Raye - Escapism (feat. 070 Shake)

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh Hirway. This episode contains explicit language and references to drug use.

Ray is a singer, songwriter, and producer from London. Besides being an artist in her own right, she's also been a songwriter for other artists. She was a teenager. She's co-written songs for Beyoncé, Charlie XEX, and In twenty twenty seven debut album. my 21st century blues. The first single, Escapism, became our first song to hit number one in the UK. And it features guest vocals from 070 Shape. When Ray was here in LA on tour, I talked to her about how she made escapism and what inspired her.

Take this pain away. Just give me my symptoms, doctor, I don't want- My name is Ray. I was with Mike Sabbath, a producer, one of my best friends. And I was like we need to go to the middle of nowhere and write the rest of the songs for this album. So we're getting ready, we packed Mike's car full of gear and we set off on like a drive from LA to Utah. It was really cold and lovely. We went to this little log cabin. And then got ready to wake up the next day and start writing some songs.

I had split with my label and I'd kind of got my head around some of the shit that I went through and landed in a positive mindset of okay, I'm gonna make the album that I always wanted to make What was the situation with the old label and what you were doing versus what you wanted to do? I think in the UK and especially at the time

It's all about having hits and specifically with dance music, I was explicitly told, you know, until you have more big hits, you can't do your album. So then I went on this whole journey of trying to do that. Just trying to make music that would be commercially successful. Exactly. So I did that. I did that for you. And I absolutely hated it. You were writing those songs though.

I was creating within confines. You know, you get a brief, you get the boundaries in which you need to create. So I was ashamed of the artist that I was at that point in time. I hit my breaking point of like, I can't do this anymore. I've wanted to be a musician since I was seven years old. It's the only goal I've had in my life. But I got pushed to the point where I was like, I'll give up because fuck this. This is horrible.

So I became independent and it happened very quick. And so when the time came that I was like, okay, I'm ready to like put an album together, I was like, Mike, let's do it. I'm ready now. And then I remember Mike played me this B with synth strings. Can you tell me about Mike? You said he was your best friend. Yeah, he's one of my best mates. I would say we met before Mike had facial hair. I think we were both nineteen or twenty, something like that.

It was like a little songwriting camp and Mike was there. And I walked into the room and he was making this beat that nearly made me throw up. Because it was so good. 'Cause it was so good, yeah. It was a disgusting beat. You know what I mean? Like, uh what the uh It was amazing. From then we really clicked and we'd started making songs together. I'd written lots of titles of songs of stories that I've Yeah.

I had the title Escapism. So when I heard the bee What was the feeling you got from the beat and what was the feeling of the story that you wanted to tell? 2019 was a really dark year. I'd kind of cut out the people in my life that cared. I didn't see my parents at all that yeah, I didn't talk to my sisters, my friends, my real friends, and was trying to feel anything other than how I actually felt. You know, and to be completely candid being a suppressed artist.

Combine that with drugs and a sprinkler, alcohol, you get what is my definition of escapism. I remember being out one of these nights and I was literally in a car with I didn't know any of these people. None of them gave a shit about me. I don't even think they knew my name, do you know I mean? And they're just there in the back doing live. And I'm like, cool. Where am I? I just wanted to create that picture.

And so the first part that I wrote was just a heartbroke bitch. I'm with in the back of the taxi sniffin' cocaine. I think the conscious decision you have to make especially when you want to create something a bit more honest or personal is the wrestle between lyricism and melody. You know, you you want melody, you want it to have catchiness, you want people to be able to

connect to the melodies, but I'm a lyrics girl. Like for me the story or painting the picture, like I want you to close your eyes and see it all in your head. I kind of chose one note. So in that I'm prioritizing the lyric. It's not like there's a heartbroke bitch high heels exit. It's that I don't want you to sing it. I want the lyric to be the priority of the melody. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. One note, one note, all about the story.

Junk calls, junk text, junk tears, junk sex, I was looking for a man who was on the same page. So you get a little lale, little sprinkly melody thing at the end. And then when you get to the chorus that I don't wanna feel, you get a little sweet emotional breath. I don't want to feel reality and I want to feel honest feelings. Those times are for me, specific times of my life.

where you're just trying to run away from reality as fast as you can. You'll take whatever is on the table, whatever's on offer, whatever you can get your hands on, wherever you can run. Do you think you could have written about this period in your life while you were in it? Or do you think you needed to have this many years distance from it to be able to write this song?

I think it's it's complicated to say whether I could have because at the time I didn't feel like I had permission to tell the truth in such a intense way. Really the artist that I've decided I want to be today explicitly honest no matter what. You know, I'd rather be explicitly uncomfortably honest and glaze over the truth. Last night really was the cherry on the cake.

Lately and I'm finding it crippling. Excuse my state, I'm as high as your hopes that you'll make it to my bed. Get me hot and sizzling. If I take a step back to see the glass half full, at least it's the Prada 2 piece that I'm tripping in. I wanted to ask you about this one part that I just love and I I didn't fully appreciate it until I got the stems. Just a heartbroke bitch, how he'll succeed. Uh, the harmony. Yeah. Can you tell me about writing that part?

