LUCIDMEDIA

The Brouhaha of Rah Rah

Written by Rachel Rain Packota Monday, 22 June 2009 12:49

Saskatchewan is a hot-bed for innovative musical talents, and don't you forget it. Within only the last few years we have seen the likes of Library Voices, The Holly Springs Disaster, The Deep Dark Woods, The Bloodlines, and Sylvie cause waves at Toronto festivals.

North By Northeast is hitting the streets of T.O. this week and we think that you should be aware that Regina-based Rah Rah is going to knock audiences' socks off not once, not twice, but three times that week. And Marshall Burns will be the first to tell you why.

Sharing members with fellow Queen City band Sylvie (Joel and Erin Passmore), Rah Rah has been building local attention since their debut full-length album, Going Steady, in 2008. This past May has marked the start of their first Eastern Canadian tour, including their NxNE appearances, but guitarist/lyricist Burns says that they have no fears about coming to play a larger city-centre from their more secluded Province.

"There's been this idea that you have to move to Vancouver or Toronto [to get noticed],” he says. “Now, I think it's changing a lot and Rah Rah is pretty dedicated to making music in Regina."

They keep an updated MySpace site and through that venue they’re able to promote shows, find fans, and keep in touch with other bands and musicians. Everything is self-created and run, and that's probably the way they're going to keep it saying that they see no reason to go “legit.”

"The world's smaller with the Internet,” explains Burns. “There's less of an emphasis on record labels. We don't have a label, we have distribution through [Young Soul Records], but it's mostly a Do-It-Yourself thing with festivals and getting [our music] out there."

Burns points out that decades before the cyber age hit, reclusive musical artist Jandek had been writing, recording and promoting his own albums completely by himself from a tiny (one assumes) self-run label called Corwood. He never did interviews. He never had promo photos. And lyrics or lists of "Thank You's" never appeared in the album booklets. Essentially, the only clue ever given to the public about the man behind Jandek was the recorded songs themselves.

"I admire him because he's taken that Do-It-Yourself model and taken it to the extreme effect,” says Burns. “A complete disregard the music industry model, distribution, recording, all that stuff. He has a completely unique way of doing music that's out of the box. I think that's very admirable; courageous."

Rah Rah was voted Best Band in Regina in a 2007 readers' poll by Prairie Dog magazine. Their musical arrangements and unique style of lyrics have won fans and the accolades of critics from Exclaim! magazine to the Montreal Gazette.

Burns is the man responsible behind lines like "There are trolls in my hair" and "When the winter sun sets behind your eyelids I resort to violence/I hang myself in silence." Adding an ambiguous element to his writing gives him creative satisfaction, as well as it allows him to invite his audience to experience the music in a more personal way. He believes that lyrics "have to be universal in a way, like poetry."

"It doesn't have to mean a specific thing, but all the songs I hate it's probably because just mean one thing, some completely bull***t thing, like some f***ing protest songs,” he says. “You could just say that [instead of making a song about it]."

Instead, Burns draws attention to the reasons behind making music in the first place. "That [interpretation] is what makes art interesting, what makes poetry special and transcendent. Our songs have a meaning for everyone who listens to it, it's always subjective and changing."

Toronto's NxNE will not be their first major, eastern Canada show. Pop Montreal 2007 saw their set proving delighting journalists, saying that Rah Rah can "pull off their Arcade Fire-on-a-budget sound in a live setting."

Burns, Passmore, and Passmore will be joined by the other three members of Rah Rah - Kristina Hedlund, Samra Sahlu, and Leif Thorseth – and will be taking a few days off in Quebec before continuing their tour. Meanwhile, Burns is looking forward to meeting some new musicians at the festival and playing live for a Toronto crowd again.

Listen for "Tentacles," one of their tracks off Going Steady, as one of the songs that they will be playing during one of their three sets at NxNE. And because you’re probably curious, Burns would like to reveal the meaning behind "Trolls in my hair": "Every day it's about something else for me. It changes with how my life has changed from when I wrote the song, to how I was feeling today and from how I was feeling yesterday, to how I'll be feeling tonight. Each person I'm singing to will hear something just for them."

Rah Rah

NXPO DayStage (Hyatt Regency)
Thursday June 18th, 2:00 pm

Rancho Relaxo
Thursday June 18th, 11:00 pm

El Mocambo (Down)
Sunday June 20th, 9:00 pm