Raybody

Raybody (fka Katy Rea) writes “classic singer-songwriter shit that gets weird.” Her singular vocal is intense, melodic, and endlessly dynamic. Paired with a band that deeply understands her songwriting, Raybody capture’s audiences in her current home of Brooklyn, and across the US; past bills with: Little Wings, Babehoven, Allegra Krieger, Sadurn, Florry, and more.

Born in Houston, Texas, Katy Rea’s mother sang Linda Ronstadt around the house, and her father, a writer, played Leonard Cohen and Dylan. He would say, “You only need a few chords and the truth to write a good song.” Her debut album, The Urge That Saves You (2022) is a hook-filled, fully live record that provides plenty of stories and emotions to cling to while splitting off into cinematic, dark psychedelia.

Recently she adopted the moniker, Raybody. “It allows me to step into a braver and more honest part of myself. I’m after a truth that requires me to unattach from my given name- which has always felt sweet, well mannered, and more feminine than I am.” Her band (Andrew Forman, Ethan Kogan, Ian Kenselaar) also reflects something more fierce than ‘Katy’ seems on the surface. The spirited cast of jazz trained, heavy hitters in the NYC experimental and indie rock scene, interpret her songs with a capacity that’s both crushing and soaring. “I feel like I’m flying when I play with this band. We push ourselves hard to meet something transcendent, and trust each other. But we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We are total goofs off stage.”

To Katy, today’s virality obsession feels unnatural and fleeting. She’s on her own clock. “I’m learning how to be simple and that is hard. I want to deliver songs that reflect the beautiful, heavy irony, of living – to help people feel less alone, classic songs they can hold with them for a long time.”

An engineer at Bushwick’s ‘Black Lodge Recording,’ she is in the depths of creating her second album of originals. Engineering and mixing her own work was at first, a way to afford her love of making albums, but quickly it developed into a signature sound. Every tone and texture all the way up to mastering, is developed through Katy’s point of view, her hands on the gear.