RAYE chats with #MostRequestedLive!

RAYE joins #MostRequestedLive and answers your questions in this exclusive chat!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, I'm Ray and this ismy most requested live Ask Anything Chat.
My new song is called Genesis,and I want to say thank you so
much to Romeo and iHeartRadio for havingme on the show tonight. Alright,
let's dig in. Julio from Vancouver, British Columbia says, your song Genesis

(00:26):
is brilliant. What was the processlike making that song? My goodness,
let me tell you now, theprocess was extremely long. I don't know
why, but I put myself throughthe absolute ringer making this song. It
took me about two and a halfyears. There've been hundreds of different versions

(00:46):
of Keet. That's an exaggeration,but tens of twenties of different versions,
so many verses recorded and deleted myengineers in the room, Alex, Isn't
that facts? How many different versionsdid we It's actually sickening when you look
at the vocal sessions, and youknow I was on the road whilst I

(01:08):
was making this song as well,so it was so like and it's an
emotional one, it's a deep one, you know what I mean. But
the process was definitely testing. It'snot been a simple proceigue at all.
But I'm very proud of it nowit's out there. But now it's out,
I honestly haven't listened to it oncesince it's been out because I'm like,

(01:30):
it's no more of me, nomore genes for me. Bob from
London, England says, did youknow that you have five star rating on
Wiki feet? That is disgusting?Can I just say, Bob, I
really hate feet. It's so funnybecause I know I always have my feet

(01:52):
out because I just don't like wearingshoes on stage. But I really hate
the word. I even don't evenlike the word feet, the word toes
ill. Some people love that stuff. I don't. I've never heard of
wiki feet before. I don't knowif I feel privileged or kind of grossed

(02:14):
out, but you know, atleast it's not one star on wiki feet,
so that's so gross. I can'tbelieve that that website even exists.
Okay, next, Larissa from Campanas, Brazil on your Last Ask on your

(02:34):
Last Ask, that's such a tongue, sister. On your Last Ask Anything
video, someone asked you where's thefurthest away from home that you've been recognized
on the street? And I said, a casino in Vegas has that changed
now that you've been on a worldtour. Yes, it has changed.
I was on the beach in Brazilactually Larissa, and someone was ray Hi,

(03:01):
so you know. And then Iwent to Australia in January, which
was amazing, and yeah, peopleout there. It wasn't like overwhelming,
but it was like a couple ofpeople was like hey. And I did
a meet and greet in Brisil inAustralia and so many people came and I

(03:24):
was like wow. And then wedid shows then was amazing. So it
has changed because I think Australia isthe furthest away from my house. Really
rambled on on this answer, butyes, okay Brittany Brittany from Memphis,

(03:46):
Tennessee. Hello, how has yoursummer been? When where do you spend
most of your time? I spendmost of my time at airport. Actually,
we have been so blessed to havesuch a booked and busy summer.

(04:09):
So we've been on the road,you know, lots of shows, lots
of festivals. We recently did ajazz run of jazz festivals, which was
just insane because I love jazz andit's so exciting to me that I'm being
taken more seriously in this world.So that's really exciting. But yeah,
mostly at airports and in different hotels, And you know, I've been trying

(04:35):
to encourage myself actually because we workedreally hard last year that this year when
we travel places, if I dohave a day for a travel dale a
couple hours free, that we goand do something. So I'm trying to
make some memories as well outside ofthe shows. But it's mostly shows.
But I love shows, so that'sall good. Okay, Wow, this
is an international question list. Isaacfrom Malta says, when we're writing music,

(05:00):
what makes writing on a physical pieceof paper better than writing on your
phone? All good question. Ithink there's something classical, classic and traditional
about writing on a piece of paper. Often I'll start things on a piece
of paper and then take it tomy iPhone notes. I'm not sure why,
but I think it's just really niceto just put a pen to paper

(05:24):
and just the texture of the penon the paper. I'm just like writing,
do you know what I mean?And when I imagined as a kid
being a songwriter, what it wouldbe like, you know, I pictured
myself sitting in studios with notebooks andpens and I enjoy it. I enjoy
it like this traditional, real rawand then I'll take it to the technology

