Ra Ra Riot Interview

Ra Ra Riot, fresh from recording their debut album, The
Rhumb Line, sits down for an interview outside of Waterloo Records on
Friday October 3rd. Milo Bonacci, guitarist, and Rebecca Zeller, violinist,
spoke for 14 minutes  about touring for two years, SXSW, getting a record
label, and their process of recording an EP and debut album. More recently, Ra
Ra Riot performed a 50 minute live set on NPR’s All Songs Considered, Sunday
October 12th at Black Cat in Washington DC.

What differences came up when recording The Rhumb
Line and Ra Ra Riot?
MILO: “I think we went into the studio with
an idea of what we wanted to do.”
REBECCA: “With the EP it was more, we knew
we had to get music out there, so it was a very simple process—”
MILO: “Limited time, and just kind of like,
no real goal other than just getting the songs done. With recording The
Rhumb Line we were able to experiment a little bit more with capturing the
space, the sound of the space.”
REBECCA: “And also we worked with a producer
who was able to help us attain what we heard in our head’s, help us focus.”

Did your producer become involved before or after signing
with Barsuk Records?
REBECCA: “It was a good eight months before—”
MILO: “The relationship kind of developed
between SXSW 2007 and when we started recording in November 2007, and
throughout that time it was just us talking and eventually agreeing to work
with each other.”
REBECCA: “It actually started developing
when we were in studio. They are both in Seattle, so Barsuk would stop by, but
we really didn’t start talking to them till SXSW 08. So really a full year
after we started communicating with Ryan.”

You were in attendance at both SXSW 2007 & 2008, what
has been your experience here in Austin?
MILO:  “It was amazing, overwhelming,
really really excited to be there.”
REBECCA: “We worked really hard and it
definitely paid off I think, I was surprised and really excited by the feedback
we got. I think that helped us to continue going on and get the energy we
needed. A positive sign that a lot of people all over the world were really
into what we were doing.”

You were invited to play at music festival in Iceland?
How was that?
REBECCA: “That was from seeing us at SXSW.
We went to Reykjavik for Iceland Airwaves about a year ago, October.”
MILO: “Life changing.”
REBECCA: “We were there for not even 48
hours—“
MILO: “Two nights, but we didn’t sleep
because we were too excited to be there. We’re jealous of our friends who get
to go back this year.”

How is the current tour with Walter Meego and The Morning
Benders going?
MILO: “A lot of fun, going really well. It’s
our first real attempt at a headline show—”
REBECCA: “we tried before, and we didn’t
have a label, and so it was just us working really hard. The turnout has been
much better this time. Having bands to tour with it, makes it that much more fun.
More of a party.”
Did you know
Walter Meego and The Morning Benders before the tour?
MILO: “We had played one show with the The Morning Benders, back in
April, and they sort of stuck in our brain, and we asked them to come out in
this tour. And Watlter Meego is.. I don’t know how that kind of—”
REBECCA: “We were looking for a main
support, and they submitted, and Walter we liked him.”
MILO: “Yea some really great songs.”
REBECCA: “When we pick supporting bands, it’s
like I want to see a band on the road and they bring someone along great, it’s
like two for one. Makes the whole experience that much better.”

Previously you toured with Tokyo Police Club, how did you
meet?
REBECCA: “There from Toronto, and we met
them in Syracuse, but they are never in Toronto, and we’re never in Syracuse,
so our paths constantly cross. We were going to see them in Minneapolis one
day, and kind of met up with them.”
MILO:  “And they came to see us play in
Toronto—”
REBECCA: “Yea, and once when we were playing
Toronto they were also playing a show the same day, so our show sent some fans
out there to see them, and some came to our show. We defiantly run into them
and we are still good friends with them.”

What do you think about Tokyo Police Club supporting
Weezer in their latest tour?
REBECCA: “I’m so happy for them. And I think
it’s a perfect fit–they’re a great opening band for Weezer, like I would love
to tour with Weezer, but they fit more with that sound. It’s relevant but doesn’t
mimic them at all.”

