NYC-based, Japanese-American artist Ray Brown performs under the moniker rei brown. The ethereal bedroom-pop singer/songwriter returns after a lengthy break with “Bubble,” a song about seclusion during our time of quarantine.
“Bubble” is a lo-fi lullaby wrapped up in an elastic bedroom-pop presentation. On his latest endeavor, brown reflects on isolation, friends, and the time and space between artistic roadblocks to reawakening his creative chi. “Bubble” has a hushed effect to it, featuring hazy vocals and a quiet yet wandering tempo. The track evokes pure nostalgia, capturing the now and then as the lines of reality and fantasy blur together. With a minimalistic approach, the emotions found on “Bubble” still run high as brown makes a triumphant homecoming for listeners to connect with during these disconcerting times.
Catching up with brown on email, he expressed this about “Bubble,” “I was having trouble making music. I had some songs I had started earlier in the year, they were happy songs. It was really difficult for me to connect to them because I honestly wasn’t happy. I missed my friends, I missed going outside. I originally wrote it just for myself, to get all these pent up emotions and frustrations out. When I was working on the older music, I had to keep silencing those thoughts inside, the ones about feeling trapped and feeling lonely. I don’t think that was very healthy. When I finally sat down and wrote bubble, it just came out naturally. I finished the song in two days. I felt stupid because all this time I had been banging my head against the wall, trying to finish these other songs, when all along I just needed to be true to myself.”
“Bubble” marks rei brown’s first release since the summer of 2018 when he released a pair of EP’s entitled Lovers I and Lovers II. He plans to release more music throughout the year.
