Erin Rae's tour supporting Julia Jacklin starts next week
27-10-2022Three years after the release of her critically acclaimed debut, Putting On Airs, Nashville-raised singer-songwriter Erin Rae shares an intimate, honest, and playful version of herself through her sophomore album Lighten Up. Produced by Jonathan Wilson, and recorded in the musically hallowed grounds of California’s Topanga Canyon, the album represents a sonic and inner shift for Rae. In it, she embraces more of her influences, like baroque-pop, cosmic country, and indie-folk songs while mirroring a more compassionate self-view she calls “accepting my humanness”.
Just recently she released a special version of Rich Man from the album, a B-side from Lighten Up. Erin Rae about the song: "Rich Man was written as a way of taking ownership over my lack of emotional availability in relationships. I was afraid to know myself fully, and was that much more afraid for another person to know me. This is a lament for that way of operating."
Although she grew up in a musically oriented family, Rae’s pursuit of music happened by accident. After being gifted a Martin acoustic guitar on her 18th birthday, Rae decided to drop out of college after just one semester. Her goal at the time had little to do with making music into a career, and everything to do with spending more time and energy with the community of musicians and writers she knew back home. Looking back on those days, she recalls the initial high of playing live at an open mic during winter break and realizing, “this is how I connect with people. I have to pursue this.”
Lighten Up showcases a new level of personal growth for Rae, and invites listeners to share in the results of her work towards self-acceptance. “My last record was a lot of self-assessment and criticism, and trying to kick old habits and ways of relating to people,” Rae acknowledges. “This one is about blossoming, opening up, and living a little more in the present moment. Accepting what it is to be human.”
With Lighten Up, Rae hopes to give listeners the opportunity to borrow what she’s learned, that there can be a lightness when things feel heavy and that even our darkest corners can allow us to shine. “I hope this record encourages people to be a little softer towards themselves.” Rae shares. “If [Lighten Up] gives people listening the space to feel more tender towards themselves and move in the world from that place, that would be the dream for me.”
Erin Rae will be on tour supporting Julia Jacklin starting next week:
03/11: Dublin, IRL - Vicar Street
05/11: Glasgow, UK - SWG3 Studio Warehouse
06/11: Manchester, UK - O2 Ritz
07/11: Birmingham, UK - The Mill
09/11: Bristol, UK - SWX
10/11: Brighton, UK - CHALK
11/11: London, UK - Roundhouse
12/11: London, UK - Third Man (headline)
13/11: Paris, FR - Café de la Danse
14/11: Antwerp, BE - Trix
15/11: Cologne, DE - Gebäude 9
17/11: Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
18/11: Hamburg, DE - Knust
20/11: Oslo, NO - Parkteatret
21/11: Stockholm, SWE - Slaktkyrkan
22/11: Copenhagen, DK - DR Studie 2
24/11: Berlin, DE - Columbia Theatre
25/11: Munich, DE - Strom
26/11: Zürich, CH - Plaza
27/11: Milan, IT - Circola Magnolia
29/11: Barcelona, ESP - La Apolo
30/11: Madrid, ESP - MON Live
01/12: Lisbon, PT - LAV