Yeah, I do so many layers and so many harmonies and then it'll be a case of take it out. That's not what take it out. I'll keep it there. It's nice over that one phrase. We'd originally done a three part, four part harmony over that section, but it took away the kind of grit of it. It softened it. It didn't need to be soft. Juxtaposition is something I love in music. If you was to really zone into the lyrics, you'd be like, oh shit, this is a sad story. But musically is the opposite thing.

So we went back to LA. I remember listening back to all the demos we'd made and escapism was my favourite. I loved it so much. But it had a lot of work to do. I had way more things I needed to add. We needed to take the production to the next level. And so we woke up one morning. We we were kinda all slept at the studio. Um, we'd been there for a couple of days. I woke up, hadn't showered. I was just like, can we just play escapism really quickly?

So there was a choir section, we were like, Do we keep this in, do we take it out? It was originally gonna be the outchows, that bit, the So we took this section and we kinda looped it round and round and round. And then done this thing where you can send it left, send it right, send it left. When you've got headphones on, it'll rotate between ears. I'm like, this feels so good.

We can't end it here. Like we just gotta keep going. And Mike's like, Whoa, I got a great idea. He'd like voice noted some thunder that he heard. He'd held his phone up during a thunderstorm. He's like, we've gotta add this funder in. I'm like, you're sick. And I was like, fuck it, let's do a key change. Just pit shift everything. My symptoms doctor, I don't wanna feel I was just ghastly Just imagine this blurry case. just come into her head musically, that's what it sounded like to me.

And then I was like, I need to wrap it in there. I was like, fuck it, I don't care. I want to rap with it. So in the morning in my pajamas, just in the mic, like lipstick smudge, like Trying to figure out the right little eight bars to go in there. I remember nothing, so there's nothing to regret other than this 4-4 kick drum pounding in my head. I feel like it's a story of someone who's having a really bad night dressed up as a good night. Yes. And it just gets worse and worse and worse.

Absolutely. It is a bad night, but you don't realise it's a bad night because you're in the product of escapism. You're standing on top of the bar screaming and singing lyrics, both hands in the air. You're in a car with your hands out the windows like I'm in a movie. Like obviously it's not a good night, but it feels like it is.

The last thing that happened with the song is getting out Seven O'Shake's vocal. Her name is Danny, but she goes fat oh seven oh shake, and she's one of the, in my opinion, greatest artists making music today. Met her a couple of years before. And we know when she's like, Oh, you know, what music do you make or whatever? I was like, Don't listen to anything that's released, you know, like don't.

I really wanted her to think that I was good because I was such a fan of her. This was around the time two, three months before I went independent. I FaceTime Time we're talking and I was like I was just explaining how what a tough time I was having and I was really struggling and And her perspective is Ray, like nothing else matters but the music. None of these other things matter.

She never escaped Is it ever hard for you to listen to this song because you did too good of a job capturing the experience of of what was a darker time in your life? I don't think I could have handled that story if the music didn't feel how it did. I think that's the whole point of what escapism is. It's transcending above your sadness or your pain for a moment in time. And that's what I needed this song to feel like.

It could never have been a ballad, sad piano and strings and frickin' sprawled out on the bathroom floor crying, you know what I mean? sad. And I wouldn't have been honest. That's not how I would want to hear an emotion like that. And I think some people just like the song. So to anyone who just wants to listen and feel nice, just play it. But to anyone who actually needs to acknowledge their pain, or the people who empathized maybe or listened a bit more to the lyrics in detail and found that

They really related and needed it. Like that I think that's the whole point, isn't it? I don't know how, but it makes something Powerful wow, something so ugly. And that is something I'm proud of.

Coming up, you'll hear how all of these ideas and elements came together in the final song. I have a new album of my own coming out on April twenty-fourth. It's been about fifteen years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Herway.

I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists. completely rethink my relationship. music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard about.

Podcast like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabond, Fenn Lilly, and the producer Phil Winerobe. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the US starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing, With a conversation about the A different amazing guest moderator in each city. Like Adam Scott, Simeen Nosrat, Jason Manzukis, Josh Molina, Min Jin Lee,

John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all gonna be my conversation partners on stage. And then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, Rishikage. C O or just go to song exploder.com. Slash live. That's song exploder.com. Slash live. Thanks.

And now, here's Escapism by Ray, featuring 070 Shake in its entirety. Dios, give me my symptoms. Doctor, I don't... The taxi snipes. Peace with the peace. So there's nothing to regret. For more info, visit Songexploder.net slash ray. You'll find links to buy or stream escapism. And if you like this episode, you might like Christine and the Queen's episode from 2018. Christina the Queen's and 070 Shake have also collaborated together. You can find a link to that episode in the show notes.

This episode was produced by Craig Ely, Theo Balcom, Kathleen Smith, Mary Dolan, and me. The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made the show's theme music and logo. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows and support our work at radiotopia.fr.

You can follow me at Rishi Hirway and you can follow the show at Song Exploder. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at Songexploder.net slash Rosh. I'm Rishi K Shirowe. Thanks for listening.