How Ravyn Lenae Used Her Imagination to Travel Back in Time on Her New Album ‘Bird’s Eye’

When Ravyn Lenae looks back at her childhood, there’s one image in particular that stands out to her. In it, she’s 12 years old and rocking a tutu skirt from Hot Topic on top of her jeans. It was a different time — before too many perceptions and opinions got in the way of her self-expression. In a new video interview with Rolling Stone, the musician details the creative process behind her new album Bird’s Eye, which allowed her to return to that state of freedom by taking her back to her roots.

“There’s a part of me that has returned to my first feelings and first flutters about music and about being creative. And that’s down to maybe the way I express myself with clothes, with my hair, with music. Really embracing all of my influences was important for me during this time,” Lenae explains. “There’s something so fun about returning to that stage of following your impulse and not really questioning it. A lot of the songs came from that and not being scared to break rules or feel young in that way.”

The singer-songwriter was born and raised in Chicago, where she was shaped by the city just as much as she was influenced by her family. While creating Bird’s Eye, she started to examine more closely how those experiences shaped her decision-making process and life journey.

“I think it was important for me to retrace my steps, go home, and really think about the moments in my childhood, in my teenage hood, that made me who I am, and solidified early stages of me identifying myself,” Lenae says. “A lot of the music focuses on family relationships, personal growth, me turning 25 and being unsure about my position in the world, but looking at all of this in the lens of my journey being beautiful, with the mistakes, with the stumbles, and with the triumphant moments.”

One of the most pivotal stops for Lenae along the way was the love she developed for Janet Jackson. She cites the artist as one of her biggest influences and sees that emerge most proudly in “Dream Girl,” the second single from Bird’s Eye. “It scratches all parts of my brain and touches on a lot of the music I grew up listening to,” she notes. “Having a song that reminds me of that world is everything I’ve ever wanted.” Taking it one step further, Lenae also had the honor of getting music legend Jimmy Jam to perform on the record: “That’ll forever be a memorable moment for me.”

Bird’s Eye spans 11 songs across less than 40 minutes. Within that time, Lenae worked on lowering her guard as an over-thinker. Rather than harping on the tiniest of details and questioning right from wrong, she moved with the flow of the creative process. She credits her executive producer, Dahi, with bringing this impulsive side out of her. “I think with every project, I learned a little bit more about what I like, what I dislike, what I need to feel,” she says. With her debut album, Hypons (2022), there was a slight overflow of outside opinions guiding her own. She managed to shut them out this time around.

“I think Hypnos and Bird’s Eye are sisters. Bird’s Eye is a more rambunctious sister who just kind of does what she wants, whenever she wants to. Hypnos is more subdued, more quiet,” Lenae explains. “I think I had to push past those boundaries of placing rules on Hypnos. I think because I had no other choice. If I wanted to continue to grow and to explore new parts of myself and new parts of music, I really had no other choice but to kind of alleviate myself of these pressures and expectations. Otherwise, I don’t think I would have an album right now.”