If you are unfamiliar with Raynes, I invite you to think of the lineup as a modern day reincarnation of Fleetwood Mac, without all the female/male relationship drama. Instead of a British group finding some American band additions to create the magical lineup, our heroes, Raynes, did things the opposite way, with a little help from the internet. Today, Joe Berger discusses Raynes opening for Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band and the inspiration, and very cool wet plate photography, behind their latest EP ’49.
Joe Berger Discusses Raynes Opening For Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band & Their New EP ’49
EPR: So, the group consisted of you and Mat [Mat Charley] first and you found Mark [Mark Race] later. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Joe Berger: Absolutely. So Mat and I went to the same university in Bismarck, North Dakota, right outside of my hometown of Mandan. He was living in LA and came back to Bismarck. He’s from Minot, which is a couple hours north of Bismarck. He went back to school and I was just in my second year as a sophomore, I was a student athlete, a high jumper for the track team. And literally, just one day, we were in this hallway… I’ve never seen the guy before…and it’s a smaller university. And I just thought he looked cool and had a good vibe and I went up to him and just started talking. I actually think I talked in a Matthew McConaughey accent.
Editor’s Note: I am so imagining him saying, “Alright, alright alright,” or “Just keep livin’ man”.
Joe Berger: And I think he was like, “What is this guy’s deal?” I just kind of really talked to everybody on campus. And I’m glad I did with him that one day. Flash forward just a couple of years, we started playing music together. Mat had been writing songs for, at that point, like 10 years already. And I had just started getting into writing music. I’d been playing guitar for the better part of 12, 13 years, but I hadn’t been writing yet. We started working some stuff out together and we figured we needed to have an incredible singer because neither of us had that, like, lead vocalist, type of voice. We had some stuff going on in LA and we were talking to music publishers. We’re starting to build our team and we really could not find anyone. We were putting ads out on Craigslist, and you name it. And we just weren’t getting very good submissions. So Mat and I decided to take it upon ourselves, I mean, I think I took YouTube and he took Instagram. This was before TikTok. And Mat found a video of Mark on a vocal feature page, so it wasn’t even his profile. And he sent it to me and I was like, “This is it, this is great!” And Mat was like, “Cool, I’m gonna try to find him.” So Mat stalked him on Facebook, found him, reached out to Mark. And within 10 days, Mark was on a plane over to LA where we all met in person for the first time. And ever since then we’ve just been hitting the ground running.
Taking The Leap…Across The Pond
EPR: That’s a pretty brave move on your part. You’re looking for someone for their singing ability, but were you worried about cultural differences being as you are from different countries? Personality conflicts? Were you thinking about any of that?
Joe Berger: Honestly, not really, at the time. To be honest, we knew Mark…there was just a feeling we had and I’m sure he had the same feeling towards us. But we just had a feeling about him. And once we met each other in person, we got along so well. And literally, we’ve all been best friends, like brothers, ever since. Despite the differences in where we grew up and all the cultural differences.
EPR: And, of course, that was an exceptionally brave move on his part. He came overseas just to find some people who’d been “stalking” him online. [laughs]
Joe Berger: I know. He did have some skepticism. We paid for his flight over here and all that stuff. I feel like after that he was like, “Okay, this is legit.” And all that skepticism washed away once he touched ground with a couple of his buddies he brought with him. But yeah, we all made a lot of sacrifices pursuing this career. And he just gave up his entire life in England, he dropped out of university, and we’re still on this journey together.
Wet Plate Photography & ’49
EPR: You guys have been together for several years now. And you have a freshly released new single. Tell us about that.
Joe Berger: Yes. “Tie Me To The Tracks.” So we’ve been together for seven years and “Tie Me To The Tracks” is the single off of this next EP that we’re putting out called “’49.”
EPR: And it’s inspired by the American Gold Rush of 1849. What made you decide to cover that particular subject area?
Joe Berger: Well, we started with sort of just a collection of songs. And Mat reached out to Mark and I and was like, “Hey, I think these could all fit together, with the extended metaphor being the Gold Rush.” We moved to LA more than once. But this is about the recent move. There’s a big metaphor there, because we dropped everything in our hometowns, moved to LA, searching for the “gold,” trying to make it big. And we just sort of came up short, we ended up moving back to wherever we wanted to move to. And there’s just a really strong metaphor there that we can all relate to. And I think it’s perfect. I mean, it’s crazy to talk about – the title is called “’49.” We had a wet plate photo taken of us by a guy in Bismarck, North Dakota, his name is Shane Balkowitsch. All those old photos you see from the Gold Rush era, those black and white, sort of metallic looking photos, those were all taken on wet plate photos, which was a technology that was discovered in 1851, so just two years after 1849.
At the end of the day, we just want to make art that stands the test of time. And every decision we make for the band is putting art first, right? I think it is kind of cool with wet plate [photography]…those never fade. In 1000 years you could look at the wet plate and it will look exactly in 1000 years as it does today. They’re made out of silver, and silver just doesn’t decay as fast as like, let’s say, a photograph fades.
