We’re super excited to welcome Rare Americans to our On the Rise class of 2020! Check out their brand new single ‘9 times out of 10′! Read our conversation below!
For readers who aren’t familiar with you and your new music, can you share with us how you began your musical journey?
It started with a brother’s trip a couple of years ago. Jared and I had never been on a trip just the two of us, so we decided to take a 10-day vacation to the Caribbean. I was in a different band at the time and joked to him that I should bring my guitar and try to write a song together and being the big thinker he is said “A song? Screw that let’s write an entire album!”. I laughed in the moment but sure enough, 10 days later we wrote the first 14 Rare Americans songs. We felt we had something special and decided to record them. I sent out the iPhone demo’s to a few producers, one of them being 10-time Grammy Winner Joe Chiccarelli and he hit me back right away and loved the spirit of the songs. We recorded our first record in 2018 in Seattle and released Cats, Dogs & Rats in June of 2018 and it took off on YouTube right away.
You’ve been a band for only two years and have had astronomical success! As a band what is your dynamic like when writing and on the road?
Truth be told we haven’t toured very much. We developed a concentrated following early on in the UK so we did a 3-week tour there last year, then we went to South Korea this past fall as part of a Music BC Showcase (our provincial government arts sector). We had planned to tour a ton this year but then COVID hit, so I feel like it’s a whole element of Rare Americans we’re yet to fully explore.
Take us through what your typical songwriting session looks like??
My brother Jared and I tackle the bulk of the songwriting duty. We’ll both write independently on our own, and meet up once every 6 weeks or so to write together. We then take those acoustic songs and bring them to the rest of the band where everyone gets their hands on it and adds their flourish. That’s when the songs really come to life.
Tell us about your new single “9 Times Out of 10”! What did your process look like for this track?
My brother Jared came to Vancouver for a writing trip and we ended up with 4 songs in two days, 9 Times Out of 10 was one of them. The song had a bit of swagger to it in terms of lyrics, a little “braggadocios” which we’d never done before, and haven’t since this song!! It was fun, we didn’t take ourselves too seriously with it which was a good departure as a lot of our songs are about deeper subject matter. This is a rally call to our fans, that you can be who you want to be if you just believe in yourself and are willing to take risks, like a true Rare American would.
We did the bulk of the production work ourselves at our studio in Vancouver then worked with Ben Kaplan as co-producer to take the song to the next level sonically. It was recorded at Bryan Adams studio “The Warehouse” in Vancouver.
What have you been up to during quarantine? Have you felt more or less creative?
At the start of quarantine, I was intensely creative. It was nice to have every day to myself to write, and I wrote several songs during that period. We were also writing and brainstorming video treatments, strategizing how to reach more fans, etc. It was a nice break from demo’ing and producing songs as a whole crew.
As a band, who are your musical influences? Have any of your inspirations influenced your own work?
To be honest it’s kind of funny because we have very few favourite artists in common, we all like different stuff. A couple of my favourite bands are Arctic Monkeys, Modest Mouse, Eminem, and more recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Oliver Tree and Lewis Del Mar. Jared grew up a punk rocker with his favourite bands being Bad Religion, Pennywise, NOFX, and more recently into Run The Jewels and other hip hop artists. Lubo loves Dream Theatre, Pink Floyd, and guys like Steven Wilson. It’s wild that we can write songs together!!
Do you all enjoy taking part in the creative elements of your music such as cover art, photoshoots, aesthetics etc?!
I think I like that part more than the other guys. I work a lot with one absolutely incredible artist named George Conkin, he does the bulk of our drawings. We also have a fantastic animation partner in Solis Animation from Toronto. I will work between both artists to make sure our stories come to life. It’s a ton of work writing video treatments and coming up with merch ideas, contests for fans, etc. but it’s really fun. Jared also writes a lot of video treatments, he’s great at storytelling.
What is Rare Americans’ story? Who are you as a band, what is your message?!
We write about things we find interesting in the world and bet on ourselves that what we think is cool, other people will too. At our core we are storytellers and music is our vessel. I want our fans to know they can be anything they want to be, but that you won’t get anywhere unless you take risks, put yourself out there, and commit to putting in the work that it takes. Nothing comes easy in any industry and there’s always someone working harder than you for the same prize, so you can’t feel bad for yourself when things don’t go your way or you fail, you just have to pick yourself up and keep working. If you do that, you’ll find your way.
Lastly, where do you see yourself musically in the next 5 years?
That’s a great question, and a tough one to answer. I’d say we already span quite a few genres, that’s feedback that we consistently get. I think we’ll continue with the punk/hip hop fusion as that’s the music that has shaped us. I want to take risks too. I think we have a strong pop sensibility to the band so I want to be able to cross over to a larger audience while still being genuine to who we are at the core.
Connect with Rare Americans: Instagram Twitter, & Spotify
