Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra Discusses Musical Evolution Ahead of Cincinnati Show

Hurray for the Riff Raff’s latest album, the aptly titled The Past Is Still Alive , is among the most enthralling statements to surface in this complicated year of 2024 — the creative apex of its fearless leader and only constant Alynda Segarra’s journey from street-informed rabble-rouser to a songwriter and performer of uncommon power and insight. Segarra’s deft lyrical tales and striking voice, which recall a melding of Lucinda Williams and Patti Smith, have powered a string of recordings since 2007, each a melting pot of folk, blues, roots, rock and Cajun music.

But it wasn’t until 2017’s The Navigator — a fascinating concept album about Segarra’s full-circle return to their Bronx/Puerto Rican roots — that a wider audience began to take notice. The follow-up, 2022’s Life on Earth , was just as stellar if slightly less conceptual. And now, The Past Is Still Alive proves to be an impressively textured, cinematic travelogue through the life and times of an artist unafraid to tap into elemental themes both timeless and personal.

CityBeat recently connected with Segarra — who was taking a break from rehearsing for an upcoming appearance on Austin City Limits — by phone to discuss a creative evolution as fertile as any in recent memory.

CityBeat : It seems like the reception for The Past Is Still Alive is more enthusiastic than anything you’ve done to this point. Do you feel that way?

Alynda Segarra: For sure, especially live. I’ve felt such a difference in the emotion coming from the crowd singing along. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced a lot of singing along, which is something I’ve obviously wanted. It feels incredible to be like, “Wow, these songs are touching people in this way.” The reaction has been really amazing.

I’m definitely the biggest critic of myself. I love the songs that I’ve written but I’m also kind of obsessed with the craft of it, and these songs are definitely the best songs I’ve written. There are (older) songs that I love, like “Pa’lante” (from The Navigator ) for example, but these songs are just really catching people because they’re well crafted. I also feel like the subject matter is very relatable. So many people have dealt with loss and addiction and grief and just changes in their lives that feel really overwhelming. There is a lot about this record that’s touching people right now.

CB : You’ve talked about the fact that you wrote this record from more of a first-person perspective than you have in the past. Why were you interested in writing in that way this time?

AS: With enough time and space from my late-teenage, early-twenties years, I’ve been able to have a different perspective on it. I also was a little bit afraid to focus on it too much because it was so much of what people loved to focus on during interviews. I spent a lot of my late twenties worried that I was a novelty because I rode (freight) trains and ran away (from the Bronx at age 17 to the eventual longtime home of New Orleans) as opposed (to interviewers) focusing on the art. So now I think with a little bit of time and just feeling like I’m proud of the work I’ve done, and I’ve proven whatever I felt I needed to prove, it was just enough space for me to be like, “This is the life I’ve lived, these are the people I knew.” I felt like I wanted to preserve them somehow. There is so much a theme of loss with this record and being like, “What do I do with all these people that are not around anymore?” So, it felt very natural to create like a photo album with this record.

CB : I didn’t realize this until I started doing research; the songs on the album were already written before and then recorded two weeks after your father passed. What was it like to have that happen just before recording these songs?

AS: When he passed, I felt this big wave of, “Wow, it all makes sense.” It was a surreal feeling of, “Wow, this is the moment.” I also felt so grateful to have an album to record because it was what really got me through, something to focus on, something to keep busy with, but I also was rethinking my life and taking inventory. I think a lot of that initially was about coming out of COVID. We had this big period where we were like, “Is this the end of everything?” So, coming out of that it was, “Let’s look back. What do we do with all these memories and what do we do with all this time that has passed, and then how do we move forward?” Then when I lost him it all just struck home in a deeper way.

CB : There’s a cohesive and particular aesthetic to this album beyond just the music and lyrics. The album packaging, promotional photos and videos complement the music, allowing the listener a more immersive experience. Did you pay special attention to that aspect?

AS: Totally. I obsessed over it. It’s also one of my favorite things (in the process). I really love film. I started making a mood board pretty early on, and that helped me in the writing as well. I was watching My Own Private Idaho , I was watching Paris, Texas , I was watching Badlands and just turning on these films on the Criterion channel that are really spacious and also really mysterious. I was thinking a lot about these American archetypes or icons like River Phoenix. I was really trying to hone into that. And, of course, I always have Patti Smith floating around in my psyche.

CB : Speaking of Patti, I came across a live performance on YouTube you did of “Pa’lante” in Toronto earlier this year. I had never seen Patti live until last year, and it was more powerful emotionally than I expected. What you did with “Pa’lante” evokes similar vibes.

AS: She’s incredible, right? She’s like a shaman. When I watch music documentaries about The Beatles or about (Bob) Dylan, something that comes up a lot is people saying when they saw Elvis on TV, a doorway opened in their mind. They’re like, “Whoa, I think I could do that.” Of course, then it leads them to becoming themselves. But that moment for me was when I was lucky enough to go to Electric Lady Studios for the 40th anniversary of Horses . She played it live, the whole record with the original band members in the studio where she recorded it 40 years earlier. That was right before I finished The Navigator , and when I walked out of there, I felt like something opening up in me and saying, “This is a possibility, this is the type of energy and lineage that I’d like to be a part of, that I feel like is in me somewhere.” She means so much to me in that way. When I read (Smith’s memoir) Just Kids , that was the first time I was able to be like, “I’m a fucking artist,” and really claim it and walk that walk with more confidence. I’m always thinking about her.

Hurray for the Riff Raff plays Woodward Theater on July 15 at 7:30 p.m. More info: woodwardtheater.com .

This story is featured in CityBeat's July 10 print edition.