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RABÔT FEMALE PORTRAIT SERIES. MEET ARIELLE AND BRYN
We’re celebrating female creatives based in Los Angeles who are inspiring to us at RABÔT.
Meet Arielle Sitrick and Bryn Graham McRee, photographed on film by Bella Gadsby.
R E L is the artist project of LA-based singer-songwriter, Arielle Sitrick. She makes music of a genre she coined, "EVOCAPOP", evocative pop music. R E L grew up in Chicago and then LA, with musical influences ranging from the Rolling Stones, Beatles, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire and Beach Boys to Sara Bareilles, Sia, Florence and the Machine and Beyoncé. She released her self-titled debut EP in 2015, which she funded with a successful kickstarter campaign. Industry tastemakers and music lovers called the project dream pop, alt r&b and electro pop. R E L ‘s music brings her enchanting ethereal vocals together with thoughtful emotive lyrics and both electronic and organic production elements. Since dropping her first project, R E L has released several singles, an album (EVOCAPOP Side A, the first piece of a three side visual album project), a collaborative EP with long-time collaborator, Jynjo, and in 2020 she co-wrote and performed a song called “Night City” for feature in the video game, "Cyberpunk 2077," which was used for the game trailer and has become a fan favorite across the globe. “Night City” has amassed over 20 million streams across platforms. R E L has played several shows in LA and NY since 2015, at venues and showcases including School Night, The Echo, Resident, Hotel Cafe, Moroccan Lounge, BMI Acoustic Lounge, Rockwood Music Hall and Peppermint Club. As an independent artist, she has amassed over 13 million Spotify streams and 6 million Youtube streams. She has been in the studio working on her second album, EVOCAPOP Side B, along with a couple other projects.
Bryn Graham McRee is a movement artist based in Los Angeles. She is currently dancing with Hollywood Ballet under the leadership of Petra Conti following four years in San Jose dancing with New Ballet. Bryn earned her Theatre BA from the University of Southern California where she was a frequent editor of friends' papers and guest star in their student films. She met REL ten years ago at orientation and they have been friends ever since. In her work as a dancer, teacher, and movement director, she values precision and musicality as the means to enhance human expression and connectivity.
Q: How has living in Los Angeles fostered your career?
Arielle - "It's the city of dreamers, of storytellers, of performers and artists. It has its quirks and shadows, and of course it attracts those who come purely for what's shiny, but it really is a magical city with a whole lot of beauty and soul. I'm very inspired by this city I call home. I moved here with my parents just before I turned 14. It was a few weeks before my freshman year of high school. I had grown up in a suburb of Chicago, and change always used to be very scary for me – even when my mom sold her car I'd grown up with...I was so upset that I threatened to go with the car to its new owners. So, moving was a big challenge for me. It was also an opportunity in many ways. The move to LA broke my heart by having to leave all the friends I'd had from childhood and the home I'd always known. However, I have been a storyteller, singer and performer since I could talk and I was very excited about getting to be in a city where the movies that so inspired me were made. My parents were neeever stage parents - they were academics and though they knew I loved acting and singing, they had never let me pursue it professionally (as a child in Chicago). When we moved to LA, my mom said I could start to pursue it more if I wanted, but that it would be on me to reach out to agents and put that work in (she would drive me to auditions though!). You asked about my career and I went all the way back to childhood – oops! My brain likes to jump around. I'll fast forward to college: I went to USC, majoring in Narrative Studies with a Songwriting minor. I did my first real co-write in my first ever songwriting class (though I had been writing songs since I was a kid) and that song ended up being on my debut EP a year later ("All That Bite"). Since then, I've collaborated with lots of amazing artists here in LA, both musically and visually. I started playing shows as R E L my freshman or sophomore year of college, and have since played at so many venues around this city, including some pretty historic ones. I've also seen so many great shows here. This city has a heartbeat and a mystical energy that has certainly influenced my music, creative expression and career."
Bryn - "My husband and I moved back to LA about six months last ago after living in the Bay Area for four years and it has been the best decision I've made for my career as well as my personal life. LA feels good to me, smog notwithstanding. I think it helps to have gone to school here—coming back felt like coming home. Even outside of the film industry the energy in LA feels more focused on creativity and collaboration than any other place I've lived and every time I take an open ballet class or go to a random music event I leave feeling inspired in some way. The city is alive with opportunity. When we moved back I had reached a turning point in my career where I felt open to new situations and definitions of myself as a movement artist, in a way that I'd not felt secure to before. It was certainly scary to jump into the unknown like that...but by taking a chance and showing up to things genuinely, as the artist I am, ready to meet people I'm creatively intrigued by, I've been able to do some of the best and most unexpected work of my career so far and I'm feeling more inspired than ever. I got to perform at the Peacock Theatre in front of 7,000 people and I did my first barefoot pas de deux with another woman at Hollywood Ballet. I never would have thought those things possible a year ago. It feels like a new era."
