"Steven is the sound of me holding a mirror up to and critically reflecting on who I am:
the good, the bad, the ugly. It's about trying to understand the multitudes within me." -
S. Raekwon
Steven Raekwon Reynolds performs as S. Raekwon, but his second LP is simply called
Steven. Across ten tracks of furious and subtly strumming guitars, plodding bass riffs,
and whispering revelations, S. Raekwon's newest album strips back sonic and personal
layers to present his most vulnerable, yet authentic self.
Born in Buffalo and now based in the East Village of New York City, Steven wrote,
produced, engineered, and mixed everything on the record, in addition to playing every
instrument except the drums. He packed up a rental car with all his gear and returned to
his fiancée's parents' home in Southern Illinois, where they rode out the pandemic and
where he recorded half of Where I'm at Now. The house proved to be a nontraditional
recording space, but one that provided plenty of physical space as well as spiritual room
for experimentation.
Steven and drummer Mario Malachi, longtime friends since their days at college in
Cleveland, Ohio, spent a week in July 2023 transforming the living room into a
makeshift studio, rearranging furniture, sitting face-to-face in front of a mic, and taping
songs in single takes. It was a new way of working together, with no demoing or pre-production; Mario hadn't even heard the songs before getting there, which created a sense
of spontaneity and improvisation.
Where his debut explored his past - longing for a connection to his father and the Black
side of his family and wrestling with his identity while being raised in a household by a
single, white mother - Steven looks inward. Steven is loosely structured in three parts:
Part 1 is fast and energetic, exploring the concepts of rage, anger, jealousy. Part 2 is slow
and dynamic, with themes of ugliness, disappointment, embarrassment. Part 3 is
something gentler, a moment of contentment and clarity. Steven is a portrait of
strengths and weaknesses, flaws and fulfillments.
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