More about: Rachel Chinouriri

After quickly establishing herself as one to watch with the release of the heartfelt single ‘So My Darling’ in 2018 and the stunning debut EP Mama’s Boy in 2019, Rachel Chinouriri is finally returning with her sophomore EP Four° In Winter. Ahead of the release this week we had the pleasure of speaking to the 22-year-old singer-songwriter about the project, her creative processes and what inspires her. 

Two years in the making, fans are not alone in having been waiting for the release of Four° In Winter. “I finished this EP and then the week when I was meant to start doing visuals was the week the pandemic happened, so it was like everything froze,” says Rachel. “All the music making process was done pretty similar to how I made my project before,” she explains, referring to a before-time when there were no restrictions on things like going to studios and working with new people. "But doing the creative process during the pandemic was pretty awful, I’m not going to lie. I think it was more the waiting that was really annoying, because obviously for the first few months of the lockdown no one was going out at all.”

Almost exactly a year later we find ourselves gradually emerging from another national lockdown and the initial hopes Rachel and her team had of releasing and promoting the EP in a world that had gone back to normal have been swapped for socially distanced music video shoots, Zoom interviews and virtual EP listening parties. “It’s been long, but as we’ve started to understand Covid we have been able to find ways to work around it. It’s just so strange because I love finishing a video shoot and giving everyone a hug and thanking everyone.”

The title of the EP, Four° In Winter - taken from the opening line of its first track - ‘Give Me A Reason’, is intended to introduce the project to the listener. “Winter is obviously cold and crispy,” Rachel explains. “I hope people will envision cold winter and hopefully that can kind of set the tone for the whole EP. The story behind what this whole project will kind of be in a way, it is quite dark, quite cold.” She goes on: “The topics that I speak about in each of the songs are quite honest to me and from personal life experiences, so hopefully it will set the tone for the whole thing.”

“This EP is definitely closer to the sound I want to be making in the future,” Rachel says. “I was more vulnerable and honest when it came to songwriting with this project and that’s why I’m really proud of it and I really love it.” When asked about what inspired her in the making, she simply says: “my inspiration was just to be as honest as possible and hopefully other people can hear the honesty and can be healed by it in ways that I have been healed by it.”

Musically, Rachel takes her inspiration from a whole set of different genres, ranging from indie rock to South African acapella music mixed with western world music. “I have always said from the beginning that an influence of mine is Daughter, their project If You Leave is incredible, and Coldplay has been an obsession of mine since I was young.” She goes on to mention the vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo as another big influence. "A very random selection, but I’ve always said that if I could mix the three of them in one, that would be my ideal sound.” 

Ladysmith Black Mambazo takes the spot at the top of Rachel’s list of dream collaborations as well, but she also mentions that she has been lucky to work with a number of people that she had been wanting to collaborate with already. While some of those songs are kept in the vaults for potential future releases, two collaborations made it to Four° In Winter – ‘Beautiful Disaster ft SAM DOTIA’ and ‘I.D.R.N ft Louis Culture’. When asked about the two songs, Rachel admits that her and SAM DOTIA didn’t think much of ‘Beautiful Disaster’ at first. “We called it ‘Beautiful Disaster’ because we didn’t know what this was, but apparently it sounded really beautiful,” she explains. “Then Louis Culture,” she goes on, “we just tried something out, kind of made random sections. His verse was so good, and he made it so quick as well. After some time we just decided to work on it and it fit really well with the whole narrative of the project and the sound and aesthetic.”

With restrictions starting to gradually ease and the prospect of gigs returning looking radiantly attractive at the end of the lockdown tunnel, we ask Rachel if she has any plans for taking Four° In Winter into the live world. Four seated and socially distanced shows at St Pancras Old Church in London on July 29 and 30 are already in the calendar, but future plans are yet to be set in stone due to the pandemic. “I cannot wait to perform,” Rachel says, “I feel like I miss loads of people.” “Mentally it’s quite hard to keep going with music when you can’t see people, everything is just done digitally, so I think when I see crowds of people and actually speak to people, I’ll start to feel a lot better,” she adds.

Having had social interactions limited to the bare minimum has also made her realise a thing or two about her songwriting. “I thought that my songs were written based off personal things that were happening with me, but I didn’t realise how much impact other people’s stories and interacting with people actually had on my writing experience.” “It’s been hard,” she says, before light-heartedly adding “hopefully as the world reopens, I will be alright.”

Before virtually saying our goodbyes, we ask if there is anything specific about the EP that Rachel wants to share before we part ways. She pauses to think for a while and then says “I want people to know that hopefully they can feel the same things that I feel when they listen to these songs, lyrically at least. Lyrically it’s definitly my most vulnerable project and I just hope that I can heal people, whatever they’re going through, with my songs… hopefully.”

Four° In Winter EP arrives 23 April via Parlophone.

More about: Rachel Chinouriri