RAYE is a renegade. Beyond the apt use of alliteration, it’s true—she steers her career on her own time, terms, and tenure, to both her success and her detriment. On the carpet for her 2023 Mercury Prize nomination in London, she revealed to me that she’d just landed from an intermission of a holiday in Ibiza, emphasizing that she couldn’t miss the ceremony. Two years prior, as a marquee label signee, she’d break industry conventions, utilizing a political tactic known as “going public” to expose the music business, demystifying fact from fiction for fans and critics. “So now I’m being told if ‘Call On Me’ does well then I can do my album but there can’t be a green light until...” she tweeted.

Two years in the wake of our exchange, the 27-year-old remains set in her ways. Now an independent artist, the Tooting-born songstress continues to bloom at her own pace. Still south of the river (“of course, it’s south, of course,” she bluntly laughs), RAYE’s charm, gleam, and assertiveness have only grown. Like a child learning to walk or glide across a chlorine-ridden public swimming pool, she’s found her feet, so much so that she’s now commanding forth her life partner.

Akin to the affirmation-laced ideology that’s come to define both late-millennial and Gen-Z dating culture, RAYE’s latest single “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!”—a simmering, boldly-laced jazz, R&B, soul and pop hybrid—sees her wink at this behavior amongst enclaves of yearners, wholeheartedly in search of companionship. She invites everyone from God to her grandmother in a communal effort to manifest her heart’s desires. At the time of writing, the track is inside the UK’s Official Singles Chart’s top three, and soaring up many European equivalent tallies. It’s even crept into the Billboard Hot 100, at #70, marking it as one of RAYE’s most successful tracks to date. She’s quick to reveal her rebellious tendencies once more, as she shares that the song’s release was only eight days after its completion.

Joined by her sisters, Amma and Absolutely, all are forging their own paths forward, with RAYE, the eldest sister, breaking the terrain to allow for such possibilities. “I’m excited for these guys to experience the same thing, really, really becoming a performer. The difference is, we’re all songwriters, and these girls are amazing songwriters [already],” she beams, staring at each of them.

Sharp in her ability to aid an orchard of titans like GIVĒON, Anitta, LISA, and NAO, 21-year-old Absolutely’s own artistry is strikingly and distinctly able to bend the parameters of where alt-R&B and contemporary pop meet—their intersection, in Absolutely’s terrain, is smeared in anything from classical to apocalyptic, electronic synths. She has a new album, Paracosm, set to release early next year. Like her sister, she moves to her own pulse, effortlessly unique, imbued with her own sense of artistic self.

It’s perplexing, to me then, that her oft-admitted shyness lingers on-screen as we talk. It’s not hostile, however, more so indicative of her always in contemplation, interrogating the answers, and the world around her. Amma, in contrast, is unapologetically transparent, willingly open in her convictions and in assertions about herself—the good, indifferent, and bad. At 23 years old, she’s a self-proclaimed perfectionist. Formally taking the leap into her own works as a singer earlier this year, Amma, like her sisters, has penned for front-facing peers like FLO, JoJo, and Miraa May. Finally ready to take the lead, she’s intentional about releasing to the world. Like her eldest sister, she’ll drag her feet to the last minute to ensure pristine conditions. “She is hard on herself,” RAYE chimes in.

In her pursuit of freedom, RAYE is an advocate for better songwriting percentages, lifting as she climbs. She’ll extend her platform to Absolutely—as she did with her 21st Century Blues tour—and for the first time with Amma next year, when the trio embark on the singer’s recently announced tour. Titled This Tour May Contain New Music, the sisters are excited to be on the road as a family for the first time. “I’m still trying to figure out how to, like, enjoy myself more on tour,” Absolutely says of her recent BANKS support slot.

“It’s so demanding,” RAYE concurs. “Everything blurs into one.”

Below the trio further expand, making it clear throughout that they, like RAYE, navigate the industry instinctually.

I’m curious, as you guys look so relaxed, when will you begin tour preparations?
RAYE: This tour, I think I’m gonna begin prep as soon as I’ve finished this album.
Amma: [Laughs] That’s a lie, also. ’Cause that [the album being finished] isn’t happening anytime soon.
RAYE: I’m gonna start prep. No, no I don’t know. It’s gonna… November. I don’t know. We’re starting now. We’re starting now.

