Darkish-pop artist Riah chats with us about her new album The Fourth Wall and companion visible EP Reclamation — a daring, soul-stirring challenge that blends vulnerability, defiance, and cinematic storytelling.
Your new album, The Fourth Wall, is unbelievable. Soulful, melodic, and eclectic — shifting from string-laden interludes to brilliant pop hooks and darker R&B textures with seamless entrancement. How did you strategy shaping such a wide-ranging sonic palette?
Thanks! I actually wished to discover totally different sounds with this album. Since I left the formal music {industry}, I’ve been combating in opposition to the concept that an artist has to suit into one particular field or style; in the future a sure fashion will communicate to me, and the subsequent day that will look and sound fully totally different. I normally begin my writing course of by listening by means of instrumentals and writing to what conjures up me that day. That’s how this album was born, so the variability was created very organically.
Throughout the file, there’s a powerful push and pull between vulnerability and empowerment. How do you faucet into these contrasts when writing?
Duality is a large theme in my music…and in my mind, haha. Over the previous couple of years in remedy, I’ve been closely exploring the truth that I (and folks basically) can maintain a number of emotions and ideas on the identical time. So the duality you hear in my music is reflective of my life. I’m sturdy, assured, and empowered, however I additionally wrestle every day. That duality reveals up in each space of my life, and I need that have to return throughout in my lyrics.
The Reclamation visible EP provides one other dimension, bringing the music to life by means of putting imagery and storytelling. What was most necessary to you in translating these songs into visible type?
Oh gosh…it’s exhausting to decide on one factor. I believe one of many hardest – AND most necessary – facets was the visible evolution all through the video. Having the symbolism of the rope and the candles in each section, for instance. The totally different segments represented the props very in a different way, and each side of every section (lighting, surroundings, filming fashion) was meant to convey a selected temper. That evolution might be consultant of the duality of human nature, but additionally as a narrative of private evolution over time.
You labored with quite a few collaborators on this challenge. What qualities had been you searching for in your artistic companions, and the way did they assist deliver your imaginative and prescient into focus?
The collaborations occurred VERY naturally. I had a imaginative and prescient for every track and every video, and for every of these items I knew instantly who I wished to function. Fortunately for me, they’re all unbelievable artists and the songs and movies turned out even higher than I might have hoped.
One of many EP’s most putting moments is “Sacrilege,” which brims with depth and confrontation. What impressed that monitor, and what did it imply to you to deliver it to life visually?
“Sacrilege” was really kind of a late addition to the album. I had recorded and mastered the remainder of it, and simply felt like one thing was lacking, so I began wanting by means of instrumentals I might buy. As quickly as that beat got here up, I knew it was ‘the one.’ The track is a really deliberate illustration of my assured, attractive facet, in addition to a playful jab on the oppressive nature of organized faith. The video was highly effective for a lot of causes, one among which was the best way the purple rope was represented. Displaying me in charge of it and utilizing it for my very own pleasure and amusement was a giant second within the video and represented (to me) the totally different shapes that trauma can tackle.
“Speak to Somebody” carries a really totally different vitality, with its openness about anxiousness and connection. How did writing and filming that one have an effect on you personally?
That one was actually enjoyable to jot down, and a complete PITA to file, to be trustworthy! Haha. I knew I wished to open the album with an intimate second between me and the listener. Breaking ‘The Fourth Wall,’ so to talk. The track has upwards of 35 vocal tracks, I consider, and I used to be kind of creating the a cappella background harmonies as I went, so it took a very long time to get ‘proper.’ Filming it was actually enjoyable, and a quite simple course of. I didn’t need numerous photographs…I wished a clear, easy aesthetic that allowed the lyrics to be heard. I believe we nailed it!
Trying forward, what do you hope listeners carry with them after spending time with The Fourth Wall and Reclamation?
I hope listeners are impressed to be extra open and susceptible with themselves and with these round them. We’re advanced beings dwelling in a really tumultuous time. There’s numerous strain to only push by means of. I hope the album encourages everybody to decelerate and be trustworthy about who they are surely and what they actually really feel beneath the day-to-day chaos.
Do you’ve gotten a selected course of or ritual when creating new music?
It could range a bit, however typically talking I’ve a beginning idea or possibly even a single lyric that I really feel impressed to jot down about, and that’s the kicking off level. There are a LOT of marketplaces now the place artists can discover instrumentals to buy (completely or not) from totally different producers around the globe, so after the preliminary inspiration I prefer to search for instrumentals that I can write to. I normally file my very own vocals at dwelling, after which I ship off the track to my mixing engineer in California. There are positively exceptions to that course of (for instance, ‘Stand By You’ on the album was created largely from scratch with the musicians), however that’s fairly par for the course.
If you happen to might collaborate with any artist, alive or lifeless, who wouldn’t it be?
Beyonce. I’ve been watching her and listening to her since I used to be a child. She makes every thing look so easy. I might DIE if I ever started working along with her.
What’s the largest problem you discover in at the moment’s music {industry}?
Nicely, I don’t know if I’m the proper individual to ask, since I’ve been a little bit of a music-industry insurgent for a number of years now. BUT I believe one of many largest challenges for lots of artists is the shortage of profitable alternatives. I needed to take a number of years off of music and construct my profession and enterprise to some extent that I might fund every thing myself; nevertheless, numerous artists don’t or can’t take that path. I don’t assume individuals notice that music (and every thing that surrounds it) may be very costly and the alternatives to essentially earn a living as an artist are few and much between. Many artists have gotten into predatory conditions due to this dynamic. It’s unlucky.
What’s on the horizon subsequent for the challenge?
I’d love to do a full collab album, really. I’ve been listening to numerous Not a Toy and Brokin Paper, and been getting actually impressed to jot down an alt. digital / NIN-style album. My brooding teenage self could be proud!!!
