Interview with Indie-Folk Solo Artist Raven Shelley
By Mick Michaels
The
Cosmick View: Hello, and welcome to The
Cosmick View/MBM Ten Pounder! Thanks for taking some time to chat with
us!
Raven Shelley: Hey, thanks
for having me!
CV:
Describe your definition of your sound
and style and how does that definition uniquely describe the music?
RS: Iād say I write ethereal
and poetic alt//indie-folk songs. I have a really broad range of influences,
but the thing that links them all is good quality lyrics ā thatās something I
try and achieve too.
CV:
Today, everyone talks about artist and audience connection. Is such a level of
connection actually achievable for an artist and if so, how have you made the
connection to your fans?
RS: I think it is, though
itās probably harder the more well known you become, since youāll have more and
more fans across the globe and one to one interaction will become harder. I
tend to talk to people at my gigs quite a bit, so I think thatās a really good
way of connecting. Social media has also made things a lot easier, because you
can just chat to people who are on the other side of the world but who like
your music.
CV:
Is fan interaction an important part of your
inner culture?
RS: Itās important to me,
because I love it when people like my music. It makes me feel good that it has
meant something to someone; someone told me that āSink in Solitudeā, my debut release, made them feel at peace
with the world when they listened to it, and that was great, because it means
that someone actually felt something.
CV:
Can an artist truly interact with its fans and still maintain a level of
personal privacy without crossing the line and giving up their āpersonal spaceā
in your opinion?
RS: You could probably write
a thesis about that! I mean I think it depends how much of a private person you
are anyway. To some extent you inhabit different roles and personas in
different situations, and with different people. So if your musical/stage persona
is different to who you are in your personal life, then I donāt think you have
to give up much personal space and privacy to interact authentically with your
fans.
CV:
Is music, and its value, viewed differently around the world in your
opinion? If so, what do you see as the biggest difference in such
multiple views among various cultures?
RS: I think music is a kind
of universal language, which transcends everything, so even if you donāt
understand each otherās words, you can still understand something through
music. And the variation of musical traditions within cultures is staggering.
Itās a whole area of study in itself.
CV:
Do you feel that an artist who has an international appeal, will tend to
connect more so to American audiences? Would they be more enticed or intrigued
to see that artist over indigenous acts because of the foreign flavor?
RS: Iām not American, so I
honestly donāt knowā¦haha. If a band has international appeal, often that
includes America anywayā¦since itās so important in the musical market.
CV: Has modern-day digital technology made everyone an artist on some level in
your opinion? Have the actual lines of what really is an artist been blurred?
RS: Itās certainly made it
possible for many people to create something ā whether thatās art and whether theyāre an artist
is an entirely different question. It makes me think of Christopher Hitchens, who
purportedly said something like āEveryone has a book in them, and it most cases
thatās where it should stayā ā I do think thereās something in thatā¦haha.
I mean, in some ways, itās great that you can record a whole album in your
bedroom, and it means that thereās far fewer āmute, inglorious Miltonsā. On the
other hand, I think thereās now been a shift in what we consider to be āArtā,
so you have people claiming that an unmade bed with a load of crap strewn over
it (not that Iām thinking of anyone in particular here, of courseā¦) is equal to
ā or even better than ā a technically very good painting like Hylas and the Nymphs, or The
Raft of the Medusa. And
itās just not. That applies to music and literature too, of course.
CV: How would you describe the difference between an artist who follows trends and one who sets them?
RS: Iād say if someone is setting a trend then it suggests they donāt want to follow one which is already there, and so they may have a more unique and creative outlook on life, with more independent ideasā¦less willing to follow the herd.
CV:
Has music overall been splintered into too many sub-genres in an effort to
appease fan tastes in your opinion? And has such fan appeasements, in
actuality, weakened musicās impact as a whole by dividing audiences?
RS: I donāt think itās in an
effort to appease tastes; personally I find it quite hard to categorize music,
and Iām not really bothered about what category it is anyway, so long as I like
it. I think categorization has grown more important because of the algorithms
on streaming services, which need to know what genre stuff fits into so they
can recommend it to listeners who like similar stuff. But if the music has any
substance, then I doubt that categorizing it will weaken its impactā¦it
shouldnāt do, anyway.
CV: What can fans expect to see coming
next from you?
RS: Iāve got 4 more singles coming out in the next few
months. The next one is called āDo You Miss Me Yet?ā and itās out in September.
I wrote it when I was really angry with someone, and I thought āWhat would I
really like to say to them? I mean really, if no one was ever going to read it,
if no one could judge me for how I felt, what would I want to say?ā I had no
intention of turning it into a song initially, but once I started I just
couldnāt stop, and it kind of wrote itself. It was like word vomit! Iām very
excited for it to be released because it tends to make people laugh whenever I
play it. I was listening to a lot of Dylan at the time, songs like āPositively
4th Streetā and āSheās Your Lover Nowā, and I hope that very
Dylanesque mixture of humor and savagery comes across when I sing lines like:
āI mean how are you not bored of
yourself
Itās bad enough dealing with you as someone else
But you have to put up with you every day of your lifeā
CV:
Thanks again for taking some time and talking. It is greatly appreciated.
RS: Thanks for talking to
me!
Check out Raven at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ravenshelleymusic/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ravenshelleymusic
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/55ewiGicaCRrGNqmeLrCep?si=5c3ae96f232c409a&nd=1
YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCBHhI4jtsLHJ6zPVz5iLQiw
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.co.uk/artists/B09Z6K2KZC/raven-shelley
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ravenshelleymusic
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