Raveena's Awakening
For Raveena, everything is internal, from this album that has been baking inside in her mind for over three years, to the essence she cultivates and plants in her music— It is so personal.
While Raveena builds a beautiful world around her, office wanted to dig deeper and explore the universe she constructs inside of her. For the soul-singer, her artistry goes past what is presented on the exterior, and instead, we are captivated on the internal — the intention, essence, and aura she leads with. As our February Digital Cover star for 2022, we uncovered her aura, literally. As we headed to Magic Jewelry in Chinatown, Raveena's old stomping grounds, we attended her aura reading which unveiled the hue, pallette, and creative direction behind the Digital Cover shoot.
What was shown was a boastful blue surrounding every Orpheus of her being. The aura — rising in a spherical manner started from her root chakra, rose about a foot above her crown. The hue ranging in a multitude of deep and powdery blues blended in with spheres of serene greens that landed on the edge of her crown chakra and touched on the last layer of the aureole. Ranging in a multitude of blues, with research, it'S founf that this particular pallette represents Raveena's comfortability in her emotional sensitivity and self-expression. If you listen to her music, this comes as no surprise as both of those attributes can easily be detected within a minute of exploring her discography. Her sensitivity which can range as a curse or blessing, depending on what side of the coin you're looking at, is a direct reflection of how she is able to share her innermost resounding thoughts to the world in an intentional, honest, and attentive practice.
Read the exclusive interview with Raveena below.
Some of your music is based on the hardships you've faced. How did you get into the mental and spiritual space to open up about it through your music?
I think it's always been a survival tool, almost. I think that it's been the guiding force and the color in my life. Especially as a child of immigrants, as a child of people who survive political turmoil and genocide, I was just coming from a very hard place, even as a kid. So I think I needed something like art to bring this kind of lightness and joy into my life. I found that over the years every time that I would lean in further into art and let it guide me and express whatever I need to get out through the music, I would be led into a much richer and sweeter life. Like such a dream kind of existence. So, I'm super grateful for it, it's kind of like a godsend.
Your new album definitely has a different feel but is still very true to you, what were some moments you remember about creating it from the first concept?
Some really special moments that I remember are when I was at the 'Rubin Museum of Art' and we were on acid. And we were in a sound installation for like, Buddhist temples, and there's all this amazing art. And I just had this realization that I just needed to start incorporating more of my culture into my art. I was like, ''this is going to be the challenge over the next few years figuring out how because there are such entirely different cultures between the West and the East.' And when it has been done, it can feel like a trophy or stereotypical. So, it was so much work trying to get it into a place where it felt really refined and thought out and intentional.
You tapped into your Punjabi culture in a lot of your new songs, using traditional Indian instruments and singing in Hindu for the first time. Especially since you’re already heavily R&B inspired, what made you want to blend R&B with traditional sounds?
I think the most beautiful realization that I have in this process was all these genres that I completely adore, like soul, R&B, indie rock, jazz, like they have actually been in conversation with South Asia since the 60s and 70s when this whole psychedelic soul and rock era happened. Like there was the Alice Coltrane started using a lot of Indian sounds and Indian chanting. There was The Beatles, of course, Lonnie Liston Smith, just all these incredible musicians who I love. I realized they had been like collaborating with people, especially with Ravi Shankar, like bringing him back here. And then there's that whole early 2000s wave with Timbaland and a lot of pop music was using Indian sampling like M.I.A. I grew up here and I grew up listening to American music, and specifically amazing Black artists in R&B and soul. And I was like, how do I add to that conversation of a whole history that’s been happening for years and years?
How did you come up with the entity of Asha to tell a story through?
I think I was in quarantine, and I had a lot of time on my hands and I was super bored. Out of that boredom came this really childlike imagination. I had time to watch a lot of movies. I set up a little projector and just watched sci-fi movies and Bollywood movies. And it was just like, there was a connection here between both of those worlds. The character just came to me in the night and I wrote down the whole story. I sent it to this amazing illustrator Lily, who kind of visualize the whole world for us in 2-D. Then we would use her concept art with all the other collaborators and be like, 'how do we bring this character to life?' Every detail of this world is very thought out and very intentional. There’s a whole movie written behind the album, basically.
When it comes to your upbringing what part has been the most influential on how you represent yourself through your music?
I think it seeps naturally into everything I do. I think in everything that I've done, even though it's varied, there's been a thorough line of a lot of different moments and expressions in my career. I think there's been a thorough line of this kind of dreamy, ethereal, maximalist, colorful sense and it's in the music and the visuals. I think that is very inspired by definitely all those things.
What was your most gratifying feeling with this album so far?
That’s such a beautiful question. I think there are a couple of moments. I loved really getting more into the production side, exploring that part of myself. I work with some really incredible collaborators, like my longtime ones like Everett Orr and Aaron Liao. I was a bit more hands-on for the album and was exploring a lot of Bollywood soundtracks myself. And I was really studying all the sounds that I could incorporate and being a bit more involved in the process, which was really gratifying hearing those songs in their forms. I hadn't really tapped into my producer side as much and it was cool to hear it and be like, “Oh, I can do this.” That felt really good as an artist. And I think when I got the final cut of the “Secret” and “Rush” videos back I was like, “Oh my god, we did it.”
You've obviously worked really hard to get to this point, what is that thing that made you keep pushing yourself towards your dreams, especially as a woman of color in the music industry that isn't keen on equality?
It does not come without its challenges. I think developing the boundaries with work has been really helpful and having a really strong personal life outside of it. Like, I really live for love and for spirit more than anything, and that has helped me put into perspective if things don't go how I want them sometimes or for harder moments. I think also I’m kind of hyper optimistic and I see these crazy visions in my head and I'm like, “Oh, yeah, we can pull that off.” And then it's so hard to in the process but I see it so clearly that I have to do it. Otherwise, I'll just keep working on it until it's there. So, it's part neurosis, part boundaries.
If you could pick an aura color for this album what would it be?
Definitely purple.
Why?
Because Asha’s Awakening is all about spiritual awakening. The color purple is associated with the third eye and being awakened and open.
Is there a tour in the works for Asha’s Awakening?
Yes, the pre-sale is up and is officially on sale now and dates are selling out.
In your intergalactic world of Asha, what are the rules under the Punjabi princess?
So, she lives on a planet that’s called Sonata, and she was transported there via the Aurora lights. When she arrives there are aliens that find her and they're highly advanced beings. They live on this planet that has a really harsh climate. There are constant fires raging tsunamis storms specifically, but they're like highly spiritual beings, and they live for thousands of years. How they've learned to live on this planet with a lot of harsh climates is they learn to meditate and breathe through these events, and they have these bodies that survive anything. So, they teach her how to have these highly advanced powers. So, kind of the rule of this planet is they're trying to impart this otherworldly sense of power within her and she becomes a princess there. And she really misses the sensuality and the connection that she had to other humans on Earth. So, after spending a thousand years there, she comes back to find that love and just that feeling that you get from being a human on Earth because she can't have it there.
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