Q: What is Evocapop? How did you come up with this genre of music?
Arielle - "EVOCAPOP is my genre of music and it is also the name of my 3-side album, and much more! I created the genre from "evocative" and "pop" - to me, pop is less about a particular set of sonic elements and more about what's current (like the way the Beatles were pop in their day). It really came about after I'd seen a blog post about my project that called my music "PBR&B". I had to look that up and the PB stands for Pabst beer, which apparently gets associated with hipsters...so essentially it translates to hipster R&B. Now, if you look up PBR&B there are some really amazing artists categorized in the genre, including Abel Tesfaye, Frank Ocean, Sza and FKA Twigs. That being said, I don't like beer and at 20 years old, I didn't like to be told what I was, so having grown up with a dad who was an inventor, among other things, I knew if I didn't like what existed, I could create something new. Not long after this, I was doing an interview and they asked my genre...I said, "evocapop, music that makes you think and feel." From there, I built the world of the story I wanted to tell with my project. I used to get on my soapbox about popular music today and how the melodies are amazing and the lyrics are lacking in heart and substance. Unsolicited, I don't go off on this too often anymore, but I do believe music holds great power, and when an artist or label has a huge platform, they could put so much good into the world, especially if their lyrics were grounded in love. Lyrics don't have to be cheesy to be grounded in love, but so much of popular music today revolves around materialism, power, sex and money as opposed to love, peace and hope. The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Otis Redding, Whitney Houston – their music was primarily grounded in heart. So evocapop lives in the heart space."
Q: Since ballet is so physically demanding, how do you relax and rest on the days when you’re not dancing?
Bryn - "Rest and recovery is a major component of a ballet career, and I'm constantly connecting with how my body feels to ensure that I'm not at risk of injury or getting sick. This can be challenging when you're balancing multiple jobs that require physically demanding activity. I've learned to have regular yoga, stretching, and breathwork practices in my life to maintain a sense of connection with my instrument and joy in simply moving and feeling for myself in a non aesthetically-centered way. On weeknights I often stretch or roll out while watching TV with my husband and we walk to the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sundays. I love to go to Heimat several times a week to take a class and use the sauna or just decompress at the rooftop pool by myself with a book."
Q: What inspires you about each other?
Arielle - "So much!! Bryn and I met at college orientation. She was the first friend I made on campus and has remained one of my best friends. We were both in an honors alternative to the regular GEs that was much more reading and writing intensive. We are two book lovers. Bryn has a brilliant mind and a big heart – huge in fact. She is so talented and humble. Not only is she a professional ballerina, but she is a very talented actor, writer and singer too. I got to see her dance in her new ballet company over the holidays :) She's so graceful and strong! Bryn and I can talk for hours about anything, and she's an amazing friend. She's always had an ear for my heartache or excitement, a shoulder for me to cry on, a big beautiful brain to brainstorm, problem-solve, laugh and play with, and a spirit to dance through life with. She cheers me on and supports me from the sidelines, side-stage and...on set! Last month, she helped with movement direction for the "Intuition" music video, which was actually our first (of hopefully many) time(s) collaborating together. Bryn, I love you!"
Bryn - "REL has been my friend for ten years and I feel that she is my soul sister. It's been inspiring to watch her discover her written voice as a songwriter and hear the evolution of her singing voice. She truly puts care into her craft and seeking out collaborators who will push her work to a new level. REL is meticulous and sensitive and it's courageous in how she shows these things in her art.
Each evolution of REL's music has felt like a true reflection of the person and the artist on her journey. Being able to show who she truly is without being afraid to explore new sounds and visual forms is so courageous and every time I receive a little voice note on my phone of something she's working on it gets me hyped.
As a friend she is truly kind and understanding and I always feel heard and loved after spending time together. This generous spirit comes across in her art: REL exudes a clear purpose to share parts of herself in order to connect to and uplift others. She even invented her own genre of Evocapop, a word which I feel captures her essence. Not to mention, her voice is pristine even in voice note form...it's incredible. Working with her on movement for the Intuition video was very special to me, she created a whole allegorical visual to bring this song to life and her acting performance gives me chills."
