INTERVIEW + LIVE PHOTOS: Edwin Raphael 2023

Photo by: Madi Jones

How do you anchor yourself when occupying multiple geographic identities at once? For Edwin Raphael, the Dubai-born, Montreal-based songwriter, it requires an intentional and intensive form of world-building. By developing an unmistakable style of folk that merges Eastern scales with the Western pop canon, Raphael reimagines his music as an exploratory tool that allows him to construct an interior and sacred home to retreat into.

Our writer Madi Jones dives into an interview with Edwin Raphael talking “Warm Terracotta,” before Edwin’s Oklahoma City, Oklahoma stop 8/28.

While listening to “Warm Terracotta” a sense of relief can be felt if you allow yourself to enter that entranced state… What message do you want people to take away from that feeling?  

For me the album definitely represents this sacred space that I can find myself again and again  whenever I need to. It’s kind of like I’m in this specific state. What can I do to rewire myself, if you  will. That record can do that for me. That was my main intention with writing that album. It’s a space  for you to think about those things you weren’t thinking about or the things you were trying to push  away or discover a total new side of you, ya know. It’s a big arch of self realization for me. This is a  big covid/pandemic album. That’s how I envisioned the whole record. People try to get away from  things, but the way they get away from things are through social media and the internet. Which is  such a strange escape verses 60-100 years ago. How different it was when art was supposed to be that  escape. It was also the connecting of that. How could this record be kind of anti internet, in a way?  We could still make you escape, but not in the way that everyone is trying to go for a fix.  

You weave electronic and acoustic instrumentation together so beautifully. It creates a sense of warmth through an atmospheric scope. When did these elements start to filter together in your music?  

It is a bit of a newer territory for me. When I started off my first couple records were definitely a bit  more acoustic, a bit more raw, singer-songwriter. This one is kind of “oh, he’s in the deep end.” For  me it was more of a very natural sort of learning pattern. I kind of always envisioned a lot of  electronic, and a very rich soundscape where it’s super lush. Not necessarily that there are a lot of  things going on, it’s just like everything has its own space…its own time. Each little thing tickles  your brain in a different way is kind of what I want all the time with music. It’s like oh, I’ve never felt  this sort of fuzziness around my brain before. How is this achieved through sound? And so with a lot  of research of how can we incorporate this acoustic thing, and what kind of sound would work so well  with that. In that space where we can kind of call and response. Kind of trade off between each other.  At the core of it it’s just a very simple song. There’s all this rich instrumentation mimicking almost  like a natural landscape in a way. It’s like when we have a conversation there’s actually so many other  things happening behind us, and it adds to it. I look at it in that sort of way where we have the actual  essence of the song, and then I want all these other things to flutter in and out. At the same time no  one gets too distracted…it just adds to the conversation. The cool thing about learning music is that  you’re always learning and trying and always growing. You never actually figure it out. That’s the  main essence of making music. If you feel like you’ve gone past that then okay…you need to rewire  yourself. Maybe listen to the album! There are a lot of field recordings. There’s a lot of birds, valleys,  rivers, waterfalls, thunderstorms. There’s a lot of that. I love when I hear that in a song and thought I  should do that! 

There can be different approaches while creating. With this last album did you have a specific process  in bringing these ideas to life? And how did you communicate that with the band?  

It was a bit unorthodox in the way that it was created because the previous record we were recording  in a recording studio or a bedroom. Whereas this album was written at very random locations. I took  off with my guitar and bass player and would go to very unique, random spaces and bring a couple  things to write and record and we would record it in a very random spot. For example we recorded a  couple songs on a boat house. We were in the middle of the lake sort of floating around for two days.  The boat was rocking the whole time. There is a bit of a sway to some of the songs. A very natural  sway because we were on the boat. I think it was really cool with this project because a lot of it was in  nature, and it brought that out. There’s those random elements of “oh, why does this song feel like  I’m sedated right now? Why do I feel like I’m swaying right now?” We wrote it on boat actually! 

What are some artists you listen to that helped shape this album?

I think over time during this record I was listening to a lot of classical Indian music. There is a bit of  these scales that are not very common within western music. There are some notes that we go to  where that’s not what we would have gone to, but let’s go there. I was super excited to kind of mesh  those two worlds together. My parents, they’re from India too. I had this big background history from  there, but I don’t feel super close to it because I never grew up there. Refer to track 13, “Homesick for  the Place I Don’t Even Know.” I was trying to mesh all these worlds that I’ve found myself in, and  also try to be grounded at the same time and find my own place. I’m a big Ben Howard fan. More  recent is Nick Hakin. He’s a bit more electronic and R&Bish, but it’s a specific vibe. Very unique and  very very good.  

From an instrumental standpoint what’s your favorite song to play live? 

I do love the song we play off the new record called Purple Inside. It’s a bit darker and super hypnotic  in a way ‘cause there’s this chime that plays the whole time. We’re kind of swaying and the whole  crowd ends up swaying with us. It’s super cool ‘cause we’re all very much in sync. It’s like this big  rush during the finale of that. It’s a cool one. If you experience that you’ll see and feel it.  

From an emotional standpoint what’s your favorite to play? 

The first song, “& She Drinks Tea Just for the Company” It’s very much a grounding song with the  first 40 seconds of me being like oh my god, what am I doing?! Why am I on stage?! Then I’m like  okay, yeah…I’m here for a reason. There’s a purpose. People are here to listen, and I’m doing it for  them. There’s that whole 40 seconds where I’m like okay, okay, okay! I think that’s a cool moment. It always feels good because I know that the show is not for me. It’s for the people that came to see this  and I gotta make it special for them. Because it can get repetitive…I need to have that special  holding. I love playing these songs, and I don’t care about playing them over and over again. You do  get those moments in between tour where you’re tired and know you have to play a show tonight. It’s  like what is the main purpose and drive? You’re doing this for these people who have never been to a  show of yours before. They’re going to hear these special tracks we made in these special moments in  our lives, and they’re gonna discover this garden we’ve been cultivating for a little bit of time. It’s  special so let’s do it for them. Just having that intention is awesome. 

Interview + Photos by Madi Jones