You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
This episode contains explicit language and references to drug use.
Rae is a singer, songwriter, and producer from London.
Besides being an artist in her own right,
she's also been a songwriter for other artists since she was a teenager.
She's co-written songs for Beyonce, Charli XCX, and Ellie Goulding.
In 2023, she released her debut album.
It's called My 21st Century Blues.
The first single, Escapism, became her first song to hit number one in the UK.
It's gone platinum in the US, the UK, and seven other countries.
And it features guest vocals from 070 Shake.
When Rae was here in LA on tour, I talked to her about how she made Escapism and what inspired it.
My name is Rae.
I was with Mike Sabbath, a producer, one of my best friends.
And I was like,
we need to go to the middle of nowhere and write the rest of the songs for this album.
So getting ready, we packed Mike's car full of gear and we set off on like a drive from LA to Utah.
It was really cold and lovely.