Rachel Ashley Platten studied classical piano from the age of 5 and dreamt about music as a career but never really thought it could happen in real life. "I grew up playing classical piano and I knew I could sing but I had no model to follow creatively," she said. "The idea of growing up to be an artist seemed impossible."
As a teenager, Rachel gravitated towards, and began to become affected by what on the face of it are two completely different genres; hip-hop and female singer-songwriters. "My CD collection was Tori Amos and Patti Griffin but then A Tribe Called Quest and Nas," she recalled. The link between the two was confessional and vulnerable songwriting.
She graduated with a degree in international relations in 2003, but the electricity Platten felt on stage meant that the 22-year-old knew she had to pursue music full-time. Rachel immediately moved to New York City where she took up residence in the very apartment building on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village where Bob Dylan once lived.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.