What We Call Life

A dedicated period of introspection influenced Jordan Rakei’s fourth album. “Therapy is a really logical way to help yourself improve in life,” the New Zealand-born, Australia-raised, and London-based singer-songwriter tells Apple Music. “It\'s not just about getting out of an extremely depressive state, or getting over a divorce or a really bad breakup. It\'s like, how can therapy be a tool to get me to see life slightly differently, and make me slightly happier?” *What We Call Life* finds Rakei at his most confident, his approach to composition and production shifting as a result of his journey, with each song representing something he learned via therapy. “I feel like it\'s really who I am right now,” he says. “I had my own sound, but I was letting my influences shine through a little bit more. But with this one, I feel like it\'s the first time I’ve had my own voice throughout a whole album.” Across his previous work, Rakei hasn’t found issues with genre-blending—fusing soul, jazz, R&B, and alternative influences with rare finesse. But *What We Call Life* is his most experimental, ambient, and existential set yet. “Introspection is hard for some people; they don\'t like thinking about their own life, or their past, or anything,” he says. “So doing a bit more of that would be really good for us all.” Here, Jordan guides us through each track. **“Family”** “I was thinking about my parents’ divorce, when I was about 14. When I was a young teenager, I thought the divorce didn\'t affect me. But now, double the age, I’m reflecting and thinking about the impact it must have had on my parents, navigating now being single parents. Also, thinking about me, sympathizing with the young teenager that I was, not really understanding its impact. I had this idea that my parents were ‘super soldiers.’ As I became an adult, I\'m like, ‘Oh, wow, that\'s just a normal person trying to go about their life.’” **“Send My Love”** “I think of this track as three mini-songs in one. There\'s the verse, which is really atmospheric and spacious, but with a bit of a groove. When the chorus comes in, it becomes a pumping dance track. I actually produced it all first, I laid all the instrumental down, we did all the synthesizers and we did all the drum programming. Then as soon as I saw it all sitting, I was like, ‘How can my voice slot in this without getting in the way of the production?’ But the choruses, I\'ve gone through five to six different choruses of trying to not get my vocals in the way, and decided to just keep it really simple.” **“Illusion”** “I just really wanted this to be a fun one, not overthinking the process. I was born into a particular family with particular morals, in a country that had a certain privileges. Living in Australia, in a rich neighborhood, I had these advantages from birth. It\'s basically like a subtle argument of nature versus nurture, and whether you can control your own narrative in life.” **“Unguarded”** “I wanted to have a track that breathed, production-wise. The focus wasn’t lyrics or the instrumentation, it was the energy and mood, and the way it all moves. It was more about the emotion rather than the message or the instrumental choices, about the movement and arc of the music.” **“Clouds”** “I wanted the whole song to be built around this vocal loop idea, similar to James Blake’s ‘Retrograde’, or a Bon Iver song. I actually made that in lockdown, in my bedroom. I started making the instrumental in May 2020 when Black Lives Matter started surfacing around the world. My dad\'s from the Pacific Islands, and he\'s brown. But I always forget that I\'m mixed-race, because I\'m white-passing. I was raised in Australia, I had white friends. And when I first came out in my career, people would comment and say, ‘Jordan Rakei, the next white D’Angelo.’ So, I was attacking that, and the guilt I feel behind it, and acknowledging my heritage a bit more. Even now I\'m trying to pronounce my last name how it should be pronounced. My whole life I just used to say ‘Rack-eye.’ But it\'s actually ‘Rah-kye’ or ‘Rah-kaye,’ depending on if you\'re in New Zealand or not. I still have to remind myself I\'m Cook Islander.” **“What We Call Life”** “When I was younger, there was a crazy party at my house. There were always parties at my house, because my parents were really sociable. I was a shy child, and quite anxious. I was angry at my parents for always having these parties when I was just a quiet, shy child. I was like, ‘Why do I constantly have to be put through this?’ I remember thinking to myself at that time, ‘Is this the life I expect? Is this what I’m going to be like for the rest of my life?’ I\'m trying to talk to my inner child, and trying to give him some sort of reassurance, like, ‘Life\'s going to be all right, you\'re going to get through this.’ I used to be really stressed about it.” **“Runaway”** “I\'ve managed to really nail what I love about all types of music in one song. I feel like it\'s slightly complex; at the same time it\'s really simple. It\'s ethereal, but it\'s got a groove to it. All the harmony choices are exactly like what I\'m into at the moment. And lyrically, it\'s about embracing a new path in life, and not running away from the past.” **“Wings”** “I\'m drawing from a different palette sonically. It\'s probably the heaviest, darkest tune on the album. So I was trying to channel my inner distorted guitar. Lyrically, it’s about breaking out of your mold, embracing your wings and flying to a new life, or plane of being. I wrote these verses way back in 2014 when I first moved to London. I just didn\'t feel like I ever had the right song emotionally to go with it. Until we were in the studio and we made this song, and I was just like, ‘Hey, I\'m going to try and sing these lyrics over the top.’ And it\'s still relevant to where I\'m at right now.” **“Brace”** “I started the album quite bright, and I feel like this is quite expansive, it\'s a different sound from earlier songs in the album. But I really wanted that contrast. ‘Brace’ is a really relaxing, slow-moving cinematic experience.” **“The Flood”** “I always knew when I made this track it was going to be the last track on the album, because it\'s got a long intro, it\'s got a long middle section, and then it\'s got a long outro. I wanted it to be a seamless story, like you’re embracing a new future. The last four minutes is all instrumental; I just wanted to ride out on it and let it fizzle away. It\'s talking about the flood of emotions in the body, and how responsive the body is to trauma. It\'s a narrative on emotion.”

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