London-based, Canadian raised artist Rhi has shared a video for the second single from her upcoming sophomore LP, The Pale Queen (out October 4 via Tru Thoughts), "Plaine Jane", prior to its release tomorrow. The follow up to lead single "Swagger", which was praised by The New York Times in their Playlist column, stating, "Electric piano chords pulse and trickle across a logy beat; Rhi's voice a smoky shrug on the supremely blasé Swagger," the track has been receiving airplay on KCRW in Los Angeles, KEXP in Seattle, along with BBC6 Music.
Pre-order The Pale Queen here.
"For this album, I wanted my bass lines to be more present and my beats to be more sophisticated," Rhi, aka Rhiannon Bouvier, says of The Pale Queen. Taking inspiration from the works of David Foster Wallace, the album pairs simmering production with hip-hop influences driven by bass heavy beats, as Rhi creates a space for herself to evolve, both lyrically and musically, exposing each track as more honest and open than the last; "A lot of the melodies and sounds are what I would call 'happy accidents'. I usually have an idea of how I'd like a track to sound, starting with a solid beat and bass line, but I tend to play around a bit until I settle on something. It's usually a bit of a 'Eureka' moment."
"Plain Jane" sees Rhi take a tongue-in-cheek look at herself, backed by her quintessential smooth beats and production style highlighting her low-maintenance mentality. Rhi explains, "A lot of artists big themselves up in their music. I decided to paint a real picture of myself instead." A refreshing change to the tendency to self-promote that can often be found within the industry, she presents herself as someone relatable and honest, as light-hearted self-deprecation blends with high quality production, creating an incredible electronic sound that never takes itself too seriously.
Shot as a contemporary 35mm film, the video for "Plain Jane" shows Rhi slowly make her way around the city of Vancouver as cars and people rapidly move around her, the grittier texture of the footage relating to the grungy images throughout the track; "For this song, I wanted to play up the feeling of being anonymous in a void, being alone despite being surrounded by people. I wanted to do this by experimenting with motion and speed."
Alongside producers like Noah Shebib, aka '40', for his part in Drake's If You're Reading This It's Too Late and Burial's emotionally intelligent and atmospheric creations, Rhi has previously cited Arca for his production on FKA Twigs' EP2as playing an instrumental part in inspiring her self-produced releases. "The music I listen to does of course influence me, especially in terms of my production," Rhi divulges. "I've been listening to a lot of alternative rap and hip-hop since my last release - particularly from the UK scene - and other styles such as chill-hop, trap and phonk as well as lots of beat and bass driven music. I try not to be too deliberate with a song, I just let it come naturally."
