She’s learned about love, loss, and devastation and descended to our planet to school the masses.
But sadly, the fanatical cult following she attracts ultimatelyleads to her demise.
Like her alter ego, Raveena has soaked up the knowledge and is ready to share.
Raveena.Furmaan Ahmed
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Where did the idea for the character of Asha come from?
I felt like the way to be comfortable showing those new sides of me was through a character.
Asha is a space princess from Punjab.
Raveena.Furmaan Ahmed
The album needed an epic story to accompany all the sounds on it.
Did you turn to any concept albums from the past for inspiration?
I’ve been inspired by concept albums as a whole.
It’s all connected.
I love building worlds.
There’s also such a Y2K sound to a lot of the songs onAsha’s Awakening.
Timbaland and other hip-hop and R&B artists were appropriating sounds from Indian music then.
Fast-forward 20 years and you’re, in a sense, taking it back.
And we just continue to grow.
I feel like “genre” is so boundless now.
How much of yourself do you see in Asha?
Like 80, 90 percent [laughs].
It’s all me at the end of the day.
The personal experiences behind the lyrics are from me.
It’s given me so much confidence to explore and expand my artistry.
You really did push yourself while making this record, even studying aerial silks.
How long did it take you to learn that?
That was honestly such a last-minute addition.
I learned silks for the “Secret” video in about three, four months.
All of my friends hated me because they could never get in touch.
The flip phone didn’t even work you couldn’t even make calls on it.
Honestly, all of my texts were like “g2g.”
I couldn’t take any photos.
I kept my smartphone in a lockbox in my house and would only use it like once a week.
What was the hardest part of not having a smartphone readily accessible?
The hardest part was not having access to music on Spotify or Apple to plug into my car.
My car doesn’t even have a CD player.
I would just have to listen to the radio.
I had to get GPS.
I was literally, like, doing MapQuest.
I’ve seenAsha’s Awakeningdescribed as a work of desi-futurism.
How would you define that term?
That’s a term I’ve heard journalists use to describe it, but I do agree with it.
There’s a lot of confusion in that because there is inherent oppression in that identity.
We can be anyone in a fantasy space.
I think for someone who’s queer and brown, fantasy is such a powerful tool.
How have you tackled that?
I think in the queer space, I feel very accepted and free.
It’s very beautiful being part of that world.
But I think in the Indian community it’s way scarier, way harder.
For me, it was very scary coming out.
Family reactions can be very scary and very intense.
I’ll not say it was easy.
It wasn’t a picnic.
But I didn’t go through anything particularly violent, which I was really grateful for.
What did your parents think of that?
I feel like with my parents, it’s just like… they see it.
Recently I had to be like, “This is the list of my ex-girlfriends.
Here are their profiles [laughs]…
It’s not a phase.”
How much does your queerness factor into your art?
I feel like I see something like “Headaches” and I’d think a significant amount.
Asha’s Awakeningis queer in the more expansive sense of the world.
I think that’s where queerness and Asha intersect.
I’m, like, truly a bisexual.
I like me to date a man and a woman at the same time [laughs].
What queer art has inspired you?
Has anything been part of your queer awakening?
You’ve been touring the past couple of months and have a few festivals on the horizon this year.
Do you have any rituals to keep you sane while you’re away from home?
What are your plans?
My plan for Pride is… well, I haven’t kissed a girl in a while.
[Laughs] I hope I can.
Raveena performs June 19 atSomething in the Waterin Washington, D.C.Asha’s Awakeningis out now.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
