L’Rain Is the Musician Rethinking "Genre" as We Know It

L’Rain’s music isn’t pop. It’s not soul, or R&B, or noise. Rather, it’s all of the above. “My sound is a little bit hard to describe,” says the multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator. “It pulls from the world around me, and it kind of comes together like a kaleidoscope.” She even has a word for the practice of combining genres, sounds, and inspirational motifs: “creating songness.”

For L’Rain, it’s all about paying attention to the textures of the world around you and transposing them into music. “I record voice memos throughout my day and I use those audio recordings to feed into my songs, so it’s always a reflection of the world around me,” she says. "Basically, I use my work to figure myself out.”

In the video above, the musician sits down with mixed media artist Tschabalala Self to talk nature, fantasy, and escapism, all in service of making music. Give it a watch, then throw on a L’Rain track and stir up a Bombay Sapphire cocktail to help you better contemplate your own day-to-day inspiration.

Try the Official Cocktail of the Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure©: "King Meets Queen”

-1.5 oz Bombay Sapphire gin

-0.5 oz Real Pineapple Puree

-0.5 oz Lemon juice

-0.5 oz Honey syrup 1:1

-5 oz Fever Tree Indian Tonic