Meet the singer-songwriter weaving literature, Black femininity and grief into her signature sound.

There’s something disarming about Jensen McRae: her presence is at once grounded and quietly seismic. Born and raised in California, the 27-year-old artist doesn’t raise her voice to be heard; instead, she writes songs that settle into your bones and stay there. A poet at heart and a storyteller by instinct, Jensen’s music moves through themes of grief, identity, injustice and love with authenticity and grace.

 

On her sophomore album I Don’t Know But They Found Me, Jensen pulls listeners into the raw, looping landscape of heartbreak and healing. Written over a stretch of emotional upheaval, the project is cathartic but doesn’t offer tidy closure and instead unspools in fragments, feelings, flashbacks. Since emerging with her debut, Jensen McRae has carved out a lane of her own, one shaped by literary depth and political clarity. She’s cited influences from Carole King to Phoebe Bridgers – in fact, alike to Phoebe, she’s taken on her own versions of Bo Burnham’s ‘That Funny Feeling’ which went deservedly viral with Jensen’s sharply updated lyrics – but her voice, both literal and lyrical, is unmistakably hers.

 

Writing to understand herself and the world around her, Jensen McRae offers listeners emotional empowerment and permission to feel. Now, with a sold-out tour underway and new music already taking shape in the wings, the rising singer-songwriter is stepping into her next era and taking us along with her. We caught up with Jensen to talk about growing pains, literary obsessions, imperfect guitar-playing and what it means to find clarity inside the noise.

What has your musical journey looked like? What were your earliest memories of music?

My earliest memories of music are my mom playing me CDs in the car, the little booklet on my lap so I could pick what we played next. I remember singing to myself all the time. It was always a comfort.

What and who has inspired your sound and the themes that you explore within your work?

My parents played me Alicia Keys, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Carole King. My really early songwriting was me imitating them. Later it was Sara Bareilles and Bon Iver; later still was Phoebe Bridgers and Kacey Musgraves. I admire people who are succinct, who can say complex things simply, who make old universal ideas feel brand new.

When did you start songwriting and how have your abilities evolved with age and different lived experiences?

I learned to read really young. I love telling stories. Songwriting became the medium that I felt most accurately depicted the stories I wanted to tell. I feel like age is one of the biggest deciding factors in me getting better as a writer. I’m more confident, I’m more honest, I’ve lived through more and I have more to say.

Poetry and literature is hugely important to you and your creativity, what books have shaped you the most as an artist and a person?

My favourite book is The Idiot by Elif Batuman – that book reflects me in a way that almost nothing else does; I’ll be rereading it constantly for the rest of my life. Before I found that book, though, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury were my favorites and biggest influences. I also found slam poetry as a teen, and Buddy Wakefield’s books were hugely influential. Other important poets to me include Kaveh Akbar and Paige Lewis.

In what way does your identity shape the way you present yourself and the work you produce?

My goal is always to represent an aspect of Black femininity that too often gets overlooked. I want to demonstrate how Black women can be soft and vulnerable just as often as they are strong and powerful. We write about politics, we write about confidence, we write about trauma, but we also write about heartbreak and insecurity and mental health.

Your acoustic guitar stars in a lot of your music. What age did you learn the guitar and how does it aid in your creative process?

I didn’t learn guitar until I was 18, when I was a freshman in college. Honestly a lot of my creative process on guitar stems from how limited I am on it – I’m really not a great guitar player. I know a few things, and I know how to use them as a vehicle to construct my narratives. The constraints on my ability give me freedom to explore in other ways, mainly in my lyrics.

You’ve advocated for human rights and world issues within your work and on social media, how does it feel to use your platform in this way? Do you feel like art can cause social change?

Art is really vital for social change, specifically as a form of escape for the activists on the front lines who risk their lives and livelihoods in order to say what needs to be said. I also think it’s a valuable form of catharsis; me writing a song about an injustice doesn’t save anyone’s life, but it does give the people suffering – and the people who are trying to stop that suffering – permission to cry and process what’s happening.

We’re loving your second album I Don’t Know But They Found Me! Can you tell us a bit about how the project came about?

I wrote the oldest song on the album, ‘Savannah’, about a week after the first album came out. I wrote these songs while processing, in real time, a breakup, and then falling in love again, and then another breakup. As the track list came into focus, I realised I was writing this nonlinear story about how it feels to grieve multiple relationships at once.

What was the creative process like for making the album? Are there any stand-out stories that you’d like to share?

I went to North Carolina for ten days in March 2024 to record all the songs on the album with Brad Cook. I brought my little brother Holden with me to play keys. It was one of the most fun and rewarding musical experiences of my life. We were all so creatively synced and all equally passionate about the songs and the story they were telling. I know how much I love my own music, and so it’s especially nourishing to realize I have creative partners who feel just as enthusiastic as I do.

You’re touring a lot in 2025 – what are you most looking forward to, both travelling and touring?

I’ve been really loving hearing what songs each crowd responds to each night. I love taking out one of my in-ears and hearing the crowd sing along to the songs that resonate with them the most. And really, whether I’m in a city I’ve never visited before or returning to a city I’ve played two or three times already, it feels so good to put faces to the numbers I see on the backend of my streaming analytics every day. That’s really what it’s all about.

What’s next for you?

I’ve got some really exciting stuff to share in the coming months that I can’t talk about just yet. And I’m really excited to get back into the studio and record more of the music I’ve been testing out at these live shows – who knows what form it’s all gonna take right now, I couldn’t say, but I know I’m just getting started!

I Don’t Know But They Found Me! is out now.