(05:45):
because I can type all my stuffout quick on Plus, when you're putting
a song out anyway, it's like, can you type up the lyric?
Can we have the lyrics? Lala las? It's just better to always
have it written out on your phoneafter But yeah, I have the answer.
Zach Nancy from Internati Ohio. Youmentioned that your sense of style has
changed a lot over the past fewyears. What has been one of your

(06:08):
favorite looks recently? It has changeda lot over the last few years.
We did a show at Monto JazzFestival in Geneva. I'm in Monto,
which is in Switzerland. We wentto Geneva airport. That's why I got
confies, and I wore this whitedress with fluffy shoulders, and I did

(06:29):
my hair myself and my makeup myself, and I pinned my hair like this.
But then I had it like bigand like I felt proper, like
I've gone back in time and somany legends have played on that stage,
so I really wanted to feel like, you know what era are we?
And I really love that look.That's one of my favorites. Yeah,

(06:53):
Lana from Burbank, California, willyou ever record a Christmas song? If
so, what is one of yourfavorites. I have such a love hate
relationship with the idea of myself releasinga Christmas song because I would want it
to be for the love of music, opposed to it seeming like I'm trying

(07:16):
to but I don't know, likenot shading or saying anything negative about anyone
who makes Christmas songs, but youknow, it's like the idea like that
everyone wants to have a huge Christmassong that people play reinn it goes big,
do you know what I'm saying?And then they make loads of money
every year. I think my intentionwould be if I was ever going to

(07:36):
do a Christmas song, it wouldneed to be like I just really wanted
to share it. Does that makesense? But yeah, if I was
going to do it, it'd probablybe like maybe a nat King Cole cover.
Whenever it's Christmas time, I alwaysplay Nakin Cole because I think he's
the voice of Christmas for me.So maybe it would be one of his

(08:00):
just nuts roasting on an open fi. Maybe that one, or oh,
Holy Night is actually one of myfavorites. I did record a version of
that actually that I really love,and that's already out. So actually I'm
talking a lot of smack right nowbecause I've already put out technically a Christmas
song. Cool next, all right. Stephan from the United Kingdom says,

(08:28):
what was the inspiration behind picking Rayas your stage name? Oh? Okay,
well my real name is Rachel andRachel Rachel. I was gonna Ray
is kind of like short for Rachel. And then I remember being like in
the car with my dad when Iwas about eleven or twelved be about twelve.
I was very young when I decidedI was going to be an artist,

(08:52):
and I was like, yeah,I want it to be Ray,
I think. And then we weretalking about different ways we could spell it,
and RAI was one with thinking ofbut we're like no, and then
ra Hy's loads of people's an rE y was really cool. But then
Dad was like, what about rA y E? And I was like,
yeah, I really liked that.And then when I moved schools.

(09:13):
When I moved schools, when Imoved from my old high school to the
brit school, I went up toall the teachers before the classes had started
off, first ever classes, andI was like, please don't call me
Rachel, please call me Ray.And I showed them how to spell it.
And since then, like I kindof rebranded when I moved schools,
you know what I mean. Yeah, So that was the inspiration. It
was. It was a nickname.My best mate Carly started calling me Ray,

(09:35):
and then I wanted it to stickbecause I really liked it. Here
we are Kim from Cleveland. II. What's your favorite T shirt to wear?
Good question, very good question.Actually, I for T shirts,
I want two things. I evenwant space and comfort and length, you

(09:56):
know, so something extra large,something that could be a dress if I
wanted it to be. I loveto sleep in a T shirt usually it's
my vibe, So something like that. I have this big blue one that
my friend Mira gave me and Ireally like it. Just wear it all
the time to be comfortable, youknow. And I also want, you

(10:20):
know, headrooms you can just getout and it's not you know, when
you're wearing T shirts and they're justlike too tight. So I even want
loads of space or actually the oppositeway, do you know what I mean?
A little bit of you know,yeah, thanks okay, Lydia from
Hartford, Connecticut. What do youdo to warm up your voice before shows?

