New Music Report: Emerging Artist of the Week - Rachel Crow

You may already know Rachel Crow from the very first season of The X Factor. The then-13-year-old finished in 5th place overall, but since then, Rachel has gone on to appear on multiple TV shows and movies, and now, is preparing to release some new music, beginning with her new single "Dime." 

Originally from Colorado, Rachel actually sang her first song at just 18 months old. It was Faith Hill's 1999 hit "Breathe," and at six, her musical interests continued and she sang in her school's talent show. Then, at 12 years old, Rachel moved with her parents to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the performing arts, and the following year auditioned for The X Factor -- she was the first to audition and was chosen as a contestant out of over 150,000 people who auditioned for season one. At 13 years old, that's impressive.

We recently caught up with Rachel during an exclusive interview where she opened up about the meaning and inspiration behind "Dime," singing her first song at only 18-months-old, what she learned from being on The X Factor, her musical influences, and what's next for her. Read on below. 

Tell us about your new single "Dime." What does the song mean to you?

"'Dime' is a cool song. 'Dime' was my sassy way of saying goodbye to the people that have done you wrong or made you feel like you're not as great as you are. I think you should definitely remain humble and kind, but you should still have a confidence to you that says nobody's going to mess with me and that's what my song is about. It's definitely the most fun and upbeat thing that I've done, and I'm really happy to show everyone what that was about. Performing it is cool because I can kind of give an inside look as to how I feel about this song. I feel like with music videos, sometimes it's still hard to see how the person is really feeling, and this song was my nice way to say goodbye."

I read that you sang your first song at 18 months, and it was a Faith Hill song. Can you remember that moment?

"No, which is funny. My mom tells me about it, and I don't remember if they videoed it or not. But, she always was like, 'You were so little and you would scream it.' And I heard it from several different people, and she said I would like sit there and just like scrunch up my whole body, and scream the song as hard as I could. And nothing much has changed to be honest."

Who are some of your musical influences?

"One of my biggest influences at this moment is Kendrick Lamar. The way he vibes, and just raps, and speaks, the way his melodies are and everything, he's just perfect. I love Etta James. I've always loved Etta. We oddly look very similar. There's a picture somewhere floating around the internet with both of us, and it made me feel weird about myself. Eminem, obviously. He's like my dream. I love him so much. I've loved him since I was three years old when I listened to the first album -- the clean version, because my mom was a good momma -- and I would rap along, so I've known the rap forever. That's definitely a huge influence. Right now, actually, as well is SZA. Everybody's like this, but I relate to her so much right now, and I think my thing is always been, it's okay like not to be fine. It's okay to feel sadness, and anger, and confusion in your life. I feel like people try and hide that behind a smile a lot, and that's not healthy, and I've tried to write about that. Really feeling whatever you feel. If you want to scream, if you want to feel sad, do it. Because that's emotion, that's being a human, that's part of this experience. And she just totally did a whole album about that, and I was like, 'Yes. Yes. Thank you.'"

You were on The X Factor when you were just 13 years old. Now that you're releasing new music, how do you think that your experiences since then have shaped you as an artist?

"My experiences have definitely changed from being a 13-year-old till now, because you don't just grow as a person, but you grow with other people, and you have new experiences with people, and you learn the ins and outs of life. You never truly know anything about everything, but I will say, it is kind of interesting to find new parts of myself as I keep growing and learn new things every day, and I love to learn. It's very much been interesting to do all this new music, and write about the things that I'm experiencing now. I'm writing about breakups, or somebody who did me wrong, or somebody that I just truly love so much, or getting together with the girls. Things that seem original to you, but you get that everyone you see on the street has a life just as complex and complicated as you. They are probably going through simple things like you're going through as well, and so obviously, you're going to feel very alone sometimes and be like, 'I'm alone forever and I'm writing a song because I'm sad.' But they're going through it too, and that's what's so beautiful about music is they can hear that and feel that in you, and know that that's the exact thing they're going through. So I really love that and I've learned how to put that down on paper and sing about it. 

I've also just grown as a person. I figured out what I like, what I don't like, who I am. I've figured out how to speak to people in a way of respect, and mutual respect. As a young adult, you still feel like you're being talked down to as a kid sometimes, because I am still a kid in a way -- it's just technically the adult title now. But, I think it's been cool learning how to vocalize what I want. And that's really important as you grow. I always tell people that because I was saying young people often feel small or not respected in that way. It's not that people are trying to make you feel that way, it's just because you're still a kid in many ways, and you don't know it all, you don't have it all figured out. I know it's so easy to think that one day, but you're going to wake up the next day and everything's going to be different. So, I've kind of learned to go with the flow and feel really good in myself and what I know thus far."

"Dime" is out now. So, what else can fans look forward to from you this year?

"I think I'm gonna be maybe secretly releasing my EP before the end of the year, so that'll be cool. I'm filming Transformers, the new movie that's coming out for 2018 this year, which is cool. I'm doing lots of fun things."

Photos: Rachel Kaplan