Raavi & The Houseplants is a band that just keeps growing; they’ve been a rotating bill of Berklee musicians, commanded by James Duncan and 19-year-old Raavi Lucia, with a steadily growing presence in the Boston DIY scene. The band is recording their first album, a more polished follow-up to their 2018 EP, and i miss you already. The EP was a bit of a rushed effort for the band – they wanted songs out but didn’t have a plan in place. This time around they have fleshed out an established lineup. rounded out by Josef Kiefer (guitar) and Madden Klass (drums), and enlisted the help of producer Ruben Radlauer and engineer Justin Termotto, hoping to approach this album with a clearer vision, going for an “emo, math rock vibe.” The album is set to drop in October and the first single is a queer bop entitled ‘Nora.’ The track is “slightly detached from reality,” but this is a love song, one that is more about the sizzling of a fling.
Raavi’s youthful energy is endearing; she exudes excitement and enthusiasm while trying to navigate her path in life. She’s only a couple of years out of high school and has forgone the college experience for the time being to pursue music. She and James met in the city choir both were members of; he was Raavi’s primary source of encouragement to start performing publicly. James goes to Berklee and the two have tapped the college’s network to find musicians, with Raavi often feeling like “an honorary Berklee kid.” She applied to the school but decided to forgo the massive student debt since she’s already experiencing the culture from the outside and would rather not get locked into the technical. “With art, it doesn’t matter if you are trained,” she notes, preferring to let thing flow more naturally.
Despite this preference, those who accompany her bring a lot of technical ability to fill out the new songs. ‘Nora’ has a simple melodic structure but has so much going on below it, including an instrumental break that shreds. It’s genre-less in its absurd amount of musical influence, but manages to make sense in a way that isn’t commonplace. That melding of technique and intuition is a space that the band manages to navigate and does it well; they’re become a staple of the basement scene despite having four songs online.
Raavi is all too aware of the pro’s and con’s of basement gigs; she credits them with boosting her confidence but it’s starting to feel a bit monotonous. It’s a small crowd with good intentions but we agree that it’s a bit suffocating; there’s lots of women, lots of queers, but not a ton of people of color. “I’ve gained a lot of confidence, seeing people who are like me,” she notes, “POC and queer people gravitate towards each other.” Raavi is Punjabi and mixed, often feeling like she dwells in the middle of those three racial identities and connecting more with fellow mixed people than her specific racial communities. Despite feelings of disparate actions and principles, Raavi feels more active discrimination based on her gender than being a person of color or queer and says, “It’s the best time for me, people like me are who others want to see succeed.”
It’s true; Raavi’s excitement for her craft, and the growing success of her band, is infectious. She’s not quite ready to settle into Boston’s DIY scene and is working to make her next leap, despite all the comfort of home and life in a small city. In the meantime, she’s actively engaging in her own politics, fueled by lived experience, and is putting in the work to turn all of those abstract feelings into extraordinarily catchy music.
Listen to ‘Nora’ below and be on the lookout for new music from Raavi & The Houseplants in October.