The song Dying Is Fine is based off an E.E. Cummings
poem, are any of your other songs based from poetry or prose?
MILO: “Each Year was loosely based
off To Kill a Mocking Bird, but other than that I don’t know any more relations.”
REBECCA: “Wes would know that better.”
MILO:  “I’m sure there are because Wes will
get inspiration from anything that he reads.”

Does Wes do most of the song writing?
MILO:   “[Wes Miles, vocals] is the main
lyric writer, before John and Wes would work together—”
REBECCA: “For songs, you know each song is
different, some we all write together, some people bring things more completed,
and every combination possible. Musically we all—”
MILO:  “it’s a collaborative process that
might start from something small.”
REBECCA: “The full spectrum is Dying Is Fine
started from a guitar part Milo wrote, Can You Tell was brought to us
pretty much complete by Wes, Each Year was a bass part, Running My Mouth
came from jamming out and a vocal melody Wes had. It’s kind of like every song
is so different, but regardless whether someone brings a complete idea, it’s
still a really collaborative process. We all write our own parts, and tweak and
say, ‘oh why don’t you try something less, like, sappy?’. Remember that time we
came up with Winter it was, ‘why don’t you do something less sing-songy,
more rhythmic’, we all interact that way. A lot of people think [the violin and
cellist] are an afterthought, their like ‘So at what point do you bring the
strings in?’”
MILO:  “The very end, the very end of the
studio, when we need that extra like—”
REBECCA: “Punch. It’s really like the
strings are just important as the guitar, drums, vocals, it’s all equal. I
think it comes across that way.”
MILO:  “Or when or where an idea originates.
The guitar part might be the last thing—”
REBECCA: “How
people are inspirited by what’s going on. Sometimes you don’t really feel it
until there is more to work on. Sometimes you feel it from just the bass line,
the guitar line.”

Do you jam out a lot?
MILO: “Usually in sub groups, it’s hard for
6 people to all be going at it.”
REBECCA: “Sometimes we do, and we’re like,
‘This is not productive’. Usually Milo and [Mathieu Santoswork, drums] work together
and I work together with [Alexandra Lawn, cellist]. It’s easier to focus in
smaller groups.”

RAC did two remixes of your songs, did you like them?
MILO:  “Their cool. The first one he did was
a favor, he just wanted to.”
REBECCA: “We didn’t even know who he was,
our manager was just like, ‘this guy he’s a big remixer’. It’s interesting how
that world works because if someone likes your music they’ll just do it. If they’re
not really feeling it, they’ll be like, ‘yea we’ll do it for a few thousand dollars’.
We got a quote from a band to do a remix for I think it was £4,000. It was
either 4,000 or 2,000 and they’re not that big…”
MILO:  “Must have really not liked us.”
REBECCA: “I know, and we have met them
before to.”
MILO:  “[RAC] writes a lot, like he wrote
some bass parts, some drums.”
REBECCA: “Might change a chord progression. It’s
always fun when you get them back and people change the chord progression and
think it’s not us.”

Have you begun to experiencing increased popularity?
REBECCA: “We’re experience not playing empty
shows.”
MILO:  “Yea, Well to some degree.”
REBECCA: “The shows are more consistent,
more people want stuff signed.”
MILO: “It’s not a frightening thing to roll
in a city and play a show were we have not been, because theirs usually going
to be someone there who have heard us. Defiantly the city’s we have been are
great to return to.”
REBECCA: “I feel like cities we have investment
in have really paid off, lots of people, presale numbers are great, which is a
first for us. It’s not coming out of nowhere, its coming out of two years of
touring, and getting a label, and having someone promote us.”
MILO: “That’s what it takes.”

I always tell people to listen to your Daytrotter
sessions if they have not heard you, how was recording those sessions?
REBECCA: “Daytrotter is a great reflection
of how a band actually sounds. It’s a really great way to capture how a band
really sounds. You can’t really fake it, it’s raw. They have all this old,
really great equipment you can perform on.”
MILO:  “The idea is to show up and use
instruments you don’t usually use. So your kind of forced to experiment really
quickly, they encourage you to rearrange songs, try things on different instruments
and stuff.”
REBECCA: “It’s harder for [Alexandra] and I
because there’s just not so much we can do, but I know with Suspended in
Gaffa [Milo] used this great piano that has tacks in the hammer.”