Interview with Rain City Drive’s Matt & Zachery; conducted before their Manchester show
SJ: I'd read online, but you all met in Manchester.
Matt: True, yeah, that's why we kind half-heartedly refer to it as our hometown. These guys were all in a band called Slaves, with Jonny Craig once upon a time and Johnny flew home last minute, but on the tour, they didn't have a singer and through mutual friends they found me we didn't know each other. I got on a plane like last very last minute like the next day or something and met them. I'm here and we met under a bridge in Manchester.
Matt: So that's so when it came time to kind of do our own thing with the band and start Rain City Drive. That's where the idea of calling it Rain City ‘something’ came from, I was looking up stuff up about Manchester and it's a rainy city, which I know a lot of places claimed, but that's where it comes from.
SJ: I can imagine and you've come today as well, the best season. I didn't have this question written but it's something I thought of because when it's cold, I tend to find that my fingers get really stiff. Do you find it hard playing instruments when it's cold?
Zachery: Absolutely. Like my joints, get so stiff and just like it, it hurts a bit until you finally start warming up a little bit. But for the most part, yeah, I just like to try to just keep hands in pockets the whole time and I'm just like keep the blood flow and keep fingers and hands moving and trying to fight through it, I guess but definitely playing in the cold is not ideal.
SJ: So, you’re the one fighting over the radiator and the heat then?
Zachery: I will throw hands for a warm hand.
SJ: Does Manchester hold a special place in your heart?
Matt: Yeah, for sure, I think it's a cool reminder of how we all came together, and people usually like it if you say that it's a hometown show. The crowds usually pretty good here anyways, but maybe we'd have to just really lean into that kind thing and just have a big Manchester flag behind us.
SJ: Absolutely. I'd love that. So, I found out about you guys when I was doom scrolling on Instagram and I came across the song Medicate Me, which, of course you did with Dayseeker. How did that song come into existence? What's the story there?
Zachery: The instrumental was kind of started through, well, I was at a bachelor party with my friends, and they were all going skiing one day and I came up with the song and I didn't want to go skiing, so I stayed back and started writing the instrumental for it. Then we worked with a buddy of ours and wrote top line with him on it and tried to kind of come together with one of his songs, which we kind of smooched both together. We ended up kind of reworking it a bunch more after that.
Matt: It was like at a pretty good place, but we never really had a solid second verse, and we had that show that was open. So, when it kind of came together to have Rory to do the feature, he wrote a great verse in the studio, we were in with Dan Braunstein and him, and Dayseeker did a lot of work together, so Rory came down studio and did a second verse. Then I just kind of kind of rehashed what we do in the first verse for the outro, and it felt pretty smooth.
Zachery: At one point in time, I remember we're trying to get him to scream but he was very precious and considerate of our sound. He wanted to protect how we sound sonically and to go about things a bit more on the poppy side and he just knew exactly what we needed.
SJ: I like that, I think that shows a lot of respect as a musician to consider that.
Zachery: Oh yea, he’s a pure talent. He's awesome for sure.
SJ: With Things Are Different Now how did you know what direction you wanted to take? And when did it start to take shape?
Matt: I think like early phase of this record was pretty exploratory and like I don't think we had a super narrow focus in terms of what direction we wanted to go early on. There was kind of seeds of maybe wanting to go a little bit heavier, at least for us, things like the Sacrifice and the Over Me breakdown and Medicate Me, so that was kind of cool. I feel like for self-title (Rain City Drive), maybe we were trying to spread our wings and make sure we're writing things that were pretty catchy and accessible and this time for some reason, it just felt fun to lean into the rock thing a litter more. I feel like we always try to do songs that are accessible and still within a hard rock lane and this time it felt the most effortless. There wasn't that much of a preconceived plan.
Zachery: Kind of just kind of go with the flow, see where it needs to go and shape it up from there.
Matt: Yeah, the songs kind of reveal themselves and sonically, we are always just trying to do something new and exciting.
Zachery: Yeah, I do remember at point in time we had the conversation where, we do want to go heavier and simultaneously more pop at the same time, because I feel like we were kind of towing the line a little bit. This time we're kind of a bit more, okay, this is this part, this is going to be the poppy part etc. There's definitely a bit more confidence in diving into those soundscapes.
