Lena Rayne Allen

Lena Rayne Allen couldn’t decide whether she wanted to be a research biologist or an orchestral percussionist. After wavering between majors in the southern music hub of Athens, Georgia for three years, she eventually realized that a career in classical music was not for her. Instead, Lena would shift her musical focus to the songwriting practice she had been developing since the age of 10.

Now equipped with a skill-set worth around 65% of a music performance degree, she began to play opening sets at staple Athens venues. In 2021, she released her first EP, ‘Boo Who’ - a minimalistic, lyric focused project recorded at The Glow Recording Studio. Kindly reviewed by flagpole magazine, the EP was described as possessing “a heaviness that seems deeply reflective”, though they noted that the trio of songs “doesn’t lead to listener to despair”. Sonically, flagpole commended her “strong vocal presence” and “distinct vibrato”.

After relocating to Boston in 2022, Lena began to experiment with modular synthesis to expand her sound; more simply, she started making beep boops to add to her songs. Likewise, her lyrics evolved to draw inspiration from new places- the awesome complexities of biology, the fear associated with moving across the country from her family, and the drifting attention spans of our society. Lena is influenced by artists such as Adrienne Lenker, Florist, and Conor Oberst, and she strives to unlock ambiguous emotions wedged deep within her listener’s brains.