Today, multilingual, multinational worldpop superstar-in-waiting Raissa releases her Cute Threat EP and a music video for the track “Cute Threat” here on Neon Gold Records. Born in Spain, Raissa inherited a mastery of French and Spanish from her parents and a love of songwriting from Leonard Cohen. She spent her childhood between Beijing, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, and London - as a result, she draws from a deep well of creative influences, everything from antique Gothic literature to vintage anime.
About the EP, she says: “Cute threat is about contrast and contradiction. It’s about being deceptively capable and powerful in spite of how you may be packaged. It’s relishing the fact people don’t see you coming and finding freedom in that. It’s a playful and braggadocious celebration of self”.
Listen / download Raissa - Cute Threat EP
Currently LA-based, Raissa is a unique talent whose work creates a sense of hope and the urge to fight for truth and love. She champions courage, vulnerability, and what it means to be young and enthralled by it all.
Last month, Raissa released “No Genius” featuring her close friend and collaborator Rahim Redcar aka Christine and the Queens. The collaboration is the latest in a long line of meaningful collabs and co-signs, including Mark Ronson, Mura Masa, and more. A singular pop storyteller whose honest lyrics, vibrant soundscapes, and unique visual storytelling exhibit her artistry.
About “No Genius” she adds: "Lyrically guided by a channeled frustration at our increasing alienation from each other. It doesn’t take no genius to know that those who seek to divide us are up to no good. I was channeling some frustration during a particularly difficult time in the world. I think people as a collective are smarter than we give ourselves credit for. It’s some tough love for myself and my fellow human. A reminder that it doesn’t take no genius to know that those who seek to divide us, are probably up to no good".
Raissa - Cute Threat EP - tracklist:
1. PENITA
2. NO GENIUS ft Rahim Redcar
3. CUTE THREAT
4. TODO CANTA
5. A LA MODE
6. KNIFE
Raissa bio:
A creative force unlike any other in music today, Raissa embodies the kind of bold contradictions that make for truly transcendent pop: she’s wildly inventive yet refined in musicality, sensitive yet self-possessed, fiercely intelligent yet deeply attuned to the sensory pleasures of melody and groove. Not only the outcome of her global upbringing—a journey that includes being born in Spain, then spending her childhood in Beijing, Sydney, and Kuala Lumpur—the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter/producer’s potent originality stems from her limitless imagination and eclectic mix of influences (early-millennium hip-hop, ’80s art-pop, tropicália, West African dance music, and much more). Newly signed to Neon Gold Records, Raissa is now set to deliver a new body of work affirming the depth and power of her one-of-a-kind vision.
“In the past I’ve felt frustrated with the fact that I don’t fit neatly into any type of box—I belong to so many things, but at the same I belong to nothing,” says Raissa. “Now I’m finally starting to see that as a strength, and maybe the most important thing about me as a person and an artist.”
A multilingual talent whose lyrics shift from English to Spanish to French, Raissa partly attributes her near-encyclopedic knowledge of music to her parents, who raised her on pop iconoclasts like Prince and David Bowie and songwriter/poets like Leonard Cohen—an essential catalyst for her own musical development. “When I was 12 I watched a documentary about Leonard Cohen, and he talked about how he’d started writing songs after learning to play just a few chords on guitar,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘That doesn’t sound so hard,’ and then I started writing songs too.” After teaching herself GarageBand at age 14, Raissa began self-recording and quickly amassed a sizable but entirely secret stash of songs. “At the time I was living in Malaysia and didn’t know anyone who’d even attempted to make music, so the idea of turning it into something bigger seemed impossible,” she explains. Upon heading to London for art school at 19, however, Raissa felt an overwhelming need to take her music to the next level. “I was alone in this big city and felt really low, and music became a lifeline,” she says. “I started making music with a friend just for fun, and then one day I randomly uploaded a song to SoundCloud.” By the next morning, that track had surpassed 20,000 streams—a turn of events that caught the attention of several established producers looking to collaborate, and soon found her flying out to L.A. to set her music career in motion.
Since making her debut with the tender but unapologetic 2020 single “BULLYING BOYS,” Raissa has continually turned out songs that match their exquisitely detailed and high-energy sound with lyrics that subtly transform our perception of the world—a dynamic in full effect on her new EP Cute Threat. Mainly co-produced by Raissa and her longtime creative partner Evan Voytas, her debut project for Neon Gold encompasses everything from the tongue-in-cheek swagger of its title track to the raw catharsis of “No Genius”: a galvanizing collaboration with Rahim Redcar (aka Christine and the Queens), built on gorgeously strange beats and Raissa’s hot-tempered but hypnotic outpouring of frustration. “That song came from thinking about how the most powerful entities in the world profit from creating division among the most vulnerable,” says Raissa, who refers to “No Genius” as “some tough love for myself and my fellow human."
Follow Raissa:
https://raissa.komi.io/
https://www.tiktok.com/@thisisraissa
https://www.instagram.com/thisisraissa/
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