(10:43):
I FaceTime Josh, who is myvocal coach, who I FaceTime.
I realized over the last couple ofyears how important my vocal health is.
I wasn't necessarily taking it that seriousas serious as I should have in the
part. So over the last i'dsay a year or two years, year

(11:03):
and a half, I've started totake it quite seriously with Josh, and
we'll do a FaceTime forty five minutesto an hour where we warm up.
I have this kind of plastic strawthat I bring with me. It's like
a rubber straw. I put ina bottle of water that fall and I
blow into it and go boo.Do my warm ups and then we change

(11:26):
the real voice and you have tomake really ugly sounds to open up your
chest voice. It's like it's inhere and it's absolutely embarrassing and very disgusting
to make out loud. But myconfidence has grown, and you know,
I actually used to not like doingvocal warmups because of how embarrassed I was
at how it sounded. But nowI'm just embracing it fully and it's like,

(11:50):
which is horrible, but it doesreally stretch the vocals out, and
then we do up to a Csharp in the years in the whistle tone.
And when we know when that's there, then I'm good in my whistle
tine. Yeah, stuff like that. Yeah. Natasha from Grand Rapids,
Michigan. What colors do you liketo dye your hair? I love the

(12:13):
ninety sixties, and in the sixtiesit was just block colors, which I
really love. See, I wentred, and it's really hard to maintain
a one block definitive color with redhair because the second you wash your hair,
it's like a massacre in there inyour shower or it's not very nice.
You wash, one little bit ofwater goes on your hair and it's
like red everywhere, and your towels, on your bed sheets. So I

(12:41):
don't think I'm ever going to gored ever again. But you know,
I committed to it for my twentyfirst Century Blues campaign. I did.
But I like block colors, solike blonde, black, orange, you
know, brown. I'm naturally brown, so maybe I don't gravitate towards brown,

(13:03):
but block colors. Oh, I'mnot gonna lie. I just do
really want to be a blonde again. But it's such long maintenance and when
you put bleach on your scalp,which just hurts, you know what I
mean, And it's just like ah, but it does look good. I
miss being blonde. It's calling tome again, but I think I need
to chill out right now. Whateverthis is, Yeah, Sheryl from Manchester,

(13:26):
Vermont. What's your dream house,dream vacation, dream car? Oh,
where's my phone? I'm gonna showyou a picture on my dream car
because I was looking at it todayand I was like, oh, I
want this car, l class.Look at this car. Can you just

(13:50):
picture me driving it? It justmakes sense, don't you think, Like
come on, and the wheels andthe color matches my skin so well.
I would love this ca That's mydream car. My dream house probably a
nice, big kind of house inthe countryside. Honestly, I'm really into

(14:13):
nature and that more now than ever. Just you know, a little village
somewhere, man, just a housein the village I still keep. A
house in London would be my dreamSouth London and a countryside residents with lots
of fireplaces, with real wood.You chop and you do it yourself,

(14:35):
and you cook stuff and maybe youhave a couple of sheep and a sheep
dog. Yeah. Dream vacation.I really really want to explore Asia.
I really want to go. Iwant to go to China. I want
to go to Korea, South Korea. I want to go to Thailand.

(14:58):
I want to go to buy I'vebeen to India once, but I want
to dig in my dream Honestly,do you know what I really want to
do. I really would love togo backpacking across somewhere, maybe Vietnam or
something. I would love to gobackpacking. I think that's the thing I
missed because I never went to UNIand I went straight into music that I

(15:20):
never really got to do like thosekind of things. And I would really
love to explore like that, justa bagpack camping down to earth into nature.
I mean I would love that.Okay, cool Jody from Middlesbrough,
United Kingdom. You've been insanely busythe past year and a half. Bus
club, another club, another club, next place, Nosley. Yeah,

(15:41):
yeah, facts, Lady Garga toldno lies about the lifestyle of an artist
who is really trying. How haveyou been managing to prioritize your own mental
health and physical wealth so that youdon't burn out. I I am tired,

(16:02):
I can't, Okay, I am, but look I've worked my entire
life to even get to this point. So for me, I would say
my mental physical health right now isn'tnecessarily my priority. But there will come
a time, hopefully in the nearfuture, where that will be the case.
But right now, I got shitto do. I've got things to

