To succeed in juxtaposing disciplines in tandem is a feat that many creatives dream of achieving. More than ever, we now see artists trying their luck in the acting world, and vice versa, to varying degrees of success. For Jacob Anderson – or Raleigh Ritchie – though, acting nor artistry never felt like a venture into something new.
Anderson can be found worshiping a white-haired queen as Grey Worm in Game of Thrones and skulking in the shadows as Louis de Pointe du Lac in Interview with the Vampire. Right now though, Anderson is likely to be found shutting down a stage under his musical moniker, Rayleigh Ritchie. It’s been an impressive, decorated artistic tenure that is now a decade deep, with a Stormzy collaboration, a reputation for a killer hook, and multiple noteworthy projects, all notches off the Ritchie bedpost.
This year, the polymath returned to the music sphere for the first time since 2021, sharing a smattering of singles in the run-up to his newly unveiled project, “DEAD ENDS AND DIVERSIONS”. Coined as a 13 track EP, with several recordings plucked from his live show at the O2, it’s a comprehensive and mature work, a body of pop-laden progression and potency that refines the Ritchie sound, whilst exploring a wider array of stylistic tendencies and looking back at the approach that first brought listeners into his sonic universe. Tackling love, loss, change and humanity across the sprawling collection of cuts, it’s clear Anderson is a meticulous communicator – whether through the intimacy of his performance or the honesty of his words.
With the new EP set to further cement him in the upper echelons of the UK cohort, and with the first of two consecutive sold-out shows at The Outernet talking place tonight, we connected with Anderson, discussing early influences, finding his sonic identity, and the process behind “DEAD ENDS AND DIVERSIONS”.
Listen to the new EP…
Read the exclusive interview…
How are things? What have you been up to recently?
I’ve mostly been doing press for a TV show I worked on, Interview with the Vampire. It was a really intense and beautiful experience, but I’m looking forward to having a break over the summer. Hanging out with my kids.
How was your creative upbringing? Did you always know you wanted to work with music and film? When and how did things start for you?
I think I did always know, yeah. I didn’t know how I’d do it, or even what I’d want to do – but growing up all my happiest memories are of watching movies and listening to music. That’s where I felt safe and whole. And I just dedicated all of my energy to finding things. I always looked for things that challenged me in some way, because then I would need to give it more attention. As a kid I just wanted to work at a cinema or a record store. To this day, one of my favourite jobs ever was working in the stockroom at Virgin Megastore. I gave all my wages back to the store. I would have done anything to be around stories to be honest. Whether that was in a mail room or an office or whatever.
Do you remember some of your first influences, both personally and professionally?
I think my influences all just sort of blend together at a certain point. I think that’s why it’s hard to pinpoint what genre I fit into. I was just as influenced by Michel Gondry or the film Sweet Charity as I was Erykah Badu or Philip Glass or the Spice Girls or something. I just always fucked with anything that had a bunch of heart. Where all the feelings were up in the throat. Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen were definitely big game changers for me as a teenager because they wrote these really personal, confessional songs and it felt like they were purging something in their music, but in this very local way. The britishness of it made it feel more accessible.
How would you define your sound today? Do you feel like you’ve found your sonic identity, or do you consider yourself an exploratory artist?
I think my big secret is that I don’t really have a sonic identity, and if I found one that would be my cue to stop. That would be boring. I feel like music is an expression of who you are as a person, and for me that’s encompassed by lots of very different and sometimes disparate sounds. The only thing I guess that’s been consistent for me is using strings. But I think that’s more about storytelling, and trying to evoke or articulate the extremes of how something feels. Blowing it up.
Congratulations for “DEAD ENDS AND DIVERSIONS”! What are your expectations for the release? Can you share some insights into the creative process behind this EP?
I really have no expectations. I think in some way, I just want to let people in on whatever the process of making a debut album was back then. Like what’s the alternate reality, you know? I love things like that. I also just still had songs that I wrote that felt meaningful in some way but never made it onto the album for a variety of reasons, largely my own hang ups. So really, I think it’s more a case of “Why not?”.
How does this project reflect your evolution as an artist since your last album?
It’s not really an evolution at all. It’s like a retrospective. It’s a re-evaluation or something. It’s been really fun to dig into the vaults and rediscover things, and hear myself at a time where I was so hard on myself. I’m proud of these songs, and for some reason at the time I wasn’t. It’s cathartic. I was never as bad as I thought I was. Maybe that’s the evolution, i’m less of a perfectionist. It’s kind of a cool thing to move forward with that in mind.
You also have two sold-out nights at The Outernet ahead of you this summer. What’s your favourite thing about performing live?
I don’t know. I have to find that again. That’s the exciting thing about these shows for me. It’s going to be a bit of an experiment. I think I used to find shows really cathartic, jumping around and getting all this energy out and reliving what the songs were – but I also think there was something self-destructive about it. Like I was voicing all these really personal things about myself, and people were watching me and didn’t know how much it hurt sometimes to relive things. This will be a new thing I think. I’m a little calmer now. It can just be fun.
What do you hope listeners take away from “DEAD ENDS AND DIVERSIONS”, and how do you see your sound evolving in future projects?
I actually hope people listen to this and realise that whatever they’re working on, whether it’s creative and public or just personal, that everything is a process, everything has value. Zooming out and getting some perspective can be really powerful. These songs won’t be perfect, they’re not super polished or even finished in some cases – but we made them. They were things we made and they meant something at the time and that’s sort of lovely. If you make something, why not share it? You never know, it could make someone happy, or feel seen in some way. And as for how my sound will evolve in the future; who knows. I think that’s the fun of it.