Spotlight On: L’RAIN

ABOUT this week’s podcast guest + radio hour featured interview:

You’ll hear the prefix “multi” used repeatedly to describe this week’s guest. She is a gifted multi-hyphenate. A multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, composer, and performance curator, whose albums build worlds, and even multiverses. And to hear Brooklyn native Taja Cheek tell it, she was an explorer of musical worlds from the beginning. Classically trained on recorder, cello, and piano, Taja taught herself to play bass so that she could play in bands, and became part of the rock, DIY, noise, and experimental music scene in New York City. While studying music in college didn’t exactly go according to plan, she did become music director of her college radio station, which further expanded her sonic palette, and inspired her to work with loops and samples. The interplay of lo-fi and technology, and her own myriad instrumental abilities and influences lay the groundwork for a collage-like approach for her musical project, L’Rain, and she put out her self-titled debut out in 2017. Finding trusted collaborators in Andrew Lappin and Ben Chapoteau-Katz, Taja continued to construct, deconstruct, and build out her musical universe with her critically hailed sophomore album Fatigue in 2021. And now Taja Cheek is back with her bold and masterful third L’Rain album, I Killed Your Dog - another incredible journey into a multiplicity of sound, emotions and identity. I'm thrilled to welcome Taja Cheek aka L’Rain, as this week’s SHERO in the Spotlight. 

A condensed version of this interview is featured on the SHEROES Radio hour this week. Here’s what else you’ll hear:

New songs from Say She She and Little Dragon

And we celebrate some SHERO BIRTHDAYS:

• Grace Slick - 10/30

• Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow) - 10/31

• k.d lang - 11/2

Listen to the syndicated public radio SHEROES Radio hour, below: