Actress-turned-singer Reneé Rapp has been doubling down on her music career since the release of her debut studio album Snow Angel in 2023. Last year, she wrapped up her stint on The Sex Lives of College Girls after a breakout performance in the Mean Girls musical film adaptation. Now, the North Carolina-bred star is back with her sophomore LP, Bite Me.
Rapp first gave a taste — or a bite, if you will — of the album with lead single “Leave Me Alone” in May and followed it up with singles “Mad” and “Why Is She Still Here?’” When making the album, she looked to icons like Alanis Morissette and Joan Jett to inform her vision of what it should sound like. While she recorded her last album while juggling long days filming Mean Girls, she was able to hunker down more forcefully for Bite Me, resulting in a finished product she’s proud of.
“I tried to be more careful and cognizant of my time spent making this project, not only taking time to make it, but also really controlling what was going on around me,” she told Rolling Stone. “I started seeking my own approval, which was the biggest difference. And not only did I try to cultivate my own approval, but I was trying to cultivate my own environment.”
Though Rapp has been kinder to herself, she still worries if it will translate incorrectly in others’ perception of herself.
“My biggest fear is being misunderstood,” she told InStyle. “I’m a very passionate person. I’m very sensitive. I am protective. I think that sometimes people can construe that as me just being a b***h. I just have very big emotions and I feel very hard. It was really hard to live like that when I was a kid. It was very difficult.”
The Bite Me Tour kicks off Sept. 23 in Denver and wraps up March 19 in London.