RAVEN NUMAN INTERVIEW

Raven Numan is no stranger to the music world, as the eldest daughter of Gary and Gemma Numan, but this engaging and self-assured young woman is also making her own mark as an accomplished musician.  Raven opened up to Blitzed following a highly successful year that saw her release six self-penned singles, and with an album planned for 2025.   Did she always know she wanted to create and perform her own music?

“I didn’t really have any interest in it until I was about 9 or 10 when I saw a Katy Perry documentary. She’s the one that got me into all of this, the singing business. So about 11 or 12 years ago I would write my own songs, and I still have a stack of paper with lyrics on them. I keep everything. Some of them are actually kind of good!”

Aside from Katy Perry, she cites Nine Inch Nails, Lana Del Rey, Ariana Grande and Beyoncé as influential.

“I’d like to work with Nine Inch Nails, and Ariana Grande, even though our music is so different. Definitely her, because she’s been a huge part of my life since I was 10. I love her.”

Raven talks openly and enthusiastically about her songwriting process, and how she crafts her music. 

“If I have a negative experience, when something bad happens, if I’m feeling overwhelmed or if I’ve had a lot of anxiety, the one thing I do is sit down and just get it all out on a piece of paper. That’s normally how I start. I just type it or write it down and then I’ll go to my piano or guitar. I’ll start to create some sort of melody around the lyrics, and then try and fit them in. But it really does depend. Sometimes I’ll write the music first. I know for a couple of my songs, ‘My Reflection’ and ‘Here For Me’, I wrote the music first and then I wrote the lyrics.  When songwriting, I’d say piano is the easiest.  Guitar is easy for me as well, but piano is just so simple, but it does also depend on the type of mood or vibe I’m going for.”

Raven’s honesty and humility are evident in her songwriting, but also in her social media posts.  Social media can be a double-edged sword, what are her thoughts?

“I think it’s really important, especially Instagram. You’re able to use your platform for all sorts of different things. I was just talking to my dad about this the other day actually.  People are able to see me every day and I think that makes them feel a little bit more connected. I do personally like social media now. I didn’t for a while, but I think it can be useful. It’s really important for reaching out to different audiences, kind of bringing people in. I think everyone now trying to make it has social media accounts. You need it. I put [a post] up that was me explaining ‘Just a Number’.  It was a two and a half minute video of me sitting down and just rambling about the song.  That’s probably the most important post because I got a lot of women and girls relating to it and telling their stories and that meant a lot to me. That was really nice to see and also sad, like “Oh my God, I’m so sorry you have to go through that, but it’s cool that we can all connect”.”

Although recently just turned 21, Raven is already a prolific songwriter with six singles under her belt and a number of live performances to date.  What was her first experience of performing live?

“I was 18 and it was Wembley Arena.  I almost passed out! That was actually terrifying. I have never been that scared in my entire life. Especially before, I was just pacing, pacing back and forth, trying to breathe and trying to stay calm and when I heard my dad say “welcome to the stage Raven and Persia” I was down by the stairs and I don’t know what happened, I guess I blanked, like I didn’t realise I wasn’t in my spot, so I dashed.  I’ve never run that fast in my life! I ran up those stairs and I ran onto the stage and I was like “uh, hi!”  There was a mass of people. It was just like a sea of heads. That was insane.  I had known about Wembley since I think 2019 when my dad first got the news, and he had asked me before, do you want to sing on any of the other shows? And I was like, no, I’m going to wait.  Wembley’s going to be the one!  So I waited three years to perform, but it was really, really fun. After you sing a few lyrics, you’re like, this is fine, this is OK. I would do it again.

I supported dad for three shows last year at the Electric Ballroom. That was really fun. I had a 14-minute set each night, and at the time they were all unreleased, no-one’s heard them, these are songs I’ve written in my bedroom. It was very scary. But I had a great support system around me.  My band is so sweet and so kind and they really helped me get through it. Before I went on stage, I had to hold a bucket near me just in case, because I was so nervous, but it was also fun. On the last night I didn’t really want to get off stage, my sister had to kind of pull me off stage because I was having so much fun, it was great, you gradually get more comfortable with it.”

It is clear that Raven thinks the absolute world of her family, and they of her.

“They’re definitely my number one supporters. They don’t have a part in the songwriting, but as soon as I’ve written a song, or maybe a 10 second piano piece, I go straight to my parents.  I don’t really care about what other people have to say about the music, but I really care about what they have to say. As soon as I put the headphones on my dad, I watch him. I watch to see if he’s enjoying it and if he’s like “this is shit”, you know, I watch.”

Has he ever said that?

“(Laughs) no, thankfully not!  That would be horrifying!  They’ve been great, they’ve always been really supportive, but always been honest, always giving me really good advice.”

To discover more about Raven Numan go to www.facebook.com/ravennumanofficial

Read the full interview with Raven Numan in issue 18 of Blitzed, available here: https://blitzedmag.com/product/blitzed-issue-18-pre-order-on-sale-2nd-of-jan-2025/