Reiyo The Giant Talks “Trick Of The Night,” Grief, and Finding Her Way Through Fear

Ahead of her debut album, the Bronx-born artist opens up about trusting her instincts, navigating loss, and creating a world where nothing is quite as it seems.

What happens when the things you've always known suddenly feel unfamiliar?

For Reiyo The Giant, that question sits at the heart of Trick Of The Night, her forthcoming debut album arriving November 6 via Safari Riot. Blending soul, ambient electronics, and cinematic textures, the Bronx-born, Atlanta-based artist has created a record shaped by grief, fear, and the strange ways our minds can change how we experience the world.

Its title track, released October 16, offers a first step into that world. Produced by Anwar Sawyer, “Trick Of The Night” moves through sparse piano, atmospheric electronics, and intimate vocals that gradually become more urgent. There's something unsettling about its restraint, as though the song is holding its breath.

In an exclusive interview with Everyday Jams, Reiyo shared that the track grew out of a period when fear had begun influencing her everyday life.

“Around 2020, I became really aware of how much fear could change the way I interacted with the world,” she explained.

By the time she wrote the song in Los Angeles in 2024, she was ready to confront that feeling rather than continue letting it shape her experiences.

“I wanted to explore that tension between trusting your instincts and realizing that fear can sometimes distort them, and saying that out loud became the center of the song.”

A Familiar House, An Unfamiliar Feeling

The world surrounding Trick Of The Night is as personal as it is imaginative.

Reiyo describes the album as moving through a familiar house where something feels slightly wrong in every room. It's a striking image, but one rooted in real loss.

“I lost my great-grandmother, uncle, and aunt within four years, and their absence shifted the way I experienced people and places I had known my whole life.”

That experience became the foundation for the record's concept. Each song represents a different room, reflecting how grief can change even the places and memories that once felt permanent.

Originally, Reiyo intended to tell the story chronologically. But as the album developed, she realized grief rarely follows a predictable path.

“There's a beginning and an end, but everything in the middle is messy.”

Rather than forcing the songs into a traditional narrative, she allowed the record to move through those emotions as they came.

It's an approach that makes sense for an artist who has never seemed particularly interested in fitting neatly into one category.

Building a World Through Sound

Reiyo's music moves between soul, ambient, and electronic influences, but her creative process begins somewhere less technical.

“I'm definitely a texture-and-feeling-first kind of artist,” she told us.

For “Trick Of The Night,” she and Sawyer began by sharing music and exploring the atmosphere they wanted to create. As the instrumentation took shape, Reiyo wrote down a few phrases that captured its mood: “dark & dreamy,” “story time,” and “nightmare kinda vibe.”

The result was a production that gave her voice room to tell the story without overwhelming it.

“I wanted the vocal to feel hesitantly confessional, almost like everything leading up to a cry or an outburst.”

That attention to atmosphere runs throughout her artistry. Drawing inspiration from literature, film, television, and music, Reiyo approaches songwriting as an opportunity to create an entire environment around an emotion.

“I'm always observing sound and figuring out what kind of environment can become a home for whatever I'm trying to say.”

And while the music itself can feel mysterious, the person behind it is wonderfully candid.

Reiyo famously describes herself as a “ten-foot lesbian genie from the Bronx,” a phrase born from college daydreams of being ten feet tall in moon boots, running freely through New York City. Combined with her growing interest in astrology and tarot, the image eventually became part of the identity she wanted to create.

It's playful, imaginative, and entirely her own.

Learning to Live With the Questions

Reiyo's debut EP, Romeo, arrived in 2021, exploring love through the perspective of someone navigating abandonment and heartbreak.

Five years later, Trick Of The Night finds her approaching those emotions differently.

“Romeo was written from a fear of abandonment in love. I was younger, defensive, hurting, and the project was reactive in nature,” she shared.

This time, rather than searching outside herself for explanations, she's more interested in understanding where those feelings begin.

“The biggest difference I hear is a willingness to sit with those questions and let them be complicated.”

That willingness to leave things unresolved is what makes this next chapter particularly compelling. Reiyo isn't offering easy answers about grief or fear. She's creating space to acknowledge how complicated those experiences can be.

And ultimately, that's what she hopes listeners carry with them.

“Your path inward doesn't have to mean backward. You can feel all of it and still keep moving.”

It's a fitting thought to leave behind as she prepares to release her first full-length record.

With Trick Of The Night, Reiyo The Giant is inviting listeners into a world that might feel unfamiliar at first, only to discover pieces of themselves waiting inside.

“Trick Of The Night”‍ ‍by Reiyo The Giant is out now on all major streaming platforms. Stream the single and explore Reiyo The Giant's previous releases ahead of her debut album, Trick Of The Night, arriving November 6 via Safari Riot.