Hurray for the Riff Raff is the brainchild of Alynda Segarra, a singer/songwriter of Puerto Rican descent whose musical imagination was first sparked by hardcore punk while they were a child in the Bronx. Segarra later gravitated toward American roots music, settling in New Orleans around 2007. There, they formed the first incarnation of Hurray for the Riff Raff. Over the course of several independent releases, they honed their voice playing several strands of folk music, grounding themselves with protest songs but incorporating elements of anthemic punk and polyrhythms. They developed an idiosyncratic, all-encompassing Americana that could be heard on Small Town Heroes, their 2014 debut for ATO Records, and came to full fruition on 2017's The Navigator. Segarra expanded their horizons on 2022's Life on Earth, tackling modern problems with such modern sounds as open-ended vistas created with washes of retro keyboards.