Q&A: Amanda Reifer Captures the Essence of Her Evolution in New Single “Woman Now”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
A RENAISSANCE WOMAN – There’s something magnetic about Amanda Reifer. It’s not just her voice—though that alone is enough to stop you in your tracks. It’s the way she radiates a sense of self-assuredness, a powerful confidence that pulses through every note she sings and every move she makes. That energy is on full display in her latest single, “Woman Now,” a soulful, genre-defying anthem that signals the dawn of a new chapter for the songstress. The track is a celebration of empowerment and evolution, showcasing Reifer’s artistry at its most bold and multifaceted.
Co-written with Kendrick Lamar and brought to life with an A-list production team that includes Sounwave, Sam Dew, 18YOMAN, LEN20, and Take A Day Trip, the track captures the spirit of evolution and empowerment. Over a simmering beat that weaves elements of pop, hip-hop, reggae, and soul, Reifer reflects on the journey of becoming—a theme that feels deeply personal to her as she prepares for the release of her highly anticipated debut album, The Reifer Files, this spring.
The song’s visualizer is just as striking as the track itself. Reifer commands the spotlight, performing alongside a full band in a video she not only co-directed but also edited and styled. It’s a testament to her multifaceted artistry and her determination to leave her mark not just as a singer, but as a creator in every sense of the word. Much like the renaissance woman she sings about on “Woman Now,” Reifer is writing her own narrative, one bold decision at a time.
This isn’t the first glimpse of The Reifer Files we’ve seen. Last summer, Reifer dropped the Island Files EP, a prelude that celebrated her Bajan roots and teased the immersive world she’s crafting. With The Reifer Files, Reifer dives even deeper, blending her fierce Bajan Pisces perspective with a fearless creative vision. The album is set to unfold as a series of audio-visual experiences, each one peeling back another layer of who Amanda Reifer is—and who she’s becoming.
For Reifer, music has always been about more than just sound. It’s about energy, connection, and storytelling. She absorbs the world around her and beams it back out in anthems that feel both personal and universal. On “Woman Now,” that process feels more refined than ever. There’s a fire in her delivery, a fluidity in the way she moves between genres, and an unmistakable authenticity that anchors it all.
As the countdown to The Reifer Files begins, Amanda Reifer is proving she’s not just an artist to watch—she’s a force to be reckoned with. “Woman Now” is an invitation to witness a woman stepping into her power, unapologetically and on her own terms.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. What inspires you to push boundaries within your sound? Are there any specific experiences, artists, or moments that have encouraged you to explore new musical territories?
AMANDA: I have so many great and diverse musical influences, people I really admire, from Sister Nancy to Lauryn Hill, Roberta Flack, Sade and Rihanna. I really pull from a diverse group of talented and unique and identifiable women, and they inspire me all the time within music, and for me, music is a place where I find my most freedom. It helps me to discover and explore parts of myself and sides of myself that maybe I've left unchecked or not given a voice to. Part of my boldness in my music is giving me the freedom to explore those parts of who I am.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
AMANDA: I aim to create an atmosphere of fearlessness, confidence and freedom to be vulnerable as well. I think for me as a woman in music and in life, there are so many ways we can get boxed into being labeled as one thing or the other. I have spent a lot of time in myself and in my music, exploring all of the diverse and complex qualities of who I am as a woman in the world, and as a Black woman in the world, and giving a voice to all of those different sides of me – the strong, independent, fair side, the vulnerable, emotional lover side, the insecure side, the confident side. I really find a lot of strength and freedom in giving all those pieces of myself a voice. In my music, I really want people to feel like their complexities and the different colors of who they are can be expressed through listening to my music, and they can be emboldened to do the same in whatever field that they're in or walk of life that they're in, the courage and the freedom and the strength my music gives me, I hope it gives others.
LUNA: You recently released your newest single “Woman Now” which is a sneak peek into your upcoming debut solo album. What inspired you to write this anthem, and how does it reflect your evolution as an artist?
AMANDA: I love this song so much. It's one of my favorites of my upcoming project. I've been in music since I was a young girl, and I've lived a lot of life in between when I started and now. “Woman Now” represents an embracing of what we talked about, those complexities and those dualities of being a woman and not shying away from them, the things that may be considered beautiful about women, but the things that may be shunned upon or looked at as taboo about being women, the desires that we have is about embracing all of that and speaking on it confidently. The tone of that song, the honest, raw expression of it, the lyrics, the musicality in there, it carries a sense of solid confidence in stating things that you might have avoided giving a voice to prior.
LUNA: You co-wrote “Woman Now” with Kendrick Lamar and collaborated with an incredible lineup of producers. Can you share what it was like working with them and how their contributions shaped the song?
