Rah Rah

Rah Rah

Sis Boom Bah

by Craig Silliphant

May 17, 2011

Regina’s pop-rock royalty Rah Rah have had a steady rise over the last couple of years, which is quite a feat, as any band from Saskatchewan trying to get their name out there can tell you. In a short few years, Rah Rah has pumped out two full-length albums, undertaken several tours (including a recent sojourn to Europe with Wintersleep), played high profile gigs like SXSW, and been named both “Best New Canadian Band” and “Best New Alternative Band” by iTunes.

I’ll avoid calling them a collective (you’ll read why in a moment), but Rah Rah is a band with many members that all come from different points of view. The band features Joel Passmore, Erin Passmore, Kristina Hedlen, Vanessa Benson, Dan Crozier, Leif Thorseth, and Marshall Burns. I caught up with Burns on the eve of the release of their new digital-only release, The Sailors EP; he weighed in on the record industry, forging a music career from Regina, and a cat named James Brown.

CRAIG: I know you’ve had some personnel changes in the last few years, but how did the band come together originally? How did it morph into the current lineup?

MARSHALL: Well, the band started when I was in high school, with Erin. She played drums, bass, and keyboard in the band and I played guitar and we both sang. We started the band with our friend Keary and it was just a three-piece for a quite a while. We did an EP and then Keary moved away to go to school. Erin’s older brother, Joel, who played in Sylvie and Despistado and other local Regina bands, offered to play bass with us. So he kind of came into the fold, and then we just had a few other people come in. We made the Going Steady record as a five piece. We brought in Vanessa to play keyboards and we brought in Leif to play secondary guitar. We did the "Breaking Hearts" record as a six piece and then Leif moved to Vancouver because his wife is doing her PhD there. He’s still been touring with the band, but we brought in Dan, our friend. He plays the local shows, or any shows that Leif is unavailable for.

CRAIG: When you originally came together as a three-piece was the band called Rah Rah?

MARSHALL: Yes, that’s when the name first originated.

CRAIG: Where does the name come from? Does it have some kind of meaning, or is it just meant to sound fun? Onomatopoeic?

MARSHALL: I don’t know, I mean, it definitely sounds fun. It’s just always been an esthetic of the band to just kind of keep it loose and fun and you know? Like in the past, we had piñatas on stage filled with candy or we’d be shooting confetti cans off, just little stuff like that to kind of just make it really loose and fun. But I think there is a seriousness to the music too.

CRAIG: For sure, I think musicians can avoid taking themselves so seriously, but still take the music seriously.

MARSHALL: Yeah, that’s well put actually. I would agree. I think it’s a catchy name. It has a few different meanings to it, I guess. It’s cheery and whatnot.

CRAIG: Without forcing you into any kind of genre or anything, how would you describe the sound of the band?

MARSHALL: Well, personally I always have a lot of trouble answering that kind of question. I always just tell people it’s a rock band but that’s not really very insightful, I suppose. But I guess it’s a bit different than you know, a four-piece dude rock band that you would think of. I’m sure everyone in the band would give a different answer. Rah Rah has always been about songs. We have an idea for a song and then we kind of bring it life and we make it rock. Harmonies are also a big part of our sound. Like Erin, Vanessa, and Kristina are amazing singers and they’re really great at harmonizing with my voice. I think that’s a big part of the band, the male and female vocal stuff that happens. Erin and Joel switch off on drums and bass and they have a really unique sort of sensibility of rhythm. That’s a lot of the sound of the band. It’s based in the amazing stuff that they do rhythmically and really kind of unexpectedly. Then of course, Kristina has the strings. So we get a lot of comparisons to like Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, and whatnot, which I suppose I understand, though I don’t think it’s totally fair.

CRAIG: Yeah, I’m sure it’s meant as a compliment, but that might bother me. Just because you have a plethora of musicians in the band, you’re automatically labeled as a ‘collective’ or something. But that feels like a buzz word from a few years ago.

MARSHALL: Yeah. I like Arcade Fire a lot, but just because we have a violin and because it’s a bigger band of both boys and girls, that becomes the easy comparison to make. It isn’t completely unfounded, ‘cause obviously we’re all big Arcade Fire fans and that is an inspiration, but I think there’s a bit more. I think there’s a bit more fun around the band or something; Arcade Fire is like, really serious and all that.

