Ravyn Lenae backstage at Governor's Ball.
Tommy Maidment / The FADER
Ravyn Lenae will release her third album Blue Island on August 7, and we’re looking forward to whatever she has in store for us. When we caught up with The FADER cover alumnus at Governors Ball over the weekend, the Chicago singer-songwriter was in high spirits, wearing an Isabel Marant dress adorned with sequined fringe and a minimalist bolo tie.
Speaking broadly on her upcoming album Blue Island, Lenae says, “With every album I push myself a little bit more out of my comfort or what’s expected; you’re never going to get the same song from me twice. If fans are looking for that, I'm not the artist for you.”
That might come across blunt, but Lenae says it with a laugh, even if she has plenty of reason to be curt: following the 2024 release of her genre-defying sophomore album Bird’s Eye, Lenae faced increased scrutiny online about whether her music was catering to white audiences. In a press release announcing the album, Lenae said, “Blue Island is a point of arrival, and feeling set in my ways and in who I am, and feeling free of any of those preconceived notions about Blackness or what I had to be in the past.”
For long-time fans, this statement would likely ring true about her last album as well. When asked how she and frequent collaborator/ executive producer DJ Dahi are pushing their sound further on the new record, Lenae explains, “What's fun to me is finding different shit to geek about or to figure out. I like cracking codes, and I feel like music is that: cracking codes.”
The album announcement came alongside a new single “Handle,” which fuses Lenae’s dreamy soundbuilding to an altrock palette that might bring to mind Prince (in that aspect, it reminds me just a little of “Dream Girl,” though the two songs are tonally distinct). “We just wanted to push the needle a little bit. We wanted it to feel a little more rambunctious, loud, a little aggressive,” Lenae says of recording “Handle” with Dahi. ”It was fun to channel that and be able to take that energy and pull it through the album.”
In a press release, Lenae cited Santigold, Tracy Chapman, and Janet Jackson as influences for how their work, “pushed back against confines placed on Black women artists.” Speaking more specifically to her broadening musical styles on the album, Lenae mentioned Blondie, The Sundays, The Cranberries, and Martin Rev as sonic inspirations.
Speaking to her non-musical inspirations at Governor’s Ball, Lenae tells The FADER she loves sci-fi movies: “I love anything that has to do with existentialism or the why: why are we here, why are we thinking, why are we doing — so that’s all I watch.” A similar meditative line threads through her songwriting about relationships, whether with herself or with others.
“Handle” follows April singles “Bobby” and “Reputation” featuring Dominic Fike, which will also be included on the album. But Lenae’s latest video incorporates choreography for the first time, which she tells The FADER is a larger theme for her upcoming record.
“I knew with this season and this album, I wanted to start incorporating the body into it. I'm such a fan of dance and I’ve learned so much from Akira [Uchida], who's been my choreographer throughout this album,” Lenae says. “Figuring out what my language is with my body has been so fun – discovering – and I think “Handle” was a good starting point.”
Blue Island will release on August 7, ahead of a string of European festival dates. See a list of those shows below, and revisit The FADER’s 2024 cover story with Ravyn Lenae.
Upcoming Ravyn Lenae summer tour dates:
8/13 - Copenhagen, DK @ Syd for Solen
8/14 - Gothenburg, SE @ Way Out West
8/15 - Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
8/20 - St. Poelten, AT @ Frequency Festival
8/22 - Biddinghuizen, NL @ Lowlands Festival
8/23 - Hasselt, BE @ Pukkelpop Festival
8/25 - Lausanne, CH @ Headline
8/26 - Paris, FR @ Rock en Seine
8/28 - London, UK @ All Points East
8/29 - Lisbon, PT @ Kalorma
8/30 - County Laois, IE @ Electric Picnic