You’ve spoken about the album [on The Graham Norton Show], and how you’re still in the process of it, yet you’ve seemingly released a single from it, “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” Talk to me about why you decided to release it now, and eight days after completing it too?
RAYE: I think it was one of those things that once I set a date that the song was gonna come out, and I pushed it to the last minute, deadlines-wise. I think the beautiful thing about me being an artist the last two or three years, and I’m excited for these guys to experience the same thing, is just really, really becoming a performer. It’s an exciting flip, really, going from every day [in the] studio, to being every day [on the] stage, and how that has changed everything for me as an artist, doing this much stage performance. Like I watched an old Graham Norton performance of mine the other day, and I was like, “Ew.”
Amma: Was it bad?
RAYE: Really, like, the way I was singing…
Amma: What did you sing?
RAYE: “The Thrill Is Gone.” I was watching it back, like, “Errr.”

Are you self-analytical in that way? Do you go back randomly, and you’re like, “Ah! I hate my voice here.” or “This movement could have been different.” How do you interact with yourself and your past self? Is there grace?
RAYE: Honestly, I think I’m so self-analytical that I actually don’t go and watch things back, because I will exhaust myself with thoughts and energy. Most performances that I do, once it’s done, I’m on to the next. Which probably isn’t the best, because you should probably watch things back, because every time you watch things back, you can improve them. But once it’s done, it’s done for me, and I’m just moving on to the next. I just maybe go by how things felt: like they could have been better in the moment, as opposed to walking back and analyzing it.

In terms of your sisterhood, let’s talk about your musical connection. I know you used to harmonize together. What was the inception of your sisterhood in a musical sense?
RAYE: Ever since I can remember us as kids, it’s always been about music, it’s always been about singing. Even us doing silly competitions from the age of 10 [trying to see] who can sing the longest note. And then us just being like, “Oh, let’s sing three-part harmonies now, let’s just sing that. Oh, can you do that riff?” Like, ever since we were young.

What song comes to memory for the three of you when you recall these competitions?
RAYE: I think the big notes were just “Who can hold a note for the longest,” you know what I mean? Did you ever do “All By Myself” by Céline Dion? Did that ever get to you guys? I used to scream that note out, and that was hard.
Absolutely: I remember hearing you sing that.
RAYE: Yeah, as young as we were, it’s always been like that for me. Especially for me and Lauren [Amma], and Abby [Absolutely] was more quiet. When I signed my first deal, when I was 17, some of that money went towards building a little studio in the back garden. Before that, we used to record under a duvet in our living room. I was actually, like, 9 years old recording these whack songs. Then I did “Hero” by Mariah Carey, and “Umbrella” by Rihanna.
Absolutely: They used to play “Hero” in our school assemblies every time.
RAYE: What? What?
Amma: [singing] There’s a heroooo!

Amma, I was listening to your tape, Middle Child. On the opening track “What Am I Doing It For?” you’re very candid about finding your place, identity, self-confidence, self-belief, trust. How did you get to that place?
Amma: It was definitely a lot of ups and downs for me. I’m quite prideful, so I kind of, like—
RAYE: No, you’re not!
Amma: I am a little when it comes to music.
RAYE: You have a high standard for yourself.
Amma: Okay, yeah, my standard is quite high, so it was difficult writing music and not feeling like I was reaching the standard, especially when I would hear things that [RAYE] or Abby [Absolutely] had created, and being like, “Wow, this is really amazing,” and then hearing things I would create and be like, “Okay, we have so much work to do.”

One day I was just having a bad experience when I was in LA—because I was writing for other artists—and I went to a meeting meant to be for other artists in that label. Twenty minutes into the meeting, it was about me and my own artist project, and I was like, “That’s not happening!”

I left that meeting after allowing it to become a fake reality for a bit, and I thought, “Okay, well, maybe I should just dive into this and see where it can bring me.” I went home to my Airbnb that day, and got my setup on my bed, and it kind of just came out. I remember just recording the a cappella, “mmmm, aahhh” things and the lyrics just kind of came out, which I kind of find is the easiest way to write on my own.

By harmonizing and then figuring things out through that, on your own?
Amma: I really find it so easy writing through acoustic guitar. I’ll build up the production after, because that’s the way I get emotion, is through the chords feeling vulnerable too, you know?

Amma, I remember hearing you say recently that being a musician wasn’t your initial vocation. What would your vocation have been if not music?
Amma: If I could do anything other than music, I would 110% be a therapist. I mean, this kind of songwriting in itself, understanding people’s stories and being able to put it in a song so that there can even be healing from that. I feel like I do [my music] when I feel super upset, I’m like, “Oh, I think I’m meant to write, because I haven’t written in so long, and I’m just so emotional. I must write something.”

All of you guys are super candid in your lyrics. RAYE, even, My 21st Century Blues. How did you find writing that album, and being so candid about abuse, misogyny, drugs, your family relationships, your relationships, your self-image?
RAYE: I think, probably an element of my personality. Something I’ve been trying to learn recently is to keep some things to myself. But I think it’s a beautiful thing about that—coming out in my art, and that being the artist that I’ve decided to be—is one who says it as it is on the tin. A lot of these songs weren’t created to be shared, or with that being the forefront of my mind. It was actually just like, “I need to make some music right now, because I’m really wrestling with this emotion, or I need to put lyrics to this feeling.” Also, when My 21st Century Blues was coming out, my main thing was just, “I just hope people hear me.”

