INTERVIEW: Rae Isla Knows It Takes a Strong Woman to Make a Good Man
In our interview, Rae Isla talks her songwriting process and how being queer is a leg up in the songwriting world.
Rae Isla doesn't know a stage in New York that she hasn't played on. A determined troubadour, Isla is an artist who fully knows herself. That's certainly the case on her moving new single "Years Beers Her Tears." In the song, Isla subverts classic country tropes to make a queer country classic: a tale of pain and redemption and, of course, beer. In our interview, Isla talks her songwriting process and how being queer is a leg up in the songwriting world.
Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?
You'll have more life experience than you could ever write about, so the best thing you can do is take a little bit of time out of each day to try and capture it. Even if it's just 5 minutes of noodling on guitar and ad libbing lyrics. Hit record on your phone and see what comes out. It might end up turning into your best song one day.
What are some of the best venues you've played? Why?
Community-run or non profit venues all the way. By design, those spaces are set up to best serve the community and they aren't out to make an extra buck at the expense of working artists. No merch cuts or pay-to-play type of stuff. We're organizing a tour for August that's going to be mostly these types of venues.
How do you feel your queer identity ties into your performance style or music?
I think being queer as a songwriter gives you a leg up! I understand deeply how women think, how men think, and how people in between think because I've felt like all of those identities at one point in my life. Being queer just means you see things from perspectives that heteronormative people don't.
What would you like to say to people who are currently questioning their identities?
The point of life is to "live in the question", not to doubt it or shame yourself, but to be open to constantly changing and becoming who you truly are.
Have you ever been given something remarkable by a fan?
Many fans have brought me rocks, which I adore. But one of the coolest things was a fan named Rosa in LA created these beautiful rainbow cut-outs and secretly handed them to audience members to hold up while I played my song "Miles and Miles". It almost made me stop the song to cry with joy.
