Jenna Raine’s New Musical Horizons: A Conversation with the Artist
By Alexandra Henriques
WGMU Radio had the pleasure of interviewing Jenna Raine, the 20-year-old singer-songwriter from Texas. Raine released her latest single, “Roses,” in August and is working on her newest project currently, which will be arriving later this year. She has amassed nearly 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, 2 million TikTok followers, and has charted multiple songs, including “Roses,” “It Is What It Is,” and “see you later (ten years).”
Credit: Warner Records
Raine grew up surrounded by music. She sang in her church and originally wanted to be a worship leader due to her love for the craft. She got an iPod in 1st grade, which only magnified her love for music.
“The rest is history. I just always wanted to be a singer,” she said, crediting church and her hot pink iPod for her dreams.
However, her love for singing spans beyond her music career. Raine has also branched into acting, starring in Hyperlinked (2017) and Camp Hideout (2023). This addition to her career came from the 2016 film La La Land, which made her realize that acting and music can go hand-in-hand. Therefore, she pursues acting as a side gig, though she is picky with the roles she takes.
“My main goal with acting is to book something like La La Land that incorporates music,” Raine said when asked about continuing her acting career. “Music is my first love.”
Throughout her career, Raine has collaborated with multiple artists, including Joshua Bassett and JVKE.
“[Collaborating] is so fun. It’s one of those things where you get to see other artists do their thing, and you very rarely get to collaborate,” Jenna said. “Working with Josh [Bassett] and Jake [JVKE] was so much fun…I am so grateful to say that I have worked with them. I would work with them every day that I could. You don’t often run into the opportunity to work with other artists. Everybody should be listening to their music.”
When asked, Raine said her dream collaboration would be with Noah Kahan, mentioning how she wanted to be part of the Stick Season (Forever) collaborations. However, she has an exciting collaboration coming up with Avery Anna. “Roses,” featuring Avery Anna, will be released on October 11th, so be sure to check it out!
Raine also talked about how much of a blessing the success of “see you later (ten years)” and “It Is What It Is” was for her.
“It is so surreal. A moment of success like that truly allows you to get to do what you love, which is such a blessing, and not many people get to do that. Those songs gave me an opportunity to continue my career.”
Raine’s recent successes include performing at the 2023 VMA’s Block Party, a cover feature on Girls Life Magazine, and coverage by Rolling Stone, Billboard and V Magazine. However, Raine is careful to not base her happiness around her career.
“Success wasn’t necessarily going to bring me happiness – I needed to make sure that while I was writing and creating music, that’s when I was content. Riding your career is like surfing; it goes up and down…I don’t want my happiness to ever be reliant on my success. It just made me happy to know my music was bringing people joy and healing. That’s where I find my happiness,” Raine said.
However, she still rightfully gets excited when her career does well.
“When “see you later,” hit #1 viral on Spotify charts, that was so surreal…I remember before that, praying every night like, Lord if this is your calling for me, you need to make it so evident and obvious that I’m meant to chase this career down. So, when ‘see you later’ was on the viral chart, I was like ‘wow, okay, now I know’…That was really exciting.”
“Roses,” her recent single, was released on August 9th. It has garnered over 7 million streams since its release and carries the message to be thankful for life, live in the present, and forget the things that happened in the past. Raine wanted to put out a song with a message to stop dwelling on negativity and, instead, have confidence and be grateful for the good things in life.
“Life is too short to focus on negativity and people that don’t have the best intentions…That is a huge lesson I’ve learned now that I’m 20,” Raine said.
“Roses” was born when Raine, Steph Jones, and TMS members Tom “Froe” Barnes and Benjamin Kohn were brainstorming together. Kohn began to play what is the current chorus on his guitar while singing, “Don’t go killing all my roses.” Immediately, the team fell in love and wrote the full song within an hour and a half.
“I got chills in the room when he started singing the beginning of the chorus. It was so random too, and all of us got so excited knowing it was something so magical,” Raine said.
The song went through lots of evolution between its initial stages and the released version. The song was written over a year ago, so the initial vocals had to be re-cut before release as Raine’s voice had matured. Her team also reworked the production, making the song feel completely different from the original, but in a good way.
“It feels a lot more like the direction where I want to go sonically, so I am excited that we touched things up. Beforehand, I didn’t absolutely love it, but now I am in love with ‘Roses’…I think ‘Roses’ paints a picture of what I want to do in my next project. My main goal in life has always been to be a light in a troubled world…and for this next project, I want it to be life-changing for people and shift their perspective on the people around them, close to them, and strangers.”
While Raine could not say much else about her upcoming project, set to arrive later this year, she did say that we should expect a tour, so keep your eyes peeled! She has over 200 songs written, so it is just a matter of narrowing that down for upcoming releases.
Raine had a few messages for her listeners: God changed her life, the past is in the past, and tomorrow can worry about itself.
“Focus on who you are and who you want to be. That’s all you can do in life, take it day by day,” Raine concluded.
“Roses” featuring Avery Anna is set to release on October 11th. You can stream Jenna Raine on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.
