As people practice social distancing, many feel bored at home. While quarantining, 18-year-old Canadian artist Rayne created her song “Bored” to journal her feelings during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Rayne took a spot on Amazon Music’s 2020 Artists to Watch and has been included in many playlists, such as Apple Music’s Breaking Pop and Spotify favorites like Digster Canada’s ‘New Pop Hits,’ ‘Good Night Music,’ Pop Sounds,’ ‘Pop Crave’ and ‘All Pop,’ Variation Nations ‘Popular Pop,’ The Drunken Coconut ‘Good Vibes,’ ‘Pop Hits’ and Global Music’s ‘Rising Stars.’

Some of the artist’s past performances include opening for Billie Eilish last summer and opening for Tyler Shaw. She also appeared at The Calgary Stampede, Rockin’ River Fest, Surrey Canada Day and The Sun Peaks Summer Festival.

Rayne is also a skillful songwriter who has multiple cuts to her name and the youngest artist ever to attend The Songwriters Association of Canada camp this year.

Rayne’s profound passion for music began when she was young.

“I would sing opera in kindergarten and annoy all of my classmates as well as play karaoke games on my Wii. That all somehow evolved to singing and writing my own songs,” Rayne said.

She continued, “I think my obsession with Hannah Montana when I was five or six really inspired me to get passionate about music and gave baby Rayne a goal to strive for.”

The singer listened to an incredibly eclectic variety of music growing up. She went through a large chunk of time where she would only sing Adele songs — a phase that inspired some of her vocal inflection. 

She said that some people started comparing her style to Florence Welch’s from Florence + The Machine, despite the fact that she never really listened to her music. Right now, Rayne has been taking inspiration from a lot of pop and alt-pop artists including Dua Lipa, Rina Sawayama and Billie Eilish.

The idea for her track “Bored” emerged when the artist was disinterested and uninspired for a week. Instead of doing nothing, she wrote the track while quarantining.

“I knew I wanted to write a song called ‘Bored.’ I just couldn’t figure out how exactly to do that. As soon as I pitched the idea to Brian, who was one of the co-writers, he was into it, and then the first line just came to me,” she said. 

Rayne wants people to move around a bit and to not think about the track too hard after listening to it the first time.

“That’s how I try to listen to new music — by getting a feel for the beat and melodies before listening to the words,” the singer mentioned. “I’m a person who gets excited about new music, so I’d like them to feel as excited as I did when I first heard the song in its entirety.”

Rayne’s favorite line is, “stuck inside this cycle sick of saying that we’ll change.” 

The artist pointed out that “[t]he ‘s’ consonance is any producer’s nightmare to mix (and Ryan, our producer, joked about changing it a LOT), but I think it adds a bit of fun weirdness to the pre-chorus.” 

The line really captures the story she is trying to tell in a concise way, without being too on the nose. Rayne later talked about the song’s connection with the current generation. 

“I think that everyone can relate to being bored, especially now. Whether it’s of a relationship, being quarantined or social media, we’re all feeling some sense of apathy towards certain parts of our lives,” she said.

She has noticed that her generation has a different relationship with boredom. Even with all the information and stimuli in the world at their fingertips, they sometimes get bored of it and need to turn it off.

“Bored” reveals Rayne’s feelings of being in a repetitive relationship that has no progress. In the bridge, the lyrics flip to express a sense of loneliness and discontent with finally being done with the person for good.

“We wanted something dark and edgier to contrast with the nursery rhyme-ish melody of the chorus and hook. It’s fun to write a song that seems a bit at odds with itself,” the artist said.

With her catchy tunes and vivid stage presence, Rayne sees herself touring in five years. She hopes to perform her music live and establish herself as a writer for other artists.

“Playing pre-show at Billie Eilish’s concert was completely unforgettable. Something I remember even more than my performance was a group of girls who were so supportive and funny,” she said. “They were singing along to my songs they’d never heard before, dancing like crazy and cheered super loud in between each song.”

She had been so nervous before that show, but their enthusiasm gave her such a boost in confidence. 

Rayne concluded with a message to her fans: “You shouldn’t take things for granted. Sometimes you think you’re better off without a person only to realize they’re the best thing you have.” 

Contact Ron Rocky Coloma at rcoloma ‘at’ stanford.edu.