Gulf Coast singer-songwriter Raiwylde, aka Ceejay Lewis, performs in the Little Room at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs.
Raiwylde, aka Ceejay Lewis, is a musician that has been playing multiple instruments for as long as he can remember. He found resonance with his preferred instruments piano during sophomore year of high school and guitar since the 7th grade. The Biloxi native performs originals and covers at various events and venues when they aren’t running their home studio or curating playlists for inspiration. As they explore traveling more for music and enlarging their brand with merchandise, we're thankful Raiwylde was able to find time to interview with us:
1. What is the biggest challenge you come across with music?
Finding inspiration and holding onto it is the biggest challenge for sure. I'm more of a ‘sprinter’ with my creative process in general. I usually create in bursts of inspiration; I get as much done as I can before I settle into refining what I created. I often feel like I'm always waiting for the match to light.
2. What is the biggest takeaway you have with music?
The biggest takeaway from music for me would be best portrayed through one of my uncle's sentiments he shared with me. It is the most enduring. “The ability for music, these organized vibrations, to change someone's internal feelings and mood? The power of that is rather beautiful.”
3. What song did you play for Little Room Sessions, and may you tell us more about it?
The name of the song is "Brave." I wrote it sometime late 2018 or early 2019 while I was going to school at USM in Hattiesburg. I made most of the beat at the Starbucks on campus, but I also recorded some of it in my dorm room and at the on-campus recording studio. Most of the music I make is inspired by my adventures in love and relationships, or, more specifically, the things that I would maybe not normally be ‘brave’ enough to actually say to a woman's face. The whole approaching process makes me very anxious, so the song is following my inner chatter about what I tell myself to get myself through it.
4. What resonates with you the most about Little Room Sessions and your connection to Walter Anderson and the Museum?
The serendipitous nature of me ending up somewhere that continuously makes me feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be and doing what I'm supposed to be doing resonates the most. To inspire others to dig deeper into their connection to nature, maybe even their own natures, is an effort I think Walter would have appreciated.
The Little Room, moved to the museum from Shearwater Pottery, was the artist's refuge on the mainland. It became a world apart, its walls covered with a synthesis of the natural world - the sea, woods, and creatures from the earth and sky. All were captured through Walter's vision of the life cycle of a day, from morning to night. The Little Room was a generous gift of the Family of Walter Anderson.
The Little Room Sessions invites musicians to provide contemporary soundtracks to this timeless and contemplative space.