The first time Raffa Weyman wrote a song, she cried. It was a tune she co-wrote with her best friend at the age of 12, an “epic pop hit” that excited her to the point of tears. While there’s no recorded proof of this track, Weyman as RALPH, has since gone on to write a few more pop gems that contain just as much sentiment, embedded in an infectious synth-based sound. “Songwriting is how I work out my emotions,” she explains. “It’s therapy, it’s how I accept things and move on; I love being transparent that my songs are often autobiographical, because it makes them real and raw.”
That kind of honesty is crystallized into earworm melodies on her latest self-titled EP, and it’s paid off with millions of Spotify streams and an increasing amount of interest from music fans and critics alike. For Weyman, the key to a great pop track is “a wicked hook, and a melody that gets stuck in your head for days,” with an added bonus of exceptional lyrics, if possible. Weyman easily checks off all these boxes with a poise that’s striking for a new artist. “I would be lying if I said I was 100% confident in my sound and who I am; I’m always learning and growing but I feel like I’m in a really good place,” Weyman says.
Weyman just signed to 604 Records (home of Carly Rae Jepsen, Coleman Hell, Small Town Pistols) and is already hard at work on her full-length debut. Working with producers in London, Berlin, Los Angeles and Toronto, Weyman says she’s super-excited about the work she’s put into the record so far, and isn’t afraid to take some risks, too. “What happens if you try to write a ‘70s ballad with a dubstep drop?” she ponders. “I love the idea of genre bending.”