Q+A: Raffaella Chats New Music, Tour with Kacy Hill, and More!

(Note: This Interview is from November 2021. You can stream her EP ‘Live, Raff, Love Act 1’ (2022) wherever you listen to music) 

In early November, indie-pop darling Raffaella hit the road, supporting Kacy Hill for several shows along the West Coast. 

Prior to the show at Brick and Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco, Raffaella sat down with The B-Side to fill us in on her upcoming releases, the tour with Kacy Hill, and more. 

Her new song “Blonde” comes out March 25, so be sure to give it a listen!

Anna Armstrong: When did you start writing music? 

Raffaella: I have been singing since I could make noises with my mouth. I have always sort of been insecure about my thoughts and decision making skills. Like I read my second grade school report recently, and I went to this yuppy school, where we had to write a lot of reports and our teachers analyzed us during math class. Well anyway, my teacher was like “she has great ideas, but she keeps asking permission to share them.” 

Songwriting was always really intimidating to me, because it was always the antithesis of what I was used to, which was protecting my ideas through validation from others. Now it’s kind of like “here is everything I think and feel and hopefully you like it.” It took me a while to get there. I started writing songs my junior year of high school. I was taking a Shakespeare class and my English teacher inspired me to start writing songs. I loved poetry, and he said “You’re good at analyzing it, so I think you’d be good at writing it.” I started writing and put music to it. I figured out a way to get out of math class senior year by making an EP based off of Shakespeare sonnets. It was my senior thesis for high school. 

I just kept doing it from then on, and uploaded some stuff onto Soundcloud, and a couple of producers in LA found it. They said I should come out and work with them, so I did. Then we released the song “Sororicide” in 2017, and then just sort of had no plan around it. We just put it out into the ether and somebody found it on Spotify and it got on a couple of playlists. I got connected to my label now, Mom + Pop and I have just been learning about the music industry ever since. 

I am still pretty green to [the industry], because I was at Barnard College at Columbia University and that was very academically driven. It was not really the place where you’d say, “I wanna be a pop star!” I was new to even what Pitchfork was when I was like twenty. I am twenty-five now and it has been really interesting. I feel like I have learned a lot over the past five years. I’m living with musicians now, and people who are very well vetted in this industry. I have been learning so much especially from Jake (Raffaella’s boyfriend & frontman of Hippo Campus). 

AA: What has it been like touring with Kacy Hill? Is this your first tour or have you toured before? 

Raffaella: My first tour was back in 2019 with Sigrid. That was a five week tour across North America. That was like a dream tour, because I am such a big fan of her’s. I never got sick of the music. It just brought me joy every single night. Then I did a little tour with Liz Phair, and then I did another little tour with Alice Merton, and then COVID happened. This is my first tour back. 

I have always really loved Kacy Hill’s music, so it has been really sweet to be able to be a part of this. It is very intimate, and it has been a really good way to get back in it. To get my feet wet again. My voice, I forget, is like a muscle, so I’ve had to practice that. 

We are singing only new songs for this run. It has been interesting to sing songs for the sake of sharing songs, rather than promoting them. None of them are out. It is maybe something that is not beneficial in like an algorithmic way, but in a soulful way, it is hard for me to not do this. It has been since 2018 with the old songs, and now I feel like I have become a lot different as an artist. It has been a wonderful opportunity to try that out. 

AA: If you could suggest one of your songs for people to listen to as sort of an introduction to your music, which song would you suggest? 

Raffaella: Of the ones that are out? Good question. I feel so angry at those songs right now. It’s like looking at photos of you in high school and you’re like “Why did I put that much eyeliner on?” I would say of the songs that are out right now “On the Lookout.” It’s not my song, but it is one I did with Neil Frances, and it is one of the most recent ones I have out. Of my original music, I think “Sororicide” is a solid choice. It is very antiquated feminism. I really relied heavily on irony, I should say. I really hoped people would catch it. I think I could have done a better job with it because I was nineteen when I wrote it. But, I love it. There is a very special place in my heart for that song. It gave me a career. I hope it resonates with people. 

AA: How do you describe your music to people? How would you describe your sound? 

