L'Rain facts for kids

Quick facts for kids L'Rain
L'Rain in Columbus in 2022
Background information
Birth name	Taja Cheek
Origin	Brooklyn, New York; Yale University
Genres	Experimental pop
Occupations	Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, curator
Labels	Mexican Summer, Astro Nautico

Taja Cheek, known professionally as L'Rain, is an American musician. She is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator. L'Rain is best known as the lead singer and songwriter for her band, also called L'Rain. She creates experimental music that blends many different styles and traditions. Taja calls her unique way of making music "approaching songness."

Her first album, L'Rain, was released in 2017. It was featured on "best of year" lists by music websites like Pitchfork and Bandcamp Daily. Her second album, Fatigue, came out in 2021. It was named the best album of the year by The Wire magazine. L'Rain has worked with other artists like Vagabon and Helado Negro. She has also performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Early Life and Education

Taja Cheek was born and grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She lived with her mother, father, and grandparents. Her father, Wyatt Cheek, worked in music marketing. Her grandmother ran a store, and her grandfather owned a jazz club in the 1950s. Taja's mother, Lorraine C. Porter, was a teacher in Brooklyn schools. L'Rain's stage name is a tribute to her mother, who passed away before Taja's first album was released.

Taja studied ballet and modern dance at The Ailey School. She learned to play piano, cello, and Baroque recorder. In high school, she started playing bass guitar. She then formed and joined bands, including one that covered songs by the band Iron Maiden. Taja went to Yale University to study music. However, she later changed her major to American Studies. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2011. While at Yale, she was the music director for the radio station WYBC. She also helped organize concerts.

Music Career

After college, Taja moved back to New York City. She continued playing in bands in Brooklyn. In 2017, she released her first album, L'Rain, with the label Astro Nautico. Taja wrote the songs and performed vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass, and percussion on the album. Other musicians also played on the album, and Andrew Lappin helped Taja produce it. Pitchfork magazine listed L'Rain as one of the best experimental albums of 2017.

L'Rain's second album, Fatigue, was released in 2021 by Mexican Summer. The Wire magazine named Fatigue the album of the year. It also received praise from many other music outlets, including NPR. Taja sang and played many instruments on the album, including guitar, bass, and piano. Twenty other performers also contributed to Fatigue.

In August 2023, L'Rain announced her third album, I Killed Your Dog. It was released in October 2023. Taja co-produced this album with Lappin and Ben Chapoteau-Katz. L'Rain has toured with many bands, such as Black Midi (in 2021) and Animal Collective (in 2022). She also toured with Big Thief and LCD Soundsystem in 2023.

Curatorial Work and Public Programming

In 2011, Taja Cheek started working with Creative Time, an arts organization. In 2014, she helped set up a pop-up radio station in a pink Cadillac for an art exhibit. This project was a tribute to important figures in Black community arts. In the same year, Taja helped organize "The Kara Walker Experience: WE ARE HERE." This was a public gathering for people of color at the Domino Sugar Refinery for an art installation.

In 2016, Taja joined the art team at MoMA PS1, a contemporary art museum. That same year, she also started hosting experimental music events in the basement of her Brooklyn apartment. This space was called 49 Shade. At PS1, Taja helped organize the Sunday Sessions and the Warm Up concert series until 2021. The Warm Up series featured many popular artists like Cardi B, Lizzo, and Freddie Gibbs. As of 2023, Taja is the artistic director at Performance Space New York.

Musical Style

L'Rain often uses layers of her own voice in her music. She also uses sounds she has recorded from everyday life, called "field recordings." She sometimes changes these sounds so much that they are hard to recognize. Taja has said that she likes her music to be hard to put into one category. She wants to challenge ideas about how identity and art are connected. She feels it's important to control how her story is told, especially as a Black woman musician.

AllMusic describes L'Rain's music as "dreamy" and "genre-blurring." It combines elements of soul, psychedelia, gospel, and other styles. Her music often explores themes of grief, change, joy, and resistance. Pitchfork described her album Fatigue as "painterly and methodical." They noted how she blends vocal loops with percussion, strings, and synths to create a unique kind of experimental pop. Reviewers have also said her music includes influences from free jazz, ambient, noise music, disco, krautrock, and hip hop.

Even though Taja Cheek is the main person behind L'Rain, she believes her project is a team effort. She works with other musicians who are very important to the project. As of 2021, L'Rain's bandmates include Ben Chapoteau-Katz, Justin Felton, and Alwyn Robinson.

Discography

Studio albums