CRAIG: Yeah, you guys are fun on a bun, as opposed to making funeral dirge albums. So, besides Arcade Fire, who else would you name as influences?

MARSHALL: Well, I think for me, like personally, I mostly listen to country music, like Neil Young. But I’m kind of alone in the band in that respect. I mean Neil Young is a pretty over-arching influence in rock music in general, especially in Canada. Erin and Joel, they really like Radiohead and TV on the Radio; I don’t want to speak for other people in the band, but [they like] the more contemporary music that’s doing really cool stuff with arrangements and that kind of thing.

CRAIG: Do you think that being from the prairies, like being geographically isolated, having nine months of winter; does that inform the sound of Rah Rah in any way?

MARSHALL: It gets pretty tough for me to sort of zone in on where the sound comes from ‘cause there’s so many variables, you know. But there’s definitely an argument there in terms of a general sound. I think for one thing, living in Saskatchewan, it definitely informs the band in a lot of ways in terms of touring and trying to make a go of it on a national level. We’ve been working really hard the last couple of years to try and make a bit of an imprint on more of a national level.

CRAIG: And how is that going?

MARSHALL: It’s a challenge, it really is. For us to play in Toronto we have to drive for three days each way on that shitty two-lane highway. But, I mean, that’s where everyone lives that is going to write about your band. Well, not everyone but, you know, most of the world.

CRAIG: Not the cool people…

MARSHALL: Not the cool people! But most of the people that really pay attention to this kind of thing.

CRAIG: Have you noticed a difference in the look on people’s faces when you tell them you’re from Saskatchewan since you started touring nationally? Have we developed a bit more street cred nationally in the last few years?

MARSHALL: Yeah, definitely, and I think you know there’s been a couple bands that have really opened that door a bit. Like, I always think of Library Voices, who are from Regina as well, and good friends. Whenever we meet people who are in tune with Canadian indie music, it’s usually through CBC 3. From listening to CBC they know of us, Library Voices, bands from Saskatoon like Deep Dark Woods, who have really been getting out there. It seems like Radio 3 has had a big impact on the Canadian music scene in a really positive way. When we play in a place like Windsor, there are always people coming over from Detroit and stuff that are big CBC Radio 3 fans, and that’s how they’ve heard of the band.

CRAIG: You have a new EP called "The Sailor"?

MARSHALL: Well, it’s basically a three-song, just-digital EP we released on iTunes. Three tracks that we had just kicking around. We recorded them at the same time as the "Breaking Hearts" album. So we were just kind of sitting on these three songs that didn’t quite fit the record, and we figured we may as well have them out there if people want to hear them.

CRAIG: So they’re sort of extensions of the "Breaking Hearts" session sound?

MARSHALL: Yeah, they were written at the same time and recorded at the same session. I think they’re all good songs, but when we were thinking of the album as a whole, they were the songs that were kind of the odd ones out.

CRAIG: Cool. Now, speaking of the digital world, what are your thoughts on downloading and copyright protection?

MARSHALL: I think in Rah Rah’s case it’s been pretty positive generally, because it just means that more people are hearing the music. For bands that are just trying to get their foot in the door in terms of maybe making a go at some kind of career, then obviously that’s a good thing. But when you’re depending on people to buy your music to pay the bills, that’s probably more difficult.

CRAIG: Is anyone still? I mean, other than major label artists living under the old archaic model?

MARSHALL: I guess I was more referring to major label artists there. But I think most of the bands that we’re friends with or that we play with or toured with are actually making some money. Maybe a bit ahead of where Rah Rah is, where they’re actually kind of putting money away. Independent bands in Canada, they aren’t making money off selling records. They make money off of licensing and touring and that kind of thing.

CRAIG: Totally. The new model seems to support touring. Neil Young or The Stones come through town, and people balk at the $100-plus ticket and how expensive it’s gotten. But that’s instead of record sales for them.

MARSHALL: It was in the paper the other day; about the biggest tours of the year or whatever, and Rush made $500 million or something on their last tour. It’s good for them to generate that much. They aren’t making that in selling records anymore. I guess that’s what you have to do. But I think the big thing for a band like Rah Rah [is publishing rights]. If we were ever to make some money that we could put in our own bank accounts, it’s not going to be because HMV sold a bunch of our CDs. It’s going to be because iTunes paid us a bunch of money for our song to be in their commercial. You know, like Fiest or whatever.

