Jordan Rakei - A Safe Place To Be Wild Biog
Jordan Rakei is feeling more free than ever before. A decade since the release of his debut album Cloak, the New Zealand-born and British-based singer-songwriter is entering a new chapter of unfettered creativity. Channeling the liberating bedroom beat-making mentality of his teenage years, he brings listeners his most expansive and vulnerable album yet, A Safe Place To Be Wild. “I’ve been creating with no rules, just exploring and leaning into the uncomfortable side of the unknown,” he says. “This record is unfiltered and it expresses all of me. I’m always pushing myself as an artist and now it’s birthed a new phase that’s borderline unhinged.”
A self-confessed “accommodating people pleaser,” Rakei embodies a new energy on A Safe Place To Be Wild. “There’s songs on here written from these perspectives of being badass and uncompromising, or alternatively very silly. These are all parts of me that the public never sees,” he says. “Since every album I write has a new sound and outlook, it only felt natural to go deeper with this one, even though it can feel a little scary being so open to the world.”
Over the past 10 years, multi-instrumentalist and producer Rakei has built a loyal global fanbase thanks to his distinctively searching musical voice. Across six albums he has delved into everything from neo-soul warmth to jazz-influenced improvisation, earworming pop melodics, sweeping orchestral arrangements and storytelling songwriting. Collaborating with the likes of South London rapper Loyle Carner, singer-songwriter Tom Misch and producer Bonobo, Rakei has been nominated for Best Album at the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards following the release of his acclaimed fifth record, The Loop, as well as receiving a nomination for an AIR Award and the Australian Music Prize. Onstage, meanwhile, his joyous and masterfully-arranged live shows have had crowds bouncing everywhere from Glastonbury to two sold-out performances at the Royal Albert Hall.
Seemingly at the peak of his prolific career to date, Rakei now takes a radical turn. Rather than painstakingly collaborating in recording studios and poring over the post-production process, on his seventh album he takes a no-holds-barred approach. Informed by a year spent as the first resident at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios and inspired by the creation of his own home studio just outside of London, Rakei set to work on a new, instinctive process that followed the urge for freedom, experimentation and truth-telling vulnerability. The result is 14 tracks of remarkably wide-ranging yet engagingly cohesive music; songs that speak to Rakei’s recent experiences of fatherhood, love and life, as well as expressing his hopes and fears for the world at large. There is the playful falsetto funk of “Would Ya Mind”, the eerie, cavernous electronics of “Mirror”, cinematic strings and orchestral melodrama of “Bombs” and ‘70s throwback psych-soul of “Enemies” – all tied together by Rakei’s ear for lasting melody and anchored in the soft vibrato of his voice.
“I used to have stresses in my career about validation or expectations but since I’ve had children and reached new heights with the Royal Albert Hall shows, I set new goals,” he says. “It feels like Chapter II of my career, where I’m drawing on all aspects of myself in my songwriting without fear or judgement. I’m back to being 13, making beats in my bedroom for fun and for the love of it all. It’s not about caring what other people think.”
Born in New Zealand before moving to Australia at the age of three, Rakei grew up enamoured by the soulful sounds of Stevie Wonder as much as J Dilla’s beat-making swing. A keen rugby, chess and ping pong player, he would spend his spare time after school and between shifts at the local supermarket uploading YouTube covers and crafting his own intricate beats. By 2014 he had begun forming his distinct sound with the release of his self-produced debut EPs, Franklin’s Room and Groove Curse. A local fanbase soon sprung up and in 2015 he made the move halfway across the world to London.
Hitting the ground running in the English capital, Rakei soon became part of a DIY crew of influential South London producers and artists including Misch, Carner, rapper Barney Artist and pianist Alfa Mist. He began writing sessions with a range of artists in the city, earning a GRAMMY nod for his work on the electronic duo Disclosure’s 2015 track “Masterpiece”, and by 2016 his debut album Cloak had brought him to the attention of listeners who were taken by his distinct blend of hip-hop swing, jazz virtuosity and R&B intimacy.
In the decade since, Rakei has refused to slow down. Following records, 2017’s Wallflower, 2019’s Origin, 2021’s What We Call Life and 2024’s The Loop, have touched on everything from Joni Mitchell’s storytelling introspection to Donald Byrd’s funk fusion, while his two EPs and an album under the Dan Kye moniker have explored his dancefloor influences and his 2026 EP Between Us saw him joining forces with the likes of singer-songwriter Jalen Ngonda, JUNGLE’s Tom McFarland, Ezra Collective’s Femi Koleoso, saxophonist Nubya Garcia and producer FKJ for a selection of intuitive collaborations each created at Abbey Road. That newfound process would prove vital for the creation of A Safe Place To Be Wild.
“I used Abbey Road as a canvas to throw ideas at, which meant I started heading into the smaller rooms in the complex to make demos off the grid with no headphones,” he says. “One day I would make something post-punk, another day I would mess around with techno, another would be pop. I was developing songs with a free energy, allowing for rawness and grittiness and I ended up with 50 ideas that were distilled into 20 that we recorded over two weeks. This album is just 14 tracks from that period.”
Taking these demos back to his home studio – the place where Rakei feels “most safe and free to play and explore” – he built up and broke down the tracks into their final form. The resulting compositions ended up surprising even Rakei himself owing to their open-ended sense of exploration. The sprightly, group chorus energy of “Would Ya Mind” embraced the avant-silliness of David Byrne, for instance, while “Mirror” explores Rakei’s Bjork and glitchy Autechre influences with its dark electronica, “Enemies” dips into the raw ‘70s synth explorations of Sly and the Family Stone and “Bombs” channels John Barry in its swirling, romantic strings.
Lyrically, meanwhile, Rakei employed a “journal-like expression, pouring personal thoughts and unfiltered feelings into each track.” Consequently, songs like “Grace” and “Enemies” embody a pugnacious, uninhibited persona Rakei would otherwise not reveal to the world, while “Games” is a diaristic entry on the trials of love, “Paradise” tells the deeply personal story of the love Rakei has for his brothers, and “Bombs” is a testament to the power of partnership in the face of the world’s chaos. “I want people to feel the different moods throughout this album,” he says. “I’m speaking about my family, my love, my own insecurities. There’s variety from stepping into the volatility of life and it’s all brought together through my experiences.”
With future plans for more material from his productive Abbey Road sessions to be released, as well as an extensive tour that will reimagine Rakei’s expert stagecraft across the UK and EU, including dates at London’s Alexandra Palace with more global dates to be announced, it seems this new chapter for the visionary creative is only getting started. “I’m truly myself in this music,” he says. “It’s all about creating that safe space to be wild and free.”
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