Name: Taja Cheek aka L'Rain
Occupation: Composer, sound artist, singer, songwriter, curator
Nationality: American
Current release: L'Rain's new album fata morgana is out via Mexican Summer.
Hometown Recommendations: Coney Island in Brooklyn! The history is strange, sad, weird, glorious, and FUN. There’s nowhere like it.
Topic that I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: My hatred of pickles! Pickled foods are amazing, just not pickled cucumbers!
 
If you enjoyed this L'Rain interview, and would like to know more about her music, visit her on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp. She also has a personal website.



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

I remember walking into my dad’s office and rewriting the lyrics of a song in a Disney movie.

I don’t know what inspired me, but it never really stopped.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

World-building above all else.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

I think there’s a “there there” for sure.

I also think there’s more of a dance and interplay between the two rather than a relay.

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

I sing a lot about not belonging, feeling alone, and being too much in my own way/head.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard: singing someone else's songs versus your own?

I love this question. Absolutely!

I sing syllables and sounds and approach lyrics intuitively before I start writing in earnest. It has to feel “right” before it sounds “right.”

With fata morgana as an example, tell me how the lyrics grew into their final form and note any points of consideration that brought the lyrics to life.

I generally try to keep my approach to lyrics very intimate, immediate, and fluid.

Lately, the lyrics tend to start as intuitive, raw sounds and the words emerge gradually as I repeat the rhythms and cadences of the melodies. The meaning comes into focus slowly along the way, like waking up with blurry eyes and slowly welcoming yourself into the day.

Do you tend to start writing a song crafting the first line of the lyrics? Or do you start at the chorus? At a random point? What are the words that set the process in motion?

I follow the music and the music follows me. I follow the words and the words follow me. Sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the beginning, sometimes at the end.

The song knows, and if I pay attention, I do too.

I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

I create my records imagining them being listened to in their entirety, so the context of the album is very important to me as I’m creating each song.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new insights?

It’s possible to misunderstand my intention, but the songs live outside of me and the public’s relationship to the music is just as real as mine.

I can’t think of any specific examples but I always learn things about my own music from other people.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing song lyrics or poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I actually think my music comes from mundanity in some senses. I feel most creative in a state of boredom.

In this contemporary moment we have all become dopamine junkies and we know this isn’t good for us for a lot of reasons.