Bio

R E L is 20-some years old, 3 years young. Describing her music as EVOCA-POP, R E L  envelopes music and melody with feeling - a sensory experience... love, light and magic. 

Chicago born/LA based singer-songwriter, R E L, released a crowd-funded debut EP in 2015 called R.E.L., which garnered notable praise from music bloggers, industry and fans. The young, independent artist has amassed over 20 million streams across platforms. 

Always with her reliably potent voice, R E L’s music has been described as dreamy, sultry, innovative, gorgeously spirited, soulful, intuitive, rhythmic, ethereal, electro, colorful & brimming with emotion. R E L describes her music as EVOCA-POP – a genre the young singer-songwriter created in 2016, derived from “evocative” and “pop”... music that makes you think and feel

Her music has been featured in Wonderland, Ones to Watch, Atwood, EARMILK, The 405, LADYGUNN, The Line of Best Fit, Popdust, Huffington Post, Killing Moon, Hilly Dilly, and B3Sci & has been played on KCRW & MTV Iggy, among other outlets & stations. 

The young artist has headlined and performed at high profile venues and industry showcases throughout Los Angeles including Chris Douridas (KCRW) & MFG’s School Night, BMI Acoustic LoungeWFNM at Madame Siam, The Echo, The Peppermint Club, Zebulon, Resident, The Hotel Cafe, NiteLight, SoFar Sounds, Balcony TV, Hunnypot Live, Writer’s Block and Echo Park Rising.   

Her collaborations include tracks w/ Robot Koch, Commandeur, Tamtam, Jynjo & DUEFUNK. She's played shows w/ Dawn Richard, Gordi, QUIÑ, Z Berg, Madison Mcferrin, Chloe Lilac, Allie Crow Buckley, Sedona, LeyeT, Pearl Charles, Nick Dorian, YAS, h2the, Geneva White, Lauren Ruth Ward, FLAVIA, Xkylar, Felly, Kosha Dillz & more. 

R E L's current project is a 3-side visual album, EVOCAPOP. Singles from Side A premiered via Earmilk, the 405, Line of Best Fit and PopDust and the first music video premiered via LADYGUNN magazine. EVOCAPOP Side A came out March 22. Her most recent release is "Placebo," the first single from Side B.  

R E L explains, "Music has the power to heal. I developed anorexia at a very young age (7). It permeated my life through my early twenties. I felt like I needed to try to control the chaos around me - some weird survival mechanism of ‘if I’m what society deems perfect, I’ll survive, I’ll have love.’ Side A took shape around 3 symbols I saw as my biggest obstacles - a tornado, a corset and a blue heart. My friend led a self-love workshop a few years ago and there was a healer who did a really powerful meditation. He got to a part where he said we would visualize the 3 biggest obstacles in our lives - mine were the corset, the blue heart and the tornado. The symbols were what I built my story for Side A around. I actually wrote a short film script which I intend to make in full! The video for Nanagrams is the first scene. These symbols to me represent the chaos of the world and of life (of my life) which I tried to control, by wearing a corset (a symbol of societally standardized beauty, my struggle with eating disorders and dysmorphia). Wearing a corset cuts off your breath and in turn you get a blue heart. A blue heart represents many things - sadness, coldness, disconnect, royalty, water... Side A is about the first stage of healing – facing the problem, hitting a low, realizing the darkness or fog surrounding you - that you’ve been hurting yourself. I developed the EVOCAPOP project in three “sides”, so I can address each phase of healing as its own story & as part of a bigger story. Self love is the first step towards happiness, towards peace. 

Side B is a bit more intimate and emotionally raw. It’s the love piece of healing - waking up and surrendering to heart. Self loving means seeing yourself “naked” and accepting yourself for your imperfections. When you can accept yourself you can truly act from love, as opposed to fear…” 

R E L invented her own genre because she believes categories force something (and someone) into a mold. No one fits a mold exactly, it can be dangerous to try or to think you’re supposed to. “I grew up in the suburbs, where we tried so hard to fit the molds. We hurt ourselves, hated ourselves, f*cked ourselves over. I did it for a long time. It hurt...and it doesn't just exist in suburbs. We do it everywhere. Music is medicine. It’s powerful. Love heals, melody carries, lyrics speak the heart.  

Music is an instrument for peace.  

Thank you for listening & stay tuned.