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Artist Bio

Lennie Rayen is at the most explorative and prolific stage of her career yet. Following the release of her 2023 EP Believe That It’s Blue, Rayen continued to develop her voice as an artist through her live performances at festivals, including Northern Lights Festival Boréal, River & Sky, POP Montreal, and Sled Island. Now, the Canadian solo artist’s debut full-length album, Entertain the Space (hailed by Bob Boilen, Joyzine Mag, Atwood Mag, and Turn & Work), celebrates a musician blooming in full confidence. Across the album’s 10 new songs, Rayen finds the power in her voice by unfurling her heart like never before and sonically leaning into a louder, poppier indie-rock sound that sets the table for long-awaited and difficult conversations that too often get left unspoken. Recorded by Rayen and produced and mixed by her longtime collaborator cleoemo, Entertain The Space was mostly written over a two-year period as the two artists sent tracks back and forth, creating the album song by song. The productive pair make up the brunt of the credits throughout the 10 tracks, with Rayen writing and recording the songs and cleoemo shaping their production remotely.

Rayen’s debut LP Entertain the Space showcases the artist in full conversation with her inner self both lyrically and musically, as she allows the songs’ subject and emotion dictate their production. The album’s first single, “Give It Up,” hears the self-taught musician embracing a full-fledged rock sound – a major sonic step forward for an artist who’s long been determined to sculpt her work with honesty and conviction. It’s a transformation that comes to life on Entertain the Space – the most realized collection of songs Rayen has ever released. “This body of work feels like the strongest music I’ve made so far, and the first time I truly feel grounded in my sound and where I’m going creatively,” Rayen says. “It feels like a beginning.”

On “I Know What I Want,” Rayen makes the ultimate promise to herself over the top of a confident, hit-the-ground-running tempo: It’s music or nothing at all. “I’ve been making music my whole life and it’s the only thing I’ve ever truly known myself doing,” Rayen says about the definitive track. “That song is me saying out loud that I want to do music full time and quit all of my jobs.”

On Entertain the Space, Rayen shows just why she’s determined to make the commitment. Across her debut full-length, Rayen fully submits to her own vulnerability in an effort to pull out the toughest dialogues one might have – with both herself and others. On the album’s opener, “Show Me Your Feelings,” Rayen promptly sets the tone for what’s to come throughout the rest of the record, bluntly relinquishing the fear to speak what’s on her mind. She follows through on tracks like “Lean In” and “What Now,” learning to allow herself to call out both herself and those around her for the unhealthy behaviors and social shortcomings that can begin eroding human relationships. It’s all rungs on the ladder Rayen climbs to ultimately have perhaps the toughest conversation she’s been waiting to have midway through Entertain the Space, when the singer-songwriter uses her self-taught lessons in letting go lead the way on the dimly lit beauty of a song, “Blue Pill.”

“Blue Pill” finds Rayen leaning fully into her own vulnerability, coming to terms with a family member struggling with addiction and delicately detailing the impact it’s had on their relationship. “For a long time, I carried a lot of resentment, and only recently have I been able to reach a level of forgiveness — something I was able to reflect in the final chorus,” Rayen explains. “It took me five years to write, definitely the longest I’ve ever taken writing a song. I wrote the choruses just this past year, and I think the distance between writing allowed me to write from clarity rather than an emotional, irrational place. I couldn’t have written that chorus five years ago. The song needed time to gain a new perspective.” The end result sees a matured artist eloquently and directly packing her bags with tough and honest love: “I’m not gonna blame you, but I can’t stick around,” Rayen sings in their imagined talk, proving how music can provide space for things otherwise left unsaid.

By its closing track, “Right to Me,” Rayen’s debut record lifts her journey of soul-clensing self clarity to its ultimate destination as the singer-songwriter nestles into the beginning of her career – self-assured in what she’s created, honestly and confidently. “Lay it all out on the table, in case I don’t know if I’ll live to see tomorrow,” Rayen sings near the album’s closing moments, setting the table for her career by laying every bit of herself out on it.