AMANDA: I'm so grateful and honored to have shared a room with such incredible talents and people like Kendrick Lamar and Sounwave and Sam Dew, who have all been a big part of this record, just incredible names that I have admired and really studied their work for a long time. To be in rooms with them, initially, was a bit intimidating as a young woman, entering these spaces with people I look up to, but I'm so grateful to have to have been able to create and collaborate with these incredible talents, and have been given the space to express myself so freely and embraced in that way. It's definitely shaped my songwriting. It's really made me a better writer. It's given me confidence as an artist and as a writer to continue to express myself and explore my talents. All you can do in those situations with legends that you admire is to really learn. I really have learned a lot, and I'm so blessed and grateful. I'm proud to have been able to collaborate with that team.
LUNA: The visualizer for “Woman Now” feels so intimate and intentional. What was your vision for it, and how did co-directing and editing the video enhance your connection to the project?
AMANDA: For me, visuals are an extension of the music, extension and expression of who I am as an artist. Shooting at home in Barbados, I always feel it is really important to show people where I'm from, my roots, and connect them to my home, because that's ultimately what has shaped me and sent me out into this world. Choosing to do a performance in the middle of a forest in Barbados was to show the realness, rawness, vulnerability, and the candidness of the record.
LUNA: “Woman Now” heralds the arrival of your debut album, The Reifer Files. How does this album build on the narrative you started with Island Files, and what can listeners expect from this next chapter?
AMANDA: The Island Files was a project we created to really just honor my Caribbean roots. I'm from Barbados, born and raised, and while I've been traveling the world, my musical experiences and exposure has grown and is vast, and my influences come from many places. I'm still from the Caribbean, and I really wanted to create a project that honored my Caribbean heritage, and so that was the Island Files that were records that really focused on that element of where I'm from and who I am. The Reifer Files are an exploration of those same roots, but all of the other diverse roots as well that have come together to form Amanda Reifer and the woman and that is R&B, soul and hip-hop. It's all a fusion. These files are a culmination of all those things that represent who I am in this entirety, not just where I'm from.
LUNA: What is your favorite song from The Reifer Files and why do you love it? Is there a certain lyric or message that stands out to you the most?
AMANDA: We're going to have to listen to the whole album when it comes for that. I will say that having released the interludes off of the project so far, and these and the songs that we've started to introduce people to the record, I feel like they all explore and start to build a foundation of all the different sides of who I am. The introspective side of “In and Out. The confidence of “Bitch Like Me. The vulnerability of “Devastating.” The sensuality of “Woman Now.” The energy and the independence of “Colonize,” they all are exploring and introducing people to the different parts of who I am.
LUNA: Did you take any creative risks or experiment more either lyrically, emotionally or sonically with The Reifer Files since your previous releases?
AMANDA: For sure. When I started in music, I was a young girl from Barbados. I was the lead singer of a band with three guys. My voice at that time was young, and it was an inexperience, but I spoke about things in a way that were suitable for what us, the band as a collective, but they didn't speak fully to my experience as a woman and as a young woman growing up, and as I've grown and lived life and had to start over in career and start over in many regards, and have some tough decisions to make and go through some really hard times in in pursuing my my goals, I have so much more to say now and so much more to pour into my music. I'm able to talk more candidly because I don't have to filter myself based on what the people around me want to deliver in a song. It really is my experiences, what I've lived through, and how I want to say it. I get to really talk very candidly and with my raw energy about my life, my experiences in music now. It's definitely evolved, and my experiences should come through with a stronger and clearer voice. As I experienced more and evolved more, I'm always adding to that. My songwriting and my lyrical content has evolved from where it would have been when I was a young girl because I'm a woman now.
LUNA: Do you have a particular routine or environment that helps you access the emotional depth required for your music?
AMANDA: My approach to creating is to stay very open, and so I don't have one way of writing a song. I'm very open to the many ways in which songs can come to me. I don't like a busy room. I just like a few people, if that many. I like to be with some trusted people and the people working on the record – the producer, engineer and co-writer. I think it's important so you can really hone in on what the music is telling you and what you want to say on a record, to have that space. But for me, sometimes songs come from a thought, something that I've been mulling over in my head for a little while, and then I'll hear chords, and they'll be the perfect idea and I'll develop that idea, or it will come from music first, where the music will inspire a certain emotion in me and move me in a certain way. Then I'll want to talk about what that feeling has given me.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the upcoming year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
AMANDA: I'm excited. I am ready. I feel really excited about this year, and I'm ready to go. I've been working on my album for three years, so it's coming. I'm coming, and that's the energy I'm on.