(16:25):
do, and I've got to keepit pushing. So some days it is
kind of tough, and I canbe a bit homesick sometimes, but the
shows make it all worth it,and you know, this is the life
that I work so hard for.So but yeah, Luckily I work with
my parents and it's I'm on thephone and all the time I'm like,

(16:45):
dad, mom, this that is. But yeah, so my family definitely
helped me out a lot. Joefrom Bristol, England. Will there be
Genesis merch? I need some hopethat answers your question? Lewis from Seattle,

(17:06):
Washington. What's your favorite candy inthe UK and favor in America?
Ooh, my favorite candy in theUK Galaxy Chocolate don't play around galaxy caramel,
galaxy salted caramel. Wow. Butin terms of like sweets, I

(17:30):
do love a harrowbo tang FasTIS,you know, And I like the green
lolly one with the circle on theline, the green I like that.
And I love the crocodiles in tangFasTIS. Oh. Actually I'm straight for
the crocodiles and then the green lollipop. Okay. In an America, Oh,
favorite candy in America, I don'treally eat candy in America. I

(17:56):
don't recall it candy. We saysweets, Reese's butter cups, Reese's peanut
butter cups. I like those.Those are really good in America. Yeah.
Nice. Dara from New York City. What's the best picture of yourself

(18:17):
you've ever seen? That's so funny? Oh, okay, the one on
me and my grandma at the Britsand me crying like an absolute yeah,
balling, balling. But that wasa beautiful picture just because of that moment

(18:37):
and just getting to share it withher. Wow. I absolutely love that
woman with every fiber in my body. Yeah, so that was beautiful.
Laura from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.What are your career goals for twenty twenty
five My goodness. I mean,I would like to attempt to write an

(18:57):
album, but I'm not going torush in. I barely started, so
please please be patient with me andhang on in there. I would love
to write an album, and Iwould love to Honestly, I know it
sounds quite crazy, but I wouldreally love to embark potentially on a journey

(19:22):
of attempting to be an actress.I just said that out loud, I
did, but I would love togive it a go. I would love
to see if I have what ittakes to just be someone else. Be
sad, I'm choking, but anyway, I've really love to explore that.

(19:44):
So maybe that and if that dooropens, But mainly, I would actually
like to live a bit, becauseI think in order to write good music,
you have to really have a perspectivethat you want to write about and
shen you need to live to dothat. Think no one wants to hear
a song songs about hotels and airports. It's just not relatable. No,

(20:07):
Yeah, that's my career goals live, right, And do you know what?
I want to just go and stingin jazz clubs for the love of
it, not for like money,just for passion and just like jams jam
nights. I want to search outand go and open mics and do stuff
like that. I think I wouldhave the best time. Dion from Toronto,

(20:30):
Ontario. Is Ratriarchy the fandom nameor do you have another one of
your leave? Look? I loveI personally love the Ratriarchy. It's hilarious.
But you know, I think Idon't know if I'm allowed to choose

(20:51):
the fan name. I don't thinkthat's my choice to make. So if
the Ratriarchy is sticking, let's go. I mean, Elizabeth from London,
England, would you ever consider enteringI'm a celebrity, get me out of
here. I don't think I would. I don't think though. I don't
think so. Oh, I'd beso annoying on that show because I don't.

(21:14):
I actually don't mind insects at all. Like if I see a spider,
I'll put a cup on it anda paper and I'll take it outside.
I'm that kind of girl. ButI don't want thousands of them calling
on me. And honestly, tome, my worst nightmare is you know,
them caterpillars with the goo inside them, you know them thick yellow white

(21:36):
caterpillars. They always have to eatit bite, and then juice comes out
like absolutely not no, no,life's too short. No, not for
me. Penny from Colorado Springs,Colorado. What would your DJ or rapper
name? If you could pick one? DJ Raisin? Because I love raisins.

