“ There’s this thing in L’Rain world,” Taja Cheek says, “if there’s an absurd idea, usually that’s the one we’ll follow and the one that we’ll pay attention to.”
L’Rain has always been genre defiant, and that has not changed with fata morgana, which Taja Cheek calls the final chapter in a quadrilogy that started with her 2017 self-titled debut. “ I really think of these four albums as being companions to one another, and hopefully whatever I do next will feel like something else maybe. I mean, the L’rain-ness will always be there because it’s me and I can’t get rid of it.”
Cheek also notes, “L’Rain isn’t ending anytime soon, but just wanting to really kind of test the limits of what I can do and what this project can encompass.”
The collage-style found on the first three L’Rain albums is still here, but fata morgana features some of Cheek’s most arresting, fully realized songs, that range from punk (“soulless cycle”) to R&B (“birthday”) to dreampop (“elmyra”) and all points in between.
Our conversation with Taja gets into fata morgana‘s creation, the musicians who contribute, and how ice plays into its visual style. She also tells us about the pros and cons of being tagged an “experimental” musician, playing Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival this summer, playing with Tortoise in NYC, fall tour plans and more. You can listen to the whole conversation on the July 27 episode of BV Interviews, which is available wherever you get your podcasts. Listen and subscribe HERE and below.