Album Premiere: Sonia Rao, 'Meet Them at the Door'
Jul. 26, 2016
Meet Them at the Door is the third album from singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and season one competitor on The Voice Sonia Rao. She began playing the violin at an early age, quickly branched out into piano and flute, and eventually picked up a guitar in her adulthood. After a stint with a college a cappella group, she decided to learn how to play all of her favorite Sara Bareilles songs, and then began writing her own.
Rao composed the nine tracks on her latest album at her piano, writing the lyrics and music at the same time, which resulted in her somehow fitting the syllables of the word "Minneapolis" into a song, which is no small feat. Though she usually writes songs based purely on feelings, which are then fleshed out into concepts for songs, a few of the tracks came from unexpected places, like "Please," which came after a dream that helped Rao figure out an unspoken issue between herself and a friend. Or "Let Her Go," which looks on paper as if she's giving advice to a third party, when she's actually speaking to herself.
"I write a lot of songs for myself - for comfort, encouragement, or whatever else I think I need to hear," she wrote. "I wrote this song ["Let Her Go"] about letting go of old stories we have about ourselves that don't serve us anymore, and to remind myself and others that we can decide who we went to be at any point in our lives. That we can start over whenever we want to. I always wanted to write songs and sing, and I was so doubtful that I could actually do that. But when I wrote this song I realized I was doing the thing that I never thought I could do, and it's time to let go of that old doubtful version of myself that didn't think it was possible."
Meet Them at the Door is due out August 1 and is available via Indiegogo.
Sonia Rao tour dates:
Rao composed the nine tracks on her latest album at her piano, writing the lyrics and music at the same time, which resulted in her somehow fitting the syllables of the word "Minneapolis" into a song, which is no small feat. Though she usually writes songs based purely on feelings, which are then fleshed out into concepts for songs, a few of the tracks came from unexpected places, like "Please," which came after a dream that helped Rao figure out an unspoken issue between herself and a friend. Or "Let Her Go," which looks on paper as if she's giving advice to a third party, when she's actually speaking to herself.
"I write a lot of songs for myself - for comfort, encouragement, or whatever else I think I need to hear," she wrote. "I wrote this song ["Let Her Go"] about letting go of old stories we have about ourselves that don't serve us anymore, and to remind myself and others that we can decide who we went to be at any point in our lives. That we can start over whenever we want to. I always wanted to write songs and sing, and I was so doubtful that I could actually do that. But when I wrote this song I realized I was doing the thing that I never thought I could do, and it's time to let go of that old doubtful version of myself that didn't think it was possible."
Meet Them at the Door is due out August 1 and is available via Indiegogo.
Sonia Rao tour dates:
08.03 New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall
08.05 Boston, MA @ Sofar Sounds
08.11 Raleigh, NC @ Aloft Raleigh Durham
08.12 Raleigh, NC @ Sofar Sounds
08.13 Wilmington, NC @ Sofar Sounds
08.18 Nashville, TN @ Sofar Sounds
08.21 New Orleans, LA @ Aloft New Orleans
08.24 Dallas, TX @ Sofar Sounds
08.25 Las Colinas, TX @ Aloft Las Colinas
08.29 Taos, NM @ Taos Mesa Brewing
09.08 Los Angeles, CA @ The Hotel Cafe
09.16 San Francisco, CA @ The Glint
09.24 Denver, CO @ Sofar Sounds
09.26 St. Louis, MO @ Sofar Sounds
09.29 Milwaukee, WI @ Sofar Sounds
09.30 Bolingbrook, IL @ Aloft Bolingbrook
10.01 Chicago, IL @ Sofar Sounds
10.02 Indianapolis, IN @ Sofar Sounds
10.08 Rochester, NY @ Sofar Sounds
12.02 Los Angeles, CA @ TEDxLA