CRAIG: For sure. As far as I see it, the new model puts a lot of the power back in your hands as the artist. Even if you were on a major label and making money hand over fist, I guarantee you you’re still getting f*cked somehow. They make shady deals, skim off the top, steal the rights to the music - but if you’re closer to the revenue stream you can protect it.

MARSHALL: Yeah, when you have that big of a machine working behind you, it’s just more and more hands in your pockets basically, so you aren’t exactly necessarily able to keep track of stuff.

CRAIG: So how about touring? You guys came back from Europe recently? What were your impressions of Europe and touring?

MARSHALL: It was pretty awesome. We were lucky that we had really good shows, we got to tour with our friends in a band called Wintersleep, and they’ve done quite a bit of touring over there so they draw a pretty decent crowd. So we got to play for good crowds every night. Playing in different places is exciting but it’s stressful too, you know. We didn’t have a tour manager over there. We were just kind of figuring it out as we went along, so there were definitely some stressful moments, trying to navigate ourselves through these foreign places. I hope to go back on my own sometime and soak it in in a different way, but in terms of touring, it was a really unique experience and we were really lucky. It was just a lot of fun.

CRAIG: So what’s the wackiest Rah Rah tour story?

MARSHALL: Oh man. Gosh, I always blank on stuff like this. There’s been a lot of pretty fun times. The thing is though, like 99% of the time, it feels like you’re just driving and then you play your show and then like, that’s kind of the focus, you know? And then you go to bed. We’re not one of those bands that’s going out to strip clubs and stuff like that. Doing blow. I mean we see bands like that sometimes, but we’re not one of those bands. Everyone is focused on making sure it’s a good show and then we have a couple of beers after if we’re not tired. Actually, we had one show with [our friends in the Toronto band Gramercy Riffs] that we played in Ottawa that was quite memorable. It was just a really fun night, a good party night. We were having a party after the show and one of the opening bands showed up. They had spent all the money they made, all the band money, on cheeseburgers. They just started tossing them around to everyone. It was after a few beers and what not. It felt like Christmas had come early or something. Someone just shows up and starts tossing these cheeseburgers everywhere. It was pretty awesome.

CRAIG: I always go off in search of cheeseburgers after a few pints. Let’s talk about the live show. We kind of touched on it, you know, that you guys are known for the confetti cannon and the piñatas. Are you still doing all that stuff or do you have new gags you’re into now?

MARSHALL: This last tour we didn’t do anything like that, really. We have this mechanical cat now that’s always on stage. He’s like our tour manager, we always say. James Brown. And he’s always winking at people and nodding his head around and stuff, so that’s kind of our new shtick. Kristina still pops the confetti can and it’s pretty awesome.

CRAIG: What do you try to do going out there? Obviously the clichéd ‘high energy show’ is great, but in your own words, what would you say you try to do when you go on stage?

MARSHALL: It’s always good to joke around a bit backstage before you go on, to get everyone in a good mood. On this last tour, I started saying to everyone, “Okay, get amped! We’re getting amped!” Doing high fives and stuff like that. Just goofing around, just being silly. But I think it can translate into a better show in some ways.

CRAIG: Other than the EP, what’s coming up with the band?

MARSHALL: It will probably be our quietest six months in a few years. I mean, not for us, but for the person looking on. We’re just getting our jam space set up and we’ve just been jamming three or four times a week, working on new songs. We have a producer, sort of picked, that we’re going to be working with. He’s coming up to Regina in a few weeks for the first of a couple of pre-production sessions. I’m pretty excited. And it’s nice, it’s going to be a solid six months of us not touring. We’ve never done that. We’ve toured every two months for over two years.

CRAIG: Wowza.

MARSHALL: Everyone is excited to be home with their families.

For more on Rah Rah, visit

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By Craig Silliphant for SaskMusic. Photos courtesy Chris Graham. Originally published May/June 2011.

This article is posted as initially published. For reprint/usage permission or any other questions, please contact SaskMusic.

 

 

 

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Photo Courtesy: Chris Graham The Sailors EP Cover Photo Courtesy: Chris Graham The Sailors EP Cover

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