Raffaella: It’s like dreamy alternative pop music. The new stuff is a lot more indie rock leaning. Jake wrote a lot of the chords for these songs. I would write sort of simple chords on the piano and then he would bring in a guitar. One song that we’re opening with called “Buick”. I wrote it as a really sad song on the piano and I was like “I think this should sound happy.”  Jake was like “Got it!” He wrote all of these chords to it. I think that there is a throughline with the old stuff though. I rely a lot on wordplay, internal rhyme schemes, and cheeky pop melodies. Dream pop/Alt pop I guess. 

AA: What sources do you draw on for inspiration while you are writing? 

Raffaella: Mostly life experience. It is hard for me to write hypothetically. I have a song called “Balaclava” that is all hypothetical and that was a cool little exercise. I think it feels the best when it’s something that is really personal. I have been trying really hard to write more earnest songs. There is a song we’re playing tonight called “Fucking Smiling,” which is about this argument I had, distancing from a friend, and feeling really angry at her for that. I just tried to be as honest as possible which was very scary for me. That came from a very real place. It’s a very good lesson to sing it knowing that I am just allowed to express honest feelings. I couldn’t do that to her face, so I decided to write a fucking song about it and sing it to everybody else. Other than that, just real life. I pay attention, take notes on my phone, and string them together. It’s like a puzzle. 

AA: I love that. Thank you. So, what are you listening to right now? 

Raffaella: I listen to Kacy Hill a lot. A lot of chill stuff. Honestly, Nathan has been playing a lot of obscure Japanese music, and I’ve been super into that. Broken Social Scene, I am a big fan of them, Japanese House, and Porches. I’ve been listening to a lot of Porches. That’s a big one. We were listening to John Mayer in the car, to be honest and it was amazing.

Jake Lupin, frontman of Hippo Campus, on stage with Raffaella

Rafaella performing on stage at Brick and Mortar Music Hall with Nathan Stocker of Hippo Campus on guitar.

AA: We’ve all been there haha. So, I haven’t read too much about it yet, but I saw that you guys are working on a new project in Minneapolis called Blossom. Do you want to talk to us about that? What work are you all doing with Blossom?

Raffaella: Fun fact, I came up with the name. I did nothing else, though. Well, I guess I am an artist that is a part of it. It’s basically just a community outreach initiative, where we put on shows. All of the proceeds go to local charities, fundraisers, and stuff like that. It’s just a way to connect with the local community and uplift artists. I guess I’m one of them now. It is mostly just people that Hippo Campus has worked with. It is a way to bring everyone together to do something bigger than ourselves in the Minneapolis community. It is really indicative of Minneapolis as a whole, too. Minneapolis is very community-based, which is really refreshing coming from a very individualistic upbringing since I am from New York. 

AA: Last question for you. What is next for you? What are some long-term and short-term goals? 

Raffaella: Totally. I think I just want to tour as much as possible. We are setting some release dates for the new stuff early in the new year. I am so excited, because I have been really precious with this new stuff. I loved working with everyone that I got to work with on the first EP, but I think it was kind of expedited in a way. At least, comparatively. Throughout this process, I have been very much on the inside of it. I have gotten to see how complicated one song can be. When you see how complicated something is, it becomes a lot more voracious. I wanted to release it into the world in the most optimal way. That is what we are trying to figure out right now. Pat

ience is so hard, because the songs get old so quickly. We have been with these songs for like a year already. The goal is to just come up with a very solid release plan and tour with it next year. 

AA: Is there anything I didn’t ask that you want to add? 

Raffaella: My friends and I started a little side band called Peach Fuzz. I guess that is like a shameless plug. It is like a side thing, so it is very low stakes, but we all came together for it. We are still trying to figure out how to release it but we wrote an album. It was me, Samia, my friend Victoria who goes by Ryann, you should check her out, Jake, Caleb Hinz, Sachi, who is another producer. It was really the seven of us. We made an album for ten days in LA, and now we are just figuring out how to put it out. I guess the point of it is anybody can start a band at any time and just have fun. The best way to make music is to not take it seriously. Make sounds and find words that can fit into those sounds.

AA: If both you and Samia were a part of this project, I definitely will need to check it out when it’s released. 

AA: Thank you so much for your time today. I cannot wait for the new stuff. 

Raffaella: Thank you so much! 

     Interview and photos by Anna Armstrong