Rafay Rashid / Ravi Shavi
Photographer: James Galvin
Rafay Rashid, born in Islamabad, Pakistan and bred in New York City and Rhode Island, makes experimental garage pop songs that are confessional, ecstatic, and confrontational. His writing emerged as a response to growing up a shy Muslim kid in a post 9/11 America. Ravi Shavi, the name of his band, became a persona and vehicle for both radical healing and punk empowerment as he crafted a niche amidst the noise and folk music scenes of Providence, Rhode Island in the late 00’s. Since then, he has cut his teeth touring independently throughout the past decade opening for such acts as Charles Bradley, Of Montreal, Man Man, Budos Band, Los Lobos and the Black Lips.
In addition to fronting his band, Ravi Shavi, which has become a staple of the underground Providence music scene, he has been the featured performer at the 2017 Whitney Biennial Gala, the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, the 2021 Newport Folk Festival and also writes and performs with 3/4ths of Deer Tick in their side project, Happiness, which released a full-length album in 2019 called “Live”. Rashid is set to release his solo debut, “Kitchen Weapons”, a piano-based break-up album on May 26th, 2023 via Brooklyn based Almost Ready Records.
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