Q&A with Ra Ra Rasputin

Your incorporation of some more experimental music, rhythms, and instrumentation is exciting and fresh—what do you think best characterizes Ra Ra Rasputin’s sound these days?

Patrick: I think the big priority for us is to try something until it sounds good. Also, we like the bass and drums to be LOUD. Those instruments are pretty much the meat and potatoes of our sound.

Furthermore, all of us are capable of playing several instruments, so we try to use it to our advantage. So the dynamics of our sound are constantly changing. None of us is locked into playing the same instrument all the time, so this opens up a whole world of possibilities. I think it’d get a bit boring if we just stuck to one instrument each. That works very well for a lot of bands, but not so much for us.

Lastly, I think we all want to make meaningful and expressive music. And I don’t think you can really do that without trying to get out of your comfort zone.

Ken: I feel like most of our songs begin with an interesting hook (a synth loop, a bassline, a keyboard melody, a guitar riff, etc) that we can listen to on endless repeat without getting sick of it. From there, we tend to throw a driving dance beat underneath it and use low-end sounds to form a foundation. The vocals, keyboards and guitars tend to play on top of this. We like to use quirky vintage keyboard sounds. We like to freak out on auxiliary percussion. We tend to get loud and funky.

Brock: When I go to a show, listen to a song, look at a picture, there is some pervasive element to find, that seems to reach certain realms of the mind, some better than others, some that work all the time for me. If we find an element that stirs us, we try to work with it, and develop it.

I don’t think we pursue the experimental, it just comes to us, playing something some one has heard too often can only go so far to find that inspiration that links one moment to the next, when you find a new sound (or anything for that matter) you start to seek it out, and try to kindle, it’s an odd notion something that seems to mix in with familiarity, even though it is different. I think what we play now is different than what our sound is now, it’s still changing consuming planes, and at the moment it’s difficult to define, except we want it to sound as good as it can be live.

Anna: What’s nice about this band is that even we aren’t sure how to characterize our sound. We could describe our sound using the hackneyed adjectives of genres present, but I’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea of putting a label on what we’re doing. We arrive at our sound very naturally, without force or pressure. We simply want to make sincere, interesting and surprising sounds.

You performed a great set at The Rock and Roll Hotel recently… which of those songs is the one you’re most proud of and why?

Patrick: Well thank you! That’s very kind of you! Probably the very last song, it’s called “Fit Fixed.” We wrote it around an arpeggio that Brock programmed on one of his keyboards. It was part of a piece he wrote for a one-off performance in October 2008. Eventually it found its way into our repertoire. In my opinion, it pretty much sums up all of our strong points. Driving bass, scratchy guitars, intricate drumming and percussion, disorienting keyboards, etc. And when we do it live, we’ll usually have our friends from this band The Spiritual Machine come up and do live percussion. I just never want that song to end.

Ken: Out Of Time tends to be a crowd favorite. It’s driven by a solid bassline, noisy guitars and loud/funky drums. Over that, we sing a refrain that a lot of us can relate to: time is running out. We usually rock this one with a lot of intensity when we play it live. There is a section where we’re all playing drums over the bassline and it builds a lot. We’re all a little dizzy once we’re done.

Brock: I’m not sure. Sometimes I’m proud of all the songs we play, some times I feel like none of them are close to complete or where they could be. At the moment, I enjoy Fit Fixed because no one else is playing anything like it, and it’s works good live.

Anna: I have torrid affairs with our songs. Some of them start off hot and heavy and fizzle out after a couple months. Some I never call back. And others I’m excited to see where things will go. Fit Fixed is my long lost love. It is a song that surprises me each time we play it.

People who come to your shows should be prepared to dance and get a little crazy… what would the Ra Ra Rasputin “warning label” say if you had to issue one?

Patrick: Buy your ticket in advance, and be prepared to get sweaty.

Ken: I’ve got no good answer for this one…

Brock: Just what you said, and that it’s the same for all conditions.

Anna: (laughing) Maybe some of the same things that are listed on a can of spray paint? Harmful if swallowed, extremely flammable, keep area ventilated during use, do not spray near sparks…those sorts of things.

Ra Ra Rasputin was created in 2007… What were each of you doing before you joined the band?

Patrick: Before I joined the band, I was in the process of completing my Masters at the George Washington University. It was a really hectic time for me. I was working part time, going to school at night and just trying to get by. I hadn’t played in band for about four years and I was really happy to start working on music again. Sadly, the combination of grad school, band practice and work took its toll on me and I got a really bad case of strep throat a few weeks before graduation!

Ken: I was living in Boston, playing in bands and studying music. I am from the DC area and moved back in 2006 for a job opportunity. Soon after moving back, I met Brock through mutual musical friends and we formed Ra Ra Rasputin with Anna and Patrick.

Brock: Not much.

Anna: I was trying to get more money for conservation programs in the 2008 Farm Bill.

Rasputin was considered to be a bit a little bit of a prophet or a mystic with supernatural powers by some… what special powers do the Rasputniks possess?

Patrick: The power to hold down white-collar day jobs by day, and transform into pop-stars by night. In this town, that is no small feat…

Ken: After months of rehearsing in a dance studio when we could not keep our equipment setup during the day, we can setup all our equipment in less than 15 minutes. Also, Patrick and I proved that we can drink 10+ shots in less than two hours.

Brock: Rasputnik is a Russian word, transversing an un-perverse universe. to the -1.

Anna: Rasputniks are licentious.