Jensen McRae

Jensen McRae

Jensen McRae is a singer-songwriter from Santa Monica, United States, working in bedroom pop and singer-songwriter styles. Born in 1997, she writes in a direct, introspective mode and is known for sharp, clear-eyed songs.

Songwriting and themes

McRae keeps journals and has been documenting her life since she is 18. Her writing often turns personal experience into song, and she describes part of her work as a quiet coming-of-age that takes place largely in her own mind. Her songs also draw on romantic turbulence and the effects of intimacy and love, including the emotional impact of two back-to-back relationships in her early twenties.

Albums and recording

I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! is linked to this period of growth and relationship change. McRae records it in North Carolina with producer Brad Cook, who has worked with Waxahatchee, Suki Waterhouse and Bon Iver. The album also features Hippo Campus guitarist Nathan Stocker, Bon Iver drummer Matthew McCaughan, and her younger brother Holden McRae on keys.

The title of her second album comes from a line in Back to the Future, one of her favourite films. McRae connects that reference with the idea of surviving something that could have overwhelmed her, but did not.