Caden Collins ‘23 | Eshika Tangri ‘23
Photo courtesy of Kemi Odeyemi ‘20
EA students who passed through the Middle School will recognize this month’s faculty spotlight, Valentina Rafaelli, Middle School teacher and choir director. Rafaelli has recently expanded upon her career outside of EA. Rafaelli explains, “I’m mainly a singer-songwriter and independent artist; and I actually just recorded a new album called Bring On The Fire. I also record for other people if they need back up vocals, and teach private piano and voice lessons.”
Describing the process of making Bring On The Fire, Rafaelli states, “It was a make-it-or-break it kind of process, I didn’t have a lot of time to make a decision on what songs I wanted to put on the album. I had also booked the studio time before I was done writing the songs. I think that having a deadline in art, in general, is always a great motivation to get it done and get it done quickly, and that’s what happened with the album. An upside to this was that I could write songs and then record them right away.That way, I could retain some of the ingenuity, and some of that spontaneous feeling that comes from the creative process. If you start thinking about it too much, you start overthinking and self-doubting, and I just didn’t have time for that while making it.”
The album is inspired by her different personal life experiences. “Bring On The Fire is about the end of a long term relationship. I recently got separated, and that was the main inspiration for the album. The songs on the album were written from April 2018 to May 2019, so at the beginning of the album, there’s still that feeling of ‘can we make this work or not’ and at towards the end, there’s this realization that this just isn’t going to work. The last song on the album is ‘It’s Going to Be Alright.’ I really wanted to show how it doesn’t matter what struggle you’re going through, what horrible things may happen to you in your life if you can just process them and find the light at the end of the tunnel.”
This type of project is a new experience for her. Rafaelli explains, “I have been writing songs since my early twenties, but I had never recorded eleven coherent songs that were all part of one project, so I recorded a lot of singles. I loved making video clips, and videos. My ex-husband and I would always record at home at our own recording studio so we always had the luxury of time to work on each and every song for as long as we wanted. It was the first time I had only a week to record eleven songs.”
The process was very rewarding for her. Rafaelli says, “I loved working by myself, and not having a second person to bounce ideas off of. I really had to learn to trust my own artistic instincts. When I got to the recording part of the album I had a producer and musicians, but the ideas were already set in stone, so it was really nice to work with them on an already-completed project.”
Her career at Episcopal has definitely influenced her work as an artist. “I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t teach choir. Singing all the time, and having to demonstrate how to do it properly to my students, and teaching the songwriting and guitar classes. They’re all skills I get to keep practicing, even when I’m teaching them, and hopefully, I’m improving myself while doing so. It’s been great, and I’m so thankful for my job at EA.”
As of now, Rafaelli does not have any plans for a tour to celebrate her debut. “I have not organized a tour yet. I think that if I do organize a tour of some kind, it will be in the summertime so it doesn’t conflict with my EA schedule. I am planning some short trips to promote the album, but again, I’m trying to schedule them around my EA schedule. ” “Bring on The Fire” was released on November 22nd on all digital platforms. According to Rafaelli, the experience taught her a lot about herself, and she says the lessons she learned from this will last a lifetime, “People should believe in themselves more-I should believe in myself more. I should believe in my capabilities as a musician, as a singer, and a songwriter. There’s always something we can improve upon, and it’s great to be aware of those things, but it’s also okay to give ourselves credit for what we do well, and recording the album has really taught me that.”