Back to your upbringing. There’s a clip by Canadian physician Gabor Maté CM who specifies that each dynamic between a parent and their child is different to the next sibling. Did you guys notice the dynamic shift or differences in upbringing?
Amma: Well, I definitely do. I don’t know. I definitely think the upbringing is different. There’s battles Rachel [RAYE] has had to fight that me and Abby [Absolutely] haven’t had to fight. There’s battles I’ve had to fight that these two haven’t had to, and same with Abby, you know?

What would you say some of those are, if you had to name any?
RAYE: As the oldest, I wasn’t allowed to stay out at friends’ houses. They were so strict with me, and I feel like they’ve not got to live their best life as kids. In the same way, I had so much attention because I was the oldest child, and very loud.
Absolutely: I was sneaking around. The usual smoking, alcohol.
RAYE: Amma got the least restraint, and our parents didn’t believe a thing about her drinking or anything.
Amma: I literally filled a flask in mum’s cabinet full of all these different spirits, and I drank half the flask.
RAYE: We drove wherever to pick her up. [Collective Laughter]

All of your visuals look strikingly different in really great ways. Talk to me about something that’s scaring you and exciting you, as we approach your new releases?
Absolutely: I’m excited to play my new music on tour. I can’t wait to build my set for my tour. The visuals for the live stuff is gonna be exciting. I’ve been designing my looks for tour already.

As songwriters, I have to ask you: who are your favorites of all time?
RAYE: I’m gonna go with Randy Newman as one of the best, purely because he wrote “Baltimore,” which is one of my favorite songs ever written, ever, ever, ever in the history of life. Nina Simone covered it, and… I will never tire of that song. If I had one song for a “Desert Island Disc,” it’s “Baltimore” by Nina Simone. Period. That’s mine.
Absolutely: Oh, shit. That was good.
RAYE: They both were gonna do Stevie Wonder.
Absolutely: [Stevie Wonder]—my favorite song of his is “Overjoyed.”
Amma: There’s loads. Stevie, Paul McCartney. I would also say ABBA and The Beatles are people that I’ve learned a lot from over the past year. I would probably say “The Winner Takes It All” is a strong ABBA song.

What do each of you think the role of an artist is in 2025?
RAYE: It’s a form of hope. When I think back to even, like, COVID times, everyone was really feeling it. That actually was a moment where I felt like, “Oh my gosh.” You really realize when the world’s going through this, how all of this stuff is so important.
Amma: A lot of people feel alone in a lot of emotions that they feel. But actually, there are only 27 distinct emotions, meaning everyone has felt something. Like, you’ve been sad? [I’ve] felt exactly the same. Our stories may be different, but we can feel the same emotion. So for me, I feel like putting my story across so that people can understand that the feeling that they’re feeling isn’t an isolating one, but can be shared.
Absolutely: I think about my music, from people that it’s a place where they can really be immersed, and be transported into a different world.
RAYE: That’s beautiful.
Amma: That’s nice.

Yet to formally begin rehearsals, having sold out six dates at the O2’s 20,000-person-capacity arena, there’s a tranquility, apprehension, and humor that lingers as we discuss the upcoming performances. It feels familiar. That feeling before an artist takes their first note of the night, the moment before you press play on a highly anticipated album. I imagine it’s what it might feel like to pen a song. The girls empower one another, their bond unshakable as they divulge their careers, the nuances of songwriting, the angst of having to raise one another, and ultimately their love of each other, and their vocations.

Theirs is a bond as pure and honest as it is hilarious. Above all, it’s magnifying, each feeling destined—not forced onto—this path. It’s the magnetism of witnessing three ladies unwilling to let fame hinder family, or morals. That’s what makes each of them easy to root for in their triumphs and in their obstacles. RAYE, Amma, and Absolutely win, or lose, together.

Photographed by Su Müstecaplioğlu

Styled by Eniola Dare and Lauren Croft

Written by Nicolas-Tyrell Scott

RAYE’s Hair: Alex Price

RAYE’s Makeup: Lan Nguyen-Grealis 

RAYE’s Nails: Pria Bhamra

Absolutely’s Hair: Jaz Lanyero

Absolutely’s Makeup: Sophia Sinot 

Amma’s Hair: Shamara Roper

Amma’s Makeup: Olly Fisk

Flaunt Film: Harry Blackley

Flaunt Film Music: Joss Mogli

Styling Assistant: Amilia Howells

Location: 69 Drops Studio