RAYE returns with new single "Hard Out Here"

After signing to LA distribution and artist services company Human Re Sources last month, RAYE has delivered her first solo single in over a year, "Hard Out Here", which marks the start of a new chapter for RAYE who parted ways with Polydor Records a year ago after claiming the label was stopping her from releasing her debut album.

"I'd been in that record contract for a third of my life," RAYE explains. "It was a big change to be free. Once I had that closure, it became a journey of healing. Anger was my initial emotion."

She says of the new track, "It's super angry. I was both crying and red with rage, just writing these lyrics, and capturing how I really felt in that moment."

"I didn't want anything to influence what I want to express," RAYE continues. "I'm trying to tell my story, and that's what matters. I don't want to cater to an audience – I want the audience to love me for what I'm saying and what I want to express. "Hard Out Here" is my story, it's not going for the charts."

Although "Hard Out Here" is her first solo outing as an independent artist, she did collaborate with Disclosure on "Waterfall" in March.