Rafay Rashid, born in Islamabad, Pakistan and bred in New York and Rhode Island, makes experimental pop and no-wave songs that are confessional, ecstatic, and confrontational. His writing emerged as a response to growing up a Muslim kid in the neoliberal hellspace of post-9/11 America. Ravi Shavi, the name of his band, became a persona and vehicle for both radical healing and anarchic humor as he crafted a niche amidst the noise and freak folk music scenes of Providence, Rhode Island in the late 00’s.  Since then, he has cut his teeth touring independently throughout the past decade opening for such acts as Charles Bradley, Of Montreal, Man Man, Budos Band, Los Lobos and the Black Lips. In addition to fronting his band, Ravi Shavi, which has become a staple of the underground Providence music scene, he has been the featured performer at the 2017 Whitney Biennial Gala, the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, the 2021 Newport Folk Festival and also writes and performs with 3/4ths of Deer Tick in their side project, Happiness, which released a full-length album in 2019 called “Live”. Ravi Shavi has released four albums via Brooklyn-based Almost Ready Records and are set to release their new LP "Wild Rock Dove" in 2026.