Reneé Rapp on her debut album, Snow Angel.
photo by Katia Temkin.
This August, Firebird Magazine had the utmost privilege to speak with Broadway star turned TV actress turned pop star, Reneé Rapp. Rapp, who turned 23 earlier this year, recently released her debut full-length studio album, Snow Angel, to critical and commercial success. Coming into the press conference, I had no idea what to expect from a multi-talented musical sensation like Rapp — however, Rapp was (refreshingly) as Gen-Z as it gets, addressing the members in the room like one would with any of their closest friends.
When detailing her beginnings with the entertainment business, Rapp encountered her earliest exposure to music as a bona fide “theater kid.” Her acting and vocal prowess is certainly what landed her the coveted roles of Regina George in Broadway’s Mean Girls and Leighton Murray on HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls. However, Rapp later admitted that “she didn’t think [she] was a good actor at all” and that “music was always the end-goal [for her].” In musical theater, Rapp found inspiration from the compositions of Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lippa, and through their works, Rapp quickly understood that “amazing storytelling is incredible writing.” Although songwriting has been an insecurity for Rapp in the past, she has certainly come full-circle with Snow Angel, applying the principles of Sondheim and Lippa to paint an emotive, compelling portrayal of the highs and lows of young adulthood.
photo by Katia Temkin.
On Snow Angel, Rapp takes a more blatant/direct approach to lyricism, which is particularly evident in the punchy “Poison Poison” (e.g., “you're so fucking annoying,” “you’re the worst person on Earth”). During the conference, Rapp disclosed this track had to be written “three different times in three different ways” due to her candid lyrical style (which she hilariously declared was oftentimes “a danger to others”). Perhaps another instance of Rapp’s Gen-Z straightforwardness lies in the following track, “Gemini Moon” — a reference to Rapp’s moon sign, which is one of the “big three” in astrology. On the ballad, Rapp details the turmoil she experiences with her significant other, admitting in the chorus “I could blame the Gemini Moon, but really, I should just be better to you.” “Gemini Moon” takes a candid, but despondent, approach to storytelling, revealing yet another dimension of Rapp’s songwriting style. “I don’t think I’ve ever written a happy song,” Rapp confessed at one point to the conference. Although this sounds hard-to-believe, it ends up ringing true on closer inspection of Snow Angel’s tracklist — the self-deprecating “Talk Too Much,” the haunting realization of mortality on “I Wish,” and even the uptempo, but saddening “Pretty Girls.” Rapp’s approach to storytelling is, indeed, direct and sorrowful (at times) — however, Rapp’s candor is one of the many selling points of Snow Angel, fulfilling one of her earliest desires of being a good storyteller.
photo by Katia Temkin.
Perhaps the most compelling element of Snow Angel is Rapp’s openness on her bisexuality. Rapp, who has been out of the closet for almost ten years, attributes the LGBTQ+ community (or the “alphabet army,” she hilariously adds) as one of the many reasons for her success in entertainment. “The more that you’re publicly accepted, the more that you’re going to be accepted,” she notes — a statement that mirrors the countless references to LGBTQ+ romance and love on Snow Angel. On this album and throughout the conference, Rapp made it clear how fortunate she was to have the queer community around her, adding yet another dimension to Rapp and her impressive debut LP.
Although she attributes her many successes to delusions of grandeur, Reneé Rapp will always accomplish the things she puts her mind to. Snow Angel is an impressive, angsty, well-calibrated pop album, and if Rapp continues on the trajectory she is on, she will certainly mirror the career paths of her musical contemporaries (a la Billie Eilish & Olivia Rodrigo). Reneé Rapp is a wise soul and a breath of fresh air, and it was the utmost privilege to be able to speak with her about her spectacular debut. Listen to Snow Angel on steaming platforms today.
edited by Alyssa Manthi.
photos by Katia Temkin.
