What’s in a name? In the wide world of popular music, there exist a privileged few naturally christened with original names—Beyoncé, Prince, Cher—and even fewer who are musically compelling enough to merit the honor. LeTrainiump Richard—mononymously styled simply “LeTrainiump”—sings, composes, and produces pop music that blends the likes of Michael Jackson, New Edition and SWV, flavored with a synthesized something that revamps the ’90s pop spirit that he embodies.

“I’ve gone by ‘Tray’ my entire life, and as an artist I never thought about using my first name because I was so ashamed of it,” Richard admits. “My mom always said that she gave me the name for a reason because she wanted me to do big things.”

“Big things” has been the theme of LeTrainiump’s ascent over this past year, releasing four singles—one on the debut album of the Nola collective GLBL WRMNG and another released just last week called So Alive. The artist’s own vitality and joie de vivre slips past the Great Wall of Zoom through which he and I speak. Though muted here, his style still strikes like a late ’90s time-warp—bright colors to match his even brighter musical style and presence. Aesthetically and musically, he exists in a lane all his own as a black man making pop music. However, Richard acknowledges a certain struggle in individuality, particularly for someone like him in an industry with a tendency to pigeonhole black artists into R&B or rap-adjacent boxes.

“I feel like opportunities have gone around me, you know [to] the person to my left or to my right just because I don’t have the ‘look’ that the next person would have…Blonde hair, blue eyes, you know what I mean. That seems to be the thing, and it seems to be what’s accepted.”

Richard refuses to accept this categorization of both himself and other artists of color. “I don’t wanna see more people lose the opportunity based on the color of their skin or their features. I want people to have equal opportunity or what they can do because they’re actually good at it and they love what they do.” However, it wasn’t until three years ago that Richard decided that pop music was what he loved to do. In fact, his journey to the anachronistic, alt-pop realm spans genres, years and even continents, but began in a little town in the heart of Acadia called Mamou.

“Being from Mamou, Louisiana, it shaped my idea of music because you’re from the zydeco capital of the world,” Richard recalls. “Every party in high school always revolved around zydeco. So, music was like second nature to everyone there. But for me, I actually didn’t start doing it there. I didn’t really start playing music until I was about 14 years old.”

Still, the sounds and rhythms of Mamou figure prominently in his musical mythos; zydeco’s high energy and get-out-your-seat tempo ring out as clearly as Richard’s voice in his songs. “Because the culture I was raised in, [when] you listen to my music, it’s gonna move you. It makes you move. You can’t sit still, and that all came from living in my Mamou,” he says. Before LeTrainiump wrote a single word of any dance track, he sang praises as an aspiring Christian musician.

Music—good music—feeds off of life and living, the sort that LeTrainiump didn’t believe existed abundantly enough in his tiny hometown of 3,000 people. He remembers thinking, “if I’m gonna be a Christian singer I need some experiences.” So, he set off across the country, the Atlantic, and most of Europe to gain it as a missionary in Romania. Instead, as a black man in an almost entirely white country, he encountered profound and conflicting feelings of alienation and acceptance.

Throughout his sojourn, Richard was troubled by the fact that “I hadn’t seen anyone that looked like me in months.” Still, he found Romania to be a life-altering experience. “Coming from a very small town that has a lot of issues as far as race goes, and then going to a country that looks at my blackness and says, ‘Oh my gosh, you are the coolest thing ever!,’ It kind of shocked me. It also made me extremely sad, and I remember having a moment one night, and I broke down.”

By focusing on what made him feel “alive”, he was able to break through this “dark night of the soul” with a fresh perspective on his identity and musical calling. “I realized if I want to keep opening the door for more people that look like me to be in places that the world says they shouldn’t be—couldn’t be…I actually gotta go home and do something in my own country and try to save my own people before the world.” This “existential crisis” spawned what would become his most recent single, So Alive, in 2017 and hastened his return to Mamou, where he would start releasing pop music a year later. His first EP, Purity, will follow this summer.

Like LeTrainiump himself in this year of new beginnings, Purity seeks to make sense of change—to find a simple philosophy in the midst of global and personal tumult. “As a person going through a lot of firsts, we tend to believe that people are out to help you and save you, and you put your reliance into it, when in reality you’re actually right where you belong…and you are who you are.” Along with his characteristic upbeat tunes, Purity features the artist’s first ballad, Belong, which he reveals as his second favorite song on the EP. Of the EP in its entirety, he says that it’s one track and a little mixing shy of completion, though his recording and performing efforts this year are far from over.

“I’m 28 years old. I’m just starting. Most people are light years ahead of me, but I’m about to come in here swinging, y’all. Everybody is gonna know who I am.”

LeTrainiump’s will be among the performers at the Cinco de Mayo Housefest in Lafreniere Park in Metairie on Wednesday, May 5, from 3 to 10 p.m.