Singled Out: Raue's Karma

Keavin Wiggins | 03-23-2023

Promo photo

Up-and-coming grunge-punk duo Raue recently released their two song EP KARMA and to celebrate we asked Paige Kalenian to tell us about the title track. Here is the story:

Karma began with a 2 AM creative dump. I didn't intend to write a song that night; I was more exploring my guitar, trying to find new tunings to mess around with. I was testing different capo placements when I played the verse lick of Karma. I wasn't entirely convinced it was "a part" yet. It did, however, get my attention enough to record it in voice memos. My dad was actually the one who encouraged me to explore the idea further after I shared that snippet of it with him.

The song began to take shape once I brought it to Jax. When you're listening to Karma, what you hear when we both start playing at the top of the track is identical to this song's roots. That kick-snare combo is the first thing Jax played to that guitar part where Karma began. Then, as we felt the structure and transitions, the melody paved the way for lyrics and what became Karma's story.

I had always wanted to call a project "Karma"; it's beautifully sophisticated yet a quickly and easily spoken word. It's bold. The name inspired by Sadgurhu's book "Karma." I have a copy of his book that lives on my piano in my room. I loved how the word Karma looked printed out on the book's spine. It was freestanding without interpretation. This song is very personal to me, and as I figured out what I wanted to say in the lyrics, the piece quickly aligned with the title I'd been saving.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the EP here