EPR: I like that the album is based on that very specific time period. In my opinion, you just don’t see period piece albums enough.
Joe Berger: We’re really trying to be as innovative as we can. Always. Like I said, we’re just trying to put out the best possible art we can put out right now.
How Does Raynes Classify Their Eclectic Sound?
EPR: Given the different countries, cultures, viewpoints that you guys have, what do you think that you each bring to the table that we wouldn’t see in a band of only Americans? How do you think that kind of sets you guys apart musically?
Joe Berger: Actually, it’s funny you say that. I don’t think there’s ever been this same combination of people in a band before. We have a guy from Mandan, North Dakota, a guy from Minot, North Dakota and someone from Durham, England. Most bands don’t have a British lead singer. I mean, in North Dakota, we do have some musical groups kind of gaining traction out there, but there’s not a lot of music coming out from people in North Dakota. I grew up as a cowboy doing ranch work. My dad has a cattle business. So I was always surrounded by a lot of country music and rodeos and stuff like that. Mat grew up playing in a family bluegrass band. So he can play like 13 instruments, and he’s been playing music with his siblings and singing his entire life. And Mark, he went to Durham School and had a scholarship for singing. So he was always doing musical theater. I think he was actually the leader of an acapella group in school. And so we sort of have these very different backgrounds and I think that comes across, both in the music and onstage.
EPR: When you mix all of your varied styles, what exactly do you classify your music as?
Joe Berger: I guess that it’s hard to describe, which I’m okay with, because I really don’t think there’s a lot of bands or artists out there right now that sound like us. I say that with humility. I’m not, boasting or anything. I really do think we have a unique sound, but it’s definitely like folk instrumentation. But the songs are pop songs. You know, they’re three to four minutes long, very catchy, big choruses. But the instruments we’re using are like acoustic guitars, and bouzoukis, more like world percussion, stuff like that…mandolins, violins, banjos. So, it’s like Folk Pop. A little Americana in there.
EPR: Tell me about your numbered sequential series of videos on your YouTube channel.
Joe Berger: So that was from a project we did last year, “A Ghost In The Walls.” It was the seven song EP. We released each song as a single and each song had a music video. It was essentially the story of a relationship from beginning to end. We have the same actor and actress in each video, so you see that, interspliced with clips of us.
Editor’s Note: Watching these videos reminded me of the Tracy Lawrence videos from the 90s that all led into each other. Granted, Lawrence’s seemed to be inspired by the show, “Quantum Leap,” so they were more of a sci-fi nature, but I loved the story telling aspect of them and the anticipation of waiting for the next video to drop. If, like me, you were into that, I believe you will love this series [linked above] from Raynes. Bonus: The videos are all out now so you can get that nice instant gratification OR you can parcel them out for anticipation. Viewer’s choice.
Name Origin & Current Tour
EPR: Where did the name Raynes come from?
Joe Berger: Back when we started in 2017, we wanted something that was one syllable, but plural, and something that sounded sort of unisex. Mark had a friend in high school named Raine, but it was spelled R-A-I-N-E. We had a list of 1000 names and we all had to agree on it. Right? And he came back from his little walk, we’re in LA, and he goes, “Hey, guys, what about this?” And what he did was, he changed the I to a Y and he added an S on the end. And we all looked at it and said, “That’s it! That’s the name right there!” The definition of it is, basically, “us.” You know? We’re trying to give it its own sort of definition.
EPR: I think, a lot of times, one of the hardest things that a band has to do is come up with a name.
Joe Berger: Yeah. Especially now. You don’t really get the cream of the crop. Every good band name has been used.
EPR: That is so true. You guys have been touring with Yachtley Crew? And you’re going to do a show with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. That’s probably a little nerve wracking, right?
Joe Berger: Honestly, we don’t even really get nervous when we go up on stage. We have such a chemistry together that you have to be there to experience. I think our chemistry is like, really heightened, and at its finest in live performances. You look at Mat, and he’s behind his two keyboards flanked by like four other instruments, all of which he plays very well. And he’ll freely bounce from one to another and he does it with so much passion. His hair’s all over the place going crazy, like a mad scientist. And Mark, a British man in the middle, he’s got one of the best set of vocal cords you’ve ever heard. And he literally breathes an extra depth of dimension into the life of his songs. And, at the same time, he’s so open up there, and I feel like the audience can really feel his soul. And then I’m on the other side, basically, like an unbridled thoroughbred racehorse with never ending energy with a guitar in my hands. So, when you put us all together, it creates a unique blend of voices and personalities, that creates the Raynes live experience. We really go out there and give it our all every single time.
We have been starting off all of our live shows with, “Tie Me To The Tracks.” It’s so fast and really sets the tone for the rest of our show. And honestly, though, I don’t think we could do it at any other time because we wouldn’t have the gas in our tanks to do it. So when it came time to pick the lead single for this project “’49,” it was a pretty easy decision. It’s always been the opener and it’s worked at our live shows and hopefully it can do the same thing for being a lead single.