Allan Rayman

Enigmatic indie R&B singer Allan Rayman has managed to keep a shadowy profile during his brief music career.

After casually dropping a strangely alluring self-released LP called Hotel Allan in 2015, the Lost Springs, Wyoming native racked up an impressive amount of plays, thanks largely to word of mouth and a series of mysterious videos that play like short films.

Based out of Toronto, Rayman maintained his cryptic presence on-stage as well, singing soulfully to either pre-recorded tracks or minimal instrumentation, then sitting at a small on-stage table sipping a drink between songs while eerie pre-recorded messages play over the P.A. In spite of his low profile, Rayman built a loyal following who eagerly received his second missive, Roadhouse 01, a similarly strange mix of R&B, soul, hip-hop, and folk that chronicles an alter ego called "Mr. Roadhouse".

It was released in early 2017 on Mumford & Sons member Ben Lovett's Communion Records. In 2018, he picked up a Juno Award nomination for Breakthrough Artist of the Year. A full-length, Harry Hard-On, appeared later that year, its titled taken from the 1990 Christian Slater-starring film Pump Up the Volume. Taking the reference even further, Rayman's 2020 album, Christian, was thematically centered around that same film.