Artist Spotlight: Renay

Renay (née Renee) means to be reborn in French, a named that accurately describes an artist defined by a perpetual renaissance of sound, creating multi-genre music. Renay is a pop artist, singer-songwriter, producer/engineer based in the San Francisco Bay area. Her work has been compared to Sade, Gwen Stefani, Morcheeba and Massive Attack.

Renay was born to sing and write songs. Her Bolivian/Dutch roots can be heard in her unique sound. She writes daily, feeling blessed with the gift to channel voices which would otherwise go unheard, through her music. Her first memories are of singing and she began writing songs at age twelve. Learning guitar to express her musical thoughts and her inner adolescent workings, Renay was very sensitive to stark social inequalities that she was exposed to at an early age. She first dove deep into her studies with the felt sense that she had to do something more in the world with her privilege perspective. While pursuing a career in research and international fieldwork, she continued to write, produce and record her own music, marking the beginning of Renay’s transition to dedicating her life to music production and songwriting.

Renay has developed a bilingual repertoire, crossing Latin, reggae and alternative rock rhythms. Fascinated by the process of production and empowered with detail oriented technical skills, she acquired the skills needed to take a song from initial composition through to the final mix. In 2016, Renay left her academic career to fully pursue her passion for writing and producing music. She has since collaborated with artists worldwide including San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia. Her song “Once Again”, featuring rapper Rahman Jamaal from Redwood City, CA, won Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, World Category.

Renay was recruited by Cre-8 Music Academy in West Hollywood where she attended the Music for Commerce Production bootcamp. This experience was a game changer for her, and has taken her productions to another level with a focus on writing great pop songs. As a marker of this stylistic transition, Renee has been reborn as Renay.

Follow Renay’s journey

http://www.renaymusic.com/

http://www.facebook.com/renaymusic

http://www.youtube.com/renaymusic

 

Photographer Credit: Kerim Knight