Paige Rosoff, Photo Provided
Ravenna Golden
Ravenna Golden started out as a visual artist, pursuing art classes while in school. But during a project that required an audio component, she was inspired to show her friend Dylan Brady a voice memo of a song she had worked on herself.
“He was like, ‘No, you need to do this,’” Golden says. “It was the first time I kind of realized I could be a performer and not just a visual artist. I’d always known I was an artist, and it just kind of blossomed from there.”
That blossoming continues with the St. Louis native and hyperpop vocalist's video for her new single, “Expensive City,” out today.
Golden has been working in the shadows of the music industry since 2016, exploring the unique trends of the hyperpop genre. Golden says a lot of what people consider hyperpop consists of music with high pitch vocals, distorted synth, and “chaotic and youthful energy,” which are all characteristics of her music she said she feels she has exemplified for years.
“I feel like I've been doing it before there was even a word for it, you know what I mean?” Golden says. “I try not to feel any sort of way about what that genre is and just let my music define it, because I see myself as a pioneer of the genre.”
Through collaborations with Brady, who is also a member of hyperpop duo 100 Gecs, Golden has kickstarted her musical career and recently signed to Big Beat Records, an American electronic and dance music record label owned by Warner Music Group and operated through Atlantic Records.
“I guess jumping in was pretty easy because, back then, it was when SoundCloud was still kind of bigger than Spotify for emerging artists, and it was just something I did with my friends for a long time,” Golden says. “It wasn't until I moved out to L.A. that I started to figure out what it meant to be an artist. It's all about connecting with producers and other singers and writers and videographers that you like. It's your whole life. It's hard to think about what you're doing because it just becomes your entire world in the blink of an eye.”
Since entering the music scene, Golden has released a handful of singles and her debut album, Girl Gone Wild, which came out in 2015. Her single “R U JOKING,” produced by Brady, officially launched her into the spotlight. Golden now has nearly 96,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Golden describes her writing style as “very raw and from the heart.” She pieces together different parts of what she has written after the fact without having “a whole theme behind it,” which she says makes her different from other artists.
“I know that's a big thing that a lot of people are doing right now is creating a theme and a story for their album, but I just write from the heart, and it speaks to people how it's going to speak to people,” Golden says. “I kind of let people draw their own conclusions. Sometimes, I'll go back through and analyze what I meant when I said something, but I just like to do stuff that looks and sounds cool, throw it together, and call it a day.”
When it comes to her new single, “Expensive City,” Golden says she hopes to get a reaction out of people who have experienced a situation similar to the story her lyrics tell—growing up and figuring out life is harder than they thought.
Golden's new video is one full of energy and excitement. Sporting a colorful striped jacket to match her flaming orange hair, she sings in front of a cloud backdrop with dancers aggressively whipping their hair to the beat. Each one wears expressive clothing and a face covered in makeup, not unlike that of a clown, as Golden sings in the middle of all of their activity.
“Anyone who's ever tried to pursue a career in a creative path, I think [the song] will resonate with them,” she says. “Even people who are still where they grew up and where they started…One of the lines is essentially saying there's all of these like pretty girls out here, they’re so much prettier than me, and this feeling of comparing yourself to everyone. But it's still an upbeat, fast-paced song, so it's like fun complaining.”
While some of Golden’s favorite memories in the music industry include being on video shoots and being with her friends, she said the most impactful memories she has made as a musician have come from being on stage performing.
“I played some shows in New York, and they were full,” Golden says. “Everyone was in there jumping around. They knew the words, and there were like 200 people in there. It was so cool. I just love getting out there and showing it to everyone.”
Golden hopes to continue performing shows like those in New York and make music her full-time gig, collaborating with friends and other musicians and producers. “I want to just continue doing what I'm doing,” says Golden, “on a larger scale and a higher budget.”
