Apple Music Session: Jordan Rakei

“I did this session in my home studio,” Jordan Rakei says of making his Apple Music Session. “I walked up the garden with a nice cup of tea one day and created both of these versions. It was really fun doing it all in my little meditation den.” That day also gave the Aotearoa New Zealand singer-songwriter the chance, finally, to cover a song he’s loved for years: Frank Ocean’s “Swim Good”. “‘Swim Good’ is one of my favourite songs ever,” he says. “It's the first song I ever heard from Frank Ocean—it was such a fresh, new take on R&B. I always sing it around the house, but it’s nice to do an official cover of it.” Here, you can hear him perform the song in, as he puts it, “more of a singer-songwriter way” (“the lyrics are so amazing and I wanted to shed more light on them”), alongside, of course, one of his own songs: “Everything Everything” from 2024 record The Loop. Rakei wanted to do something different to the originally layered, building track for this session. “I aimed to strip it back to its original form, which was just me and the guitar,” he says. “I kept elements like the bassline and some of the piano, but I love hearing it without the groove.