Raveena is feeling sick. It’s a gloomy day in mid-March when we’re supposed to meet at one of the musician’s favorite food spots, the beloved South Asian canteen Punjabi Deli in lower Manhattan. But only an hour before we’re scheduled to talk, her publicist texts me that Raveena has a sore throat from her red eye flight and wants to do a phone interview instead. Considering that the coronavirus outbreak has begun to hit New York City hard, I agree, sadly pushing visions of chana masala and warm basmati rice from my mind.

“I don't think I have the roni,” Raveena assures me light-heartedly later that afternoon, when we finally get on the line. She’s calling from her home in Queens, and politely declines to turn on FaceTime because, as she describes it, her house is “chaotic.” Her voice, which is soft and saccharine, usually sounds effortlessly luxurious in her lush R&B songs that have garnered over a million listeners worldwide. But a tinge of stress materializes when she describes the “millions of boxes” around her. She’s about to move from New York to Pasadena in just four days' time, all while working on her next album.

The 25-year-old musician just happens to be undergoing a major life change in the midst of a major world crisis. The decision to switch coasts happened “kind of suddenly,” she says, and was prompted by a recent breakup with her ex-boyfriend and musical collaborator, Everett Orr, who has produced every song she’s released in the past five years. After meeting at the prestigious Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU (which, full disclosure, I attended at the same time), they began to create the songs that would appear on Raveena’s 2017 breakout Shanti EP.

Not only did her debut project exhibit her penchant for painting entire intimate dreamscapes with just a few lyrics, but it also introduced to the world her transporting R&B that pulls at once from Bollywood soundtracks, the luxurious soul of D’Angelo, and the jazzy melodies of Norah Jones. Then, when she came out as bisexual with her 2018 single “Temptation,” Raveena swiftly gained a cult following for her sensual depictions of queer romance and sexuality.

Her most recent album, 2019’s Lucid, saw her mature even more as an artist. Throughout, she revealed more of her personal history with abuse and intergenerational trauma as a child of Indian immigrants, all while weaving in themes of sexual liberation and spiritual self-healing. It established Raveena as an emerging star who is unafraid to be a voice for fellow “brown weirdos,” as she puts it. “I want to create a space for all types of outsiders, survivors, queer people, people with depression, people who just felt like they didn't fit growing up,” she says, her voice taking on a somber tone.