(22:04):
It would be fun to be aDJ, wouldn't It should turn up
and you could drink on the jobpress play DJ Raisin. Rachel from Dublin,
Ireland. Who do you text themost with which one of your friends
needs to use spell check the most? Oh? Oh, I text the

(22:26):
most with Carly and my sisters andLee, but she lives in Paris so
we FaceTime. Yeah. Ben's aterrible text over. That's one of my
best mates as well. I haveabout four five friends, you know,
I text often. Yeah, butthey're all good at spelling, I think

(22:52):
yeah. Vanna from San Antonio,Texas says what emoji would you to describe
herself? Oh? Oh, that'sa good question. It depends on that.
It depends on the day because Igo like this sometimes, but I
would say I'm like this emoji.You know that one is there emoji that

(23:14):
goes like this. It's like thatthe wild emoji, like that one,
Yeah, with the eyes that goup like I'll be that one. I'd
like to think I'd also be thered dress emoji when I'm on stage.
I like to feel like that,you know, the girl who's like in

(23:36):
her red dress looking all fabulous.But yeah, I think that one.
Easteria from Newport, United Kingdom.What were you like in high school?
Oh? My god, fucking highschool. Oh, I was so confused.
I think you know. I wasvery annoying. I was very annoying.

(24:00):
I'll hold my hands up. Iwas annoying. I was either way
too eager in class me pick me, miss me me, or I was
chatting a bit rude to the teachersand getting sent out. But I was
just I was one not if Ilove the subject, I'm your girl.

(24:21):
If I didn't, I sucked.Yeah. I don't know. I used
to be really annoying as a kid, I think, but look, we
was kids in it. Yeah,Katie from Covington, Kentucky. Have you
ever gotten those celerity celebrity gift bags? What do they usually have in them?

(24:44):
Or I've gone some good ones inthe past. I can't lie.
Capital summertime ball. I had aNintendo in there, hair dryer, do
what I mean? Loads of skinproducts like a sl sleeping eyemass that I've
used every night now. It's likesilk. Can you like tape it in
the back of your head? It'samazing. I'm not gonna lie. Gift

(25:08):
bags are shockingly really good. SometimesI'm like, wow, you get some
pajamas, you know, yeah,some good things. Obviously Nintendo was proper,
proper up there for me. Ilove Nintendo. Andrea from Cherry Hill,
New Jersey. If your tour buspulled up to a seven eleven in

(25:30):
America, what would be the firstfive things you would buy? Um?
Snacks, just crisps or chips asAmericans say, snacks, waters, chewing

(25:52):
gum, chocolate, and maybe afridge magnet, depending if they sell those
there. Yeah, okay, okay, okay. Emily from Southampton, United

(26:15):
Kingdom. What inspired you to usemultiple music genres in your new song Genesis?
I just do you know, Ithink I as a musician and I'm
just a listener and a person whojust absolutely is obsessive music. I love
so many different styles of music,and I think I really wanted to not
be limited to feeling like, Okay, well, if I'm gonna release one

(26:37):
song, it has to only beone thing. So I think it's more
of just it felt like the rightthing to do, and I really wanted
to make it some sort of journey. Yeah. Kirsten from Chicago, Illinois,
what would you say is the mostdifficult part of your job? That's
a good question. Yeah, ifanything, I'd say maybe it's being on

(27:06):
all the time. You know.I think it's so important to be polite
and leave a good impression, andI like to try and give the best
of myself to people when I can. I think it's kind of like being
a performer, you know, whenyou're on stage, you're like, I
want to show you the best showthat I can do, and you're performing,
but it's realizing that you're performing offstage as well as on stage,

(27:30):
when you're meeting people and you're interactingout there, like, I never ever
want to leave a bad impression.It would break my heart. Some people
are so good at just being likeno, or just being more do you
know what I mean? I'm notlike that. I'm such a people pleaser
and I want to be like youknow, so I think Yeah, when

(27:53):
you're really in the thick of it, it can be you wake up and
then you're on and you've got togo, and you just got to be
on all the time, and youcan get tired. And sometimes I'll get
home and I'm just like, itwill be like this, i won't say
anything and I'll just be looking aroundand I'll just sleep. I'm like,
oh damn, So yeah, maybejust I don't think that probably comes down

(28:15):
to lack of rest time allocated.But I love people, and I love
shows and I love performing, soI think I picked the right job,
even though sometimes there are moments inevery walk of life that can be testing
and difficult at times. In itway more grateful than anything else. So
thank you again for watching my AskAnything chat with Romeo and most requested live.

(28:41):
My new song is called Genesis.It's out now. Lots of love.
Thank you. Bye,