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Event
RAYE ZARAGOZA & HIGH TEA
Growing up as a woman, youre constantly told that your wedding will be the happiest day of your
life. Its the ultimate marker of your youth and allure, the moment youve achieved stability and have
proven that - thank god - youre desirable to a man. But as many of us know, if its lasting happiness,
fulfillment, and understanding that you really want, its usually wiser to bet on yourself.
Raye Zaragozas Hold That Spirit is an album rooted in this realization. The Los Angeles-based
singer-songwriter has always made political folk music that is informed by her identity as a woman
of mixed Indigenous, Asian and Latina heritage. She gained recognition in 2016 with In The River,
which was written to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. When she performed a Tiny Desk Concert
at NPR, she spoke and sang about making live music more economically accessible. And, she
currently writes the music for Netflix's Spirit Rangers, a show featuring an all Native American writers
room and cast.
As she approached 30 last year, Zaragoza started thinking specifically about the expectations placed
on women as they age: what they should have achieved in their careers, the nuclear families they are
expected to pursue and nurture, the way that beauty standards and ageism collude to make it more
and more difficult to be seen. 29 was also the year Zaragoza got engaged and, soon after,, ended her
relationship. After the engagement ended, she used what would have been her wedding budget to
fund part of the production of her new album. As much as it was a practical decision, it was also one
rife with symbolism: Zaragoza was investing in herself.
Theres an enduring sense of agency to these songs, which pull from buoyant indie pop like
Japanese Breakfast and contemplative folk like Joni Mitchell. On tracks like the soaring pop opener
Joy Revolution, which was a collaboration with fellow LA-based activist-artist MILCK, Zaragoza
acknowledges that a big part of achieving happiness is choosing to be happy rather than waiting for
your life to be perfect or feeling like you have to earn comfort and ease. She uses this album to claim
joy that has always rightfully been hers and to actively mold herself into her own role model. As she
says on galloping country track Sweetheart, I dont want to be a woman, crying on the floor at
night. I dont want to keep on searching for the day I feel alright.
A feminist undercurrent unifies these songs. Meditative folk ballad Strong Woman was written as a
commission for a friends daughter, but also more broadly celebrates a world led and built by
women. Not A Monster candidly addresses Zaragozas eating disorder. And Garden grapples with
all the unfair expectations placed on women as they age. Zaragoza also worked with exclusively
female collaborators on the project, a rarity in an industry where less than 5% of
production/engineering credits go to women. She feels that working with women allowed her the
emotional safety to fully process the pain of her breakup and to make honest art about her life.
Its easy for me to be vulnerable with a female collaborator even the first time I meet her, she says.
A lot of these sessions were 3 hours of us talking and therapizing before we started writing. This
album is so much about what it feels like to be a woman leaving the prime of your 20s and
processing what it means to get older, which is something which men dont experience in the same
way.
She also felt like the songwriting process was communal, less a process of telling her specific story
than one of finding ways to connect with her collaborators and share stories that resonated with all
of them. For example, she worked with fellow songwriter of Indigenous heritage Hayley McLean on
Still Here, a track about owning her culture as a woman of Akimel O'otham descent and
acknowledging how Indigenous people exist in all facets of society. The Native community in LA
has been a huge part of my life since I moved here at 14, she says. Indigenous artists arent played
on the radio or given space in mainstream publications enough, so I do what I can to be as proud as I
can and pave the way for other artists too. She hopes the sense of community she fostered while
writing these songs shines through and, in turn, helps listeners feel less alone.
Hold That Spirit is a nuanced, complicated album because it is rooted in Zaragozas specific
hardships, from her anxiety to her fraught relationship with work to her heartbreak, but it also looks
outward and finds solace in people who have a shared understanding of those experiences. By
leaning on those who make her feel seen and supported as she ventured into the world alone, she
was able to remain defiantly optimistic, and inspire us all to do the same, too.
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LocationNorth Street Cabaret (View)
610 North Street
Madison, WI 53703
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 21 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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