London-born singer/songwriter
Rachel Chinouriri brings an indie sensibility to her experimental electronic pop with dark, vulnerable lyrics, as heard on her 2021 debut mini-album
Four Degrees in Winter and 2022 single "All I Ever Asked."
Chinouriri was born into a large family who had emigrated from Zimbabwe and settled in Croydon, South London shortly before she was born. Brought up with strict, traditional, conservative African values, she was forbidden from listening to secular music at home but nevertheless discovered artists like
Coldplay,
Daughter, and
Lily Allen, who formed the basis of her own style alongside African acts like
Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Learning to play acoustic guitar, she developed a uniquely personal indie-folk sound. In 2016, at the age of 17, she self-recorded a few lo-fi demos on her mom's laptop with a cheap microphone, and posted them online as the Bedroom Tales EP. The songs combined folky, finger-picked acoustic guitar and basic programmed beats with her smoky, soulful voice and surprisingly mature, dark subject matter. It attracted a lot of attention on music blogs. Enrolling at the famous BRIT School, she studied musical theater in order to grow as a performer (and bypass songwriting theory classes), and continued to record her own music. Her popularity grew, and she signed a management deal, worked with various producers, and was featured on several singles, including
Preditah's "Animals." In 2020,
Chinouriri signed to Parlophone, which released her debut mini-album,
Four Degrees in Winter, the following year. It has a fluttering, electronic- and hip-hop-influenced experimental pop sound, while the lyrics take a dark and vulnerable tone. Early 2022 saw the release of the dreamy single "All I Ever Asked." ~ John D. Buchanan