On Making Music, Producing And Queen Energy: Angélica Rahe
This summer, in light of our own rebirth, we’re catching up with Future Front Texas members and friends to explore vision.
Today, we’re featuring Spanish-American artist and musician, Angélica Rahe, a current FFTX member.
Keep reading to learn about her upcoming show at Mohawk, producing her own debut album and her experience being a young woman in the Texas music industry.
Photo by Jana Cantua, Design by Alie Jackson
ABOUT ANGÉLICA RAHE
After touring around the world as musical director and guitarist for Kali Uchis on tour with Lana Del Rey, Spanish singer-songwriter ANGÉLICA RAHE (pronounced “ray”) moved to Austin in 2018 to produce her own project.
After recording an EP (Love, Translated) with Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas that year, Angélica focused on her debut album, REINA, which was released on Valentine's Day 2020. Her music reflects her journey of femininity, sensuality, and self-love, and has garnered her comparisons to Sade, Rosalía, Jill Scott and Solange.
Tell us a little bit about yourself — how did you get into music?
I’m a Spanish-American artist and musician. I create things to share parts of myself and my experience that I feel could help others appreciate parts of themselves and their experiences. Sometimes, that is a song and, more recently, that has been painting portraits. I got into music in part because my parents were performers, and music was one of the things that we shared as a family.
Our experiences were of being foreigners in Japan or Spain or America even, so music came naturally to me as it consistently contributed to our shared experience. As I grew older, I started writing songs as a way to consume the experiences of others and share my own, and I’ve been writing songs for 15 years now. Making songs with Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas and being musical director for Kali Úchis on a global tour back in 2018 are, in a way, just extensions of the journey I’ve been able to have by constantly feeding the connection to music I’ve had since childhood.
Photo by Jana Cantua
Photo by Jana Cantua
Proudest milestone?
Creating and releasing my debut album, REINA. It’s the first time I’ve ever written and self-produced a complete body of work. It was a true labor of love and life-changing experience.
Angélica in 3 words?
Woman. Artist. Queen.
What’s your No. 1 muse?
Women. And people who uplift and honor them.
What do you want people to feel when they listen to your music?
Empowered, worthy, felt, and drenched in self-love.
How would you describe your creative and production process?
It’s very rooted in ritual. I do my best work when I give myself time to ease into my day. I have a journaling practice that I do daily while I drink my beloved cup of coffee.
From there, I’ve started incorporating the piano into my practice, and that usually sets the tone of whether I want to start working on a new lyric or melody or a new track, or now, in the last year, start to paint. I taught myself how to paint with oils, and it’s opened up a whole new world for me creatively. I really try to avoid forcing things in any way, both in art and in life. So when I’m not flowing musically as much, I pick up my paint brush. Some days, I’ve realized productivity is not doing any of it.
On days where none of this feels right, I’ll do something that fills my well. Yoga, plants, cooking, hunting for vintage treasures, taking a walk with a friend or a run around my neighborhood, or spending time with my love—all of these things can sometimes be the most productive thing. I make my best art when I take the best care of myself. (And yes, I still have to remind myself of this all the time because I definitely do have perfectionist tendencies.)
You've collaborated with a lot of cool people in the music industry. What has that experience been like?
I spent almost seven years living in LA before moving to Austin and was fortunate to collaborate with a lot of incredible and very successful artists, songwriters and producers during my time there. But I must say my experience coming here and deciding to develop my own personal project has been the highlight of my career so far. Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas, Grupo Fantasma) was the first person I had the honor of working with when I arrived. We recorded a couple songs on my first EP “Love, Translated”—and I remember feeling so overwhelmed by how someone with his talent and track record treated me with so much respect and humility.
As a young woman in the industry environment in LA, I constantly felt the need to prove my worth when I entered a room or writing session, being measured by how many Grammy wins or record deals or Billboard hits I didn’t have and ultimately always having to fill a support role as a songwriter or background singer/guitarist for the artist(s) that had all these things, as a way to “get my foot in the door.”
So, I can’t understate how powerful it was for me coming here and having this experience working with people like Adrian and, later, the incredible musicians that played on my album REINA—namely Nick Clark (Kanye, H.E.R., Demi Lovato), Cleon Edwards (Erykah Badu, Jill Scott) and Jake Sherman (Nick Hakim). I mean, these are literally some of the most talented musicians out there. From the get go, all of them truly were in service of my vision; they let me lead and took me seriously. It was life-changing for me to feel that.
I can’t be more grateful to all of them for giving me that gift, which ultimately lead me to also see myself in this light.
What are you most excited about for your upcoming show?
This show is really important to me because it’s my first time performing with my band in a year and a half; literally since my album release show in February 2020. At the time, I was getting ready for a 26 city tour across the U.S. and Canada scheduled for March/April, which got cancelled due to the pandemic.
Honestly, I was heartbroken because getting things to that point had taken years of planning and hard work. So, I’m super ready and grateful to have the opportunity to be on stage again and share space and connection with this amazing community that has really been integral to my growth as an artist.
You can purchase tickets here.
Photo by Sophia Lawson
Photo by Jana Cantua
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