Mefeater Mag

Raveena was raised in Queens, NY, and fondly labels her childhood self as a goof with an inherent sense of awe for the world around her - a second nature she still embodies. “I was super goofy, and I still am. I think that's a part of me that a lot of people don't know,” she shares. It’s this paralleled sense of child-like wonder the 30-year-old funnels into her polyphonic sound, captivating listeners' ears and transporting them into a subliminal naturescape where fear and joy harmonize in natural frequency. Raveena views her ‘being’ as an orb, an existence that transcends human identity. This essence has been mirrored time and time again in her lyrical vulnerability. The Indian American singer finds that composing music not only heals her physical being, but her spiritual being as well.“I feel like it's my purpose to write from a place that has a bird's eye perspective, or a more healed perspective. So I'll wait until that healing processes a little more; it's not complete. But I'll wait until I have a little more insight from an outside perspective on what I'm feeling about the situation to write about it.” 

Her newly released album, Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain, conveys the artist’s journey towards insight, which can only come from years of inner work. For the artist, this can look like practicing Vipassana meditation or simply hiking in the mountains behind her home. The 14-track anthology features pre-released single “Pluto,” a groovy yet meditative R&B bliss that sets the rhythmic flow for what listeners can anticipate for the rest of the album before seamlessly weaving in soul-warming tracks like “Baby Mama” and “Rise.” In classic Raveena style, Indian instruments like the sitar are woven into the melodies, merging an Eastern sound with a Western genre. “Honestly, I'm just scratching the surface with how to integrate Indian instruments into the sound and do it seamlessly,” she shares. “But if I'm doing music that's so rooted in another culture, like R&B and soul in Black culture, I have to bring something new to it. I have to infuse some new energy. So as much as I can pay homage to these two things that I love so much, that's just an honor for me.”