Dailymotion Elevate: Rain Phoenix - "Hey Heartache" Cafe Bohemia, NYC

Dailymotion Elevate presents: Rain Phoenix & Kirk Hellie sits down for a One On One Session at Cafe Bohemia New York. Watch the full session here: https://dai.ly/k7nBHwWODpGB96vtAmI For more info visit: https://www.rainjphoenix.com Audio & Video by: Ehud Lazin

Setlist:

Time Is The Killer

You Right

Hey Heartache

Music chooses its vessels early on.

At three-years-old, Rain Phoenix first uncovered her voice. Standing next to late big brother River, she belted along as he strummed “a guitar way too big for his five-year-old body.” Her story as an artist started there.

“My first music memory was singing along to my brother at three,” she recalls. “The rest was history. From that day on, I sang with him. We maintained the same connectivity until I was twenty. Music has always been me next to him. All of the other incarnations of me playing in bands was just trying to understand how to make music without him. Through the process of making my solo record, I realized that instead of trying to understand music without him, I needed to include him, because he never really left.”

These intimate moments set the stage for a fascinating musical journey. At the age of sixteen, she joined River in his band Aleka’s Attic, developing a devoted following based on early recordings such as “Goldmine,” “Too Many Colors,” and “Across the Way.” Rain lent her voice as a backup vocalist to various legendary groups, working with R.E.M. in the studio and accompanying Red Hot Chili Peppers on the One Hot Minute Tour. Alongside sister Summer, she joined new wave punk upstarts The Causey Way in 1997, releasing a pair of albums and EPs. 2003 saw her form papercranes, which she fronted for the next decade through a prolific series of full-length albums and EPs. Not only did sisters Summer and Liberty guest on various tracks, but the band welcomed a rotating cast of talented friends and collaborators, including Kirk Hellie. A devoted artist-activist, she was also a founding member of the NYC political cabaret The Citizens Band (2004-2014), performing alongside a wide array of notable artists, activists, and musicians. In 2013, she co-founded the folk duo Venus and The Moon garnering acclaim from Entertainment Weekly, Vice, LA Weekly, and more. On Valentine’s Day 2019 Rain released her first single as a solo artist “Time is the Killer” featuring Michael Stipe, as part of a special vinyl release that included two Aleka’s Attic songs entitled Time Gone. From there, her solo record River flowed.

Additionally, Rain remains a committed philanthropist. In addition to serving on the board of both the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding and The Lunchbox Fund, she also supports The Art of Elysium and founded Gift Horse Project which later became LaunchLeft “an alliance of left-of-center artists.”

The latter doubles as a podcast and label home for both Aleka’s Attic and her record River, + 2020 will see the release of various new artists on the LaunchLeft imprin