Raven Shelley is a casual creator of chaos who doesn't quite fit into the modern world with her strangely intense, complex, and honest folk-tinged music. Influenced by her love for literature, poetry and visual mediums, and drawing inspiration from artists such as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Raven has a unique sound and a big passion for the arts.
Raven’s new single Ariel is a tribute to the work and tragically short life of Sylvia Plath and marks the 60th anniversary of her death.
“Sylvia Plath is my favourite poet. I was reading her extraordinary final collection of poems, and have interwoven many of her lines with my own into the lyrics in Ariel."
Growing up in the south of France, Raven Shelley taught herself English literature from a young age and went on to study it at university. It was this that impacted her desire
to create lyrics that can also be described as poetry. For Raven, “all the hurt, all the anger, all the love, everything that runs through me can be found somewhere in my songs. To write something real, you have to pour yourself onto the page and into the songs.”
In addition to music, Raven also draws inspiration from authors and visual artists
such as Thomas Hardy, William Shakespeare, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and Vincent Van Gogh.
Raven currently lives in Manchester where she gigs and continues to improve her craft. At her core, she tries to be kind to living things, especially animals, and be respectful to nonliving ones. She strives to be honest and fearless in unconventionality and not submit to a mundane acceptance of the status quo.
Raven has teamed up with The OLLIE Foundation, a suicide prevention charity, who are donating a series of training sessions to people in music who have become vulnerable to intrusive and overwhelming thoughts or want to know how to support a friend, colleague or loved one struggling with overwhelming thoughts.
The OLLIE Foundation was set up in 2016 by three parents who had each lost a son to suicide. They met in bereavement support and vowed to do all they could to stop another family going through the heartache they were experiencing. OLLIE stands for One Life Lost Is Enough. The Foundation provides a wide range of wellbeing, prevention and intervention events, training, talks and panel events for professionals, parents and young people, and they were shortlisted for The UK Mental
Health and Wellbeing Awards 2022.