Q&A: Lennie Rayen Gets a Grip on Her Mental Clarity With New Single “In My Head”
SHAKING OFF HER INTERNAL COBWEBS — Canadian singer-songwriter Lennie Rayen catches a grip on her mental clarity in her latest single, “In My Head.” Following her previous single, “A Fruit,” for her upcoming debut EP, Believe That It’s Blue, “In My Head” exorcises Rayen’s demons with self-doubt and anxiety, as she deciphers her thoughts and reality. As part of the EP’s portrait of her personal ups and downs, the track is an earnest snapshot of Rayen’s strength through tribulations.
Backed by languid indie-pop production and enriched by acoustic chords, “In My Head” encapsulates Rayen’s sense of tranquility and weariness intertwining as she reattaches the pieces of her mind back together. She comprehends her sanity in lines such as “Conversations with intrusive thoughts / Telling me what I should do or not / Can’t face it when it’s reality / Gone vacant I’ll see you in a couple weeks.” With such lyrics, she depicts the way we all really feel when we’re fighting an internal battle that simply doesn’t get defeated like a villain in a movie.
Continue reading below as Rayen introduces herself to Luna and details her come-up, sharing the inspiration behind her latest music.
Photo by Dylan Locke
LUNA: Hello, Lennie! How are you feeling so far with the first half of 2023 already down?
RAYEN: Hello! I actually feel like I've been floating and now it’s all of a sudden August. Time is weird, but I’m overall feeling good about it.
LUNA: You have a wealth of experience as a musician since a young child. Did your early experiences performing at contests and talent shows instill a sense of confidence in expressing yourself through music before you started songwriting?
RAYEN: I think it made me realize that singing makes me feel something and [that] it’s what I want to do forever. So yeah, it definitely gave me confidence to keep going. Songwriting is its own thing for me, though — I feel like it’s the only way I can fully express myself. Like I can say anything in a song and then it’s okay. When I was a kid, that’s all I would do … play these little recitals, and now all I do is write songs alone on my guitar. All of the confidence just transferred itself into songwriting. I need to get back on stage and find the balance between the two.
LUNA: What were the most valuable skills you gained from your practice of classical music at the start of your path?
RAYEN: With what I'm doing now, it’s kind of a different world. I’m sure it helped me in some way and gave me a foundation in the beginning. Even though I didn't love singing classical music, I always gravitated towards an alternative sound. I almost wish I could go back and relearn more of the technicalities. I wasn’t the best student and would pretend to know what I was doing a lot of the time. I would learn by ear and create my own music without knowing the exact way of how it works, but that’s partly why creativity works at all.
LUNA: There’s a phrase stating that an artist has their entire life to make their first project. What would you want listeners to know about your life with your debut EP, Believe That It’s Blue?
RAYEN: Man, that's a lot to think about. Believe That It’s Blue is really special to me. It’s the first project I’ve made and I absolutely love every song, alone and cohesively. I hope that people can connect with me. Writing these songs felt like an honest escape from my life and the world. I really just want people to interpret the project for themselves and take what they need from it.
LUNA: Where does “In My Head” fit within the context of the EP’s narrative around personal growth and your battles with self-doubt?
RAYEN: “In My Head” is the track [in which] I’m acknowledging that self-doubt. The first track on the EP, “Face It,” is sort of the opposite, and I don’t even care to look inwards at all. With “In My Head,” I wanted to talk about doubt during the creative process. I fully believe in the music I make, but I think it’s super easy to fall into that mindset where nothing feels good enough. Especially with social media — I really have to just turn it off and go outside and hang out with the trees or I will lose my mind.
LUNA: On the single, is there a specific line that hits you right in your soul and that you think will speak to so many others?
RAYEN: Probably the first line, “Guilty player made you an empty heart.” It’s more abstract, but [it] can be very individual. For me it represents my thoughts being bigger than my emotions can handle. I can be a chronic overthinker. So “guilty player” would be my thoughts, but it’s individual in the way that it can mean anything to the listener — whatever is bringing you to that place you don’t want to be in.
LUNA: What’s the biggest impression you want to make with the project before it drops?
RAYEN: I wish I had a deeper answer, [but] I hope people love the songs as much as I do and that they can live on and mean something new to someone else.
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