I don’t really ever go out because I have to maintain my voice so the band will get to explore the town and then I will be asleep in my bunk [chuckles again].

* * *

We will be seeing Jordan Rakei in Toronto on October 6th at the Opera House, and there still might be a show near you:

Nov 04 Detroit, MI – El Club
Nov 06 Toronto, ON – The Opera House
Nov 08 Montreal, QC – Le Belmont
Nov 09 Washington, DC – Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
Nov 10 New York, NY – The Bowery Ballroom
Nov 12 Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry at the Fillmore
Nov 13 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
Nov 14 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg

Photo by Dan Medhurs

The post An interview with Jordan Rakei on his latest album “Origin” and life on the road appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Rakei’s first big break was his collaboration with Disclosure on “Masterpiece” from their acclaimed album Caracal but his own fan base runs much deeper than that, as was clearly evident during the live show. One of his more personal musical endeavors was self-releasing Cloak in 2016, which got the fans and industry curious. Last year, Rakei was signed to UK’s Ninja Tune label and released his most personal collection of tracks to date – Wallflower. The cover features a toddler Jordan struggling with an inverted umbrella – draw whatever parallels you find here, there are plenty to relate to.

On February 28 Rakei cruised through Toronto with the Walflower tour. Venue of choice: Lee’s Palace, an old staple venue in the city.

Rakei came on sharp at 9 o’clock and despite this being a weekday show Lee’s was packed wall-to-wall with energetic fans tightly grasping their craft beers and gin & tonics. The setup was simple: Rakei to the far right on the keys while a guitarist, bass player, and drummer occupied the rest of the stage.

The focus of this album is on live instrumentation, a pretty noticeable aspect when you listen to the record, and one that gives it a wealth if dimension. In a live show, this instrumentation really comes to life: the bluesy and jazzy undertones drive the set. I suddenly felt the need for a change of environment: a smaller room, filled with cigar smoke and people drinking Old-Fashioneds.

Rakei opened with “Eye to Eye,” the first track from Wallflower, and then worked his way through all of the albums telling stories between tracks. The set took us on a musical timeline from “Nerve” to “Add The Bassline” and  “A Tribe Called Government” from Groove Curse (2014) and even further back to “Selfish” from Franklin’s Room.

After an incredibly short break, the band came back out on stage with “Sorceress” from Wallflower, a solid way to end the night. As the portion of the audience began to spill out on the street the rest were in no rush exploring the merch table and likely waiting for Rakei to come out to socialize. Wednesday night was done well.

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