Jordan Rakei


Jordan Rakei is a New Zealand-Australian musician, singer, songwriter and record producer currently based in London, United Kingdom. Rakei has also released and performed under the moniker Dan Kye.

Early life

Rakei was born in the small town of Tokoroa on New Zealand's North Island to a New Zealander mother and a Pacific Islander father, a Māori from the Cook Islands. At the age of three, Rakei and his family moved to Brisbane, Australia. Growing up, he played the piano and guitar, and later learned digital production with an Akai MPC sampler. He lived in Brisbane until he made the move to London in 2015.

Music career

Early career and debut album

Rakei's first release was Franklin's Room EP in 2013, self-released via Bandcamp, aged 21 years old. Less than a year later in 2014, Rakei's second release, Groove Curse EP, was the first release on the Soul Has No Tempo label. Less than a year after this EP, he made the move to London. After working with artists such as FKJ and Tom Misch, in December 2015 he was part of a Grammy nomination for his work on Disclosure's track "Masterpiece", released on their 2015 album Caracal.
Rakei released his debut album Cloak through his own label, 4101 Records on 3 June 2016. Later that year, he unveiled his dancefloor alias Dan Kye, and released his first EP, titled Joy, Ease, Lightness, on Rhythm Section records.

''Wallflower'' and subsequent releases

On 6 June 2017, it was announced that Rakei had signed to Ninja Tune records and would be releasing his next album with them. With this announcement came the release of his new single "Sorceress". Later that month, he made his Glastonbury Festival live debut on the Pussy Parlure stage.
On 22 September 2017, Wallflower was released on Ninja Tune. Wallflower was later shortlisted for 'Best Album' in the 2017 Australian Music Prize. A month later, on 25 October, Rakei released his Spotify Live EP, including a cover of "Lost" by Frank Ocean. A tour of North America in spring 2018 included a performance at SXSW Festival and a live session for Jason Bentley's radio show on KCRW.
In 2018, Rakei released the single "Wildfire," released on 10 May 2018, and also provided the vocals on the 2018 Nightmares on Wax track "Typical."
On 26 February 2019, Rakei released "Mind's Eye," the first single from his then unannounced third album. On 23 April 2019, Rakei announced this new album, titled Origin, and released a new single from it, "Say Something". The album was released on 14 June 2019. Rakei supported the record with a series on music festival dates in Summer 2019 and then began a subsequent world tour, beginning that August in Brisbane and ending in November 2019 in Brooklyn, New York. During the tour, he recorded a set for NPR Music's "Tiny Desk Concerts" series which was published online on 13 January 2020.

Discography

Albums