Tendai

When tendai wanted to record a new project he needed a space to work in that came without expectations. Expensive studios with top of the line equipment can impose ideas on how music should be made and what it should sound like. He couldn’t shake the idea that a studio is a box and recording there is inherently limiting. “I wanted something free,” he says. It’s a manifestation of ideas he’d had for a while. The Raido Room. Getting people together and making music, sharing music, working together to build something bigger than an individual. A location in London was eventually found and tendai recorded his new project, titled the Rain.

It wasn’t just the studio that needed to be stripped down to its most basic elements. Tendai went through the same process with himself, working hard to understand who he is and what his core talents are as an artist. “It’s my responsibility to hone in on those things and to transcend what comes easily,” he says. “It took eight months to get to the point where great things were coming out.”  

Ultimately, all it took was an old fashioned heartbreak. “I Deserve It,” opens with the line “Girl you broke my heart in three” and sets the tone for what is to follow. It’s a moment of pain but also self reflection, an acknowledgement of being hurt and having hurt others before. There’s a maturity to the lyrics and a playful rhythm to the stark production. “You look back on the things you have done in your life and realize that you were once the heartbreaker,” he says of the deceptively simple song. “I’m talking to the girl but I’m also talking to the universe. ‘Why did you bring this person into my life and then take it away.’ The yearning can be heard in his voice as he sings through the turmoil.

The song was one of the first to come from working in The Raido Room. The DIY studio space may have been temporary but tendai built it as a means of forming more permanent bonds. Peers and collaborators were invited to join him, not necessarily to record but to listen, discuss, and offer their thoughts. During the recording, Bakar, Wretch 32, Avelino, Brian Nasty, Shakka, and Maverick Sabre were all welcomed. As too were fellow young artists cityboymoe, Léa Sen, Leaf Tieler, Cari, Gdup, Zino Vinci and Natanya. Imogen Heap, who has become a friend, also stopped by. “She’s the GOAT to me,” he says of their creative bond. “I asked her endless questions about music and life.”

Having become frustrated with what he sees as a culture of isolationism in London, “Let’s link and create community” is the new mantra.  

Rain, like all of tendai’s music, is self-produced. His newfound understanding of himself as an artist has resulted in the most direct and elemental music of his career so far. Songs such as “Scorpios Kiss” and “Won’t Break” are raw and unfiltered moments of pure anguish and, ultimately, catharsis. “Nobody’s Enough,” meanwhile, was written after a friend challenged tendai to write about himself, not just his experiences. The result is confessional and intimate, a tender secret shared with those prepared to truly listen.  

Expectations, competition and complication are all antithetical to making great music. Rain is the sound of an artist sidestepping all three.