Matt: I think it works so too, just because I can't do harsh vocals so I'm just going to do my thing and try to do pretty pop leaning stuff and you know, we can you can do that over pretty heavy tracks, you can have cleans over breakdowns and stuff. We always trying to do stuff with like a little bit more group, I thought that's the one that I can think of personally, I knew I wanted to do more of a kind of bounce, like an Over Me tempo, I wanted something that was kind of bouncy and doesn't feel stiff. Feels kind of like a party kind of vibe. I think for me, lyrically, it just depends on what's going on in my life, but I'm always trying to break away from feeling like I have to be like in a sad place, and so that's why Medicate Me is really fun because it's sort of like a fun, sexy song that's not the same as like a Talk To A Friend. Which I love but I don't want to feel that way just to make music.
SJ: That's really interesting. Have you seen the film, Almost Famous? You know there's a bit right at the end when he says, “Do have to be sad to write sad song, you have to be in love to write a love song?” and that kind of leans into what you were saying Matt, do you have to mentally be in that place to be able to write that type of music?
Matt: I don't think so, but it's just, it's hard. Maybe there's certain people that are better at writing formulaically and not having come across that way. I think I can write a generic song, but it'll probably sound generic somewhat, and I think the stuff that feels most authentic is because it’s coming from a real place. You're always going to be sad from time to time and that's going to be there, but just for me it's about expanding the brand of the band sonically and lyrically.
SJ: Yeah, that makes sense and it's what resonates with the audience as well. Leaning into that little bit more, creativity, inspiration, motivation, are all key parts of any form of art. What do you do to get out of those phases where you're not feeling inspired or motivated?
Zachery: I think you kind of have to lean into it and take breaks when necessary. Unless you're in a pressures where you’ve got to create a diamond here or something where you have to do. For the most part, if you're not feeling it, I don't think forcing yourself, and just kind of being frustrated with is really going to achieve a goal necessarily.
Matt: Yeah, there's definitely been times in studio for us where you're under a deadline, you just have to push through and find a solution, but this last record was really cool because we'd did 99% of the writing of the basic song structure and vocals before we went into the studio which took a lot of pressure off. Instead of you know, writing songs in the vocal booth when I'm supposed to be tracking them, that's way trickier. But yea, I think what Zac said a lot of times the answer is to step away and do anything but music and live your life. Somebody once said “Live like a song writer, write like a person” do you know what I mean?
SJ: Alternatively, when you're in that mindset, where you are focused, you're making changes to tracks, how do you know when a track is complete and when to stop?
Zachery: For me, it's when you're running out of problems to fix if that makes any sense? You listen to it and be like, oh, this needs something more here, or this melody needs to change or something's not sitting right, what do we need to do to fix it? And for me, I feel that it's when you're no longer being like I'm like it's taking my ear away from the song when it just kind of feels and flows naturally.
Matt: Yeah, I feel like vocally, I just always know when it's finished. Like objectively and critically and a lot of times I pretend that I'm like a sceptic outsider and if I think ‘this is going to suck’ and then if I'm forced to keep working on it but if I’m like ‘this actually pretty cool’ then it’s in a good place, if you know what I mean.
Zachery: Do you ever feel like when you have somebody new in the room, listening to a song for the first time, do you never get this like kind of new insight on the song where it feels like you're listening to it for the first time?
Matt: Yeah, without really, maybe trying for it exactly. Yeah, I think that's in super valid.
SJ: That's really interesting. I'd never thought of it that way, because I'm a painter and sometimes I find that when I'm creating something and somebody else is looking at it, I'm looking at it through their eyes for the first time, but I've never considered that before.
Matt: Maybe just puts you in an actual mode of a listener, whereas when you're just listening by yourself and you're alone, it's like you kind of have your hands-on the clay still where you’re thinking, yeah, I can change it if I want. You can’t be playing it for somebody and be like ‘let me just change that bit’ you know?
SJ: So, you'd mentioned in a previous interview that Sacrifice was supposed to be the album opener for ‘Things Are Different Now’ and it's now classed, in your words, as a bonus track at the end. Was there a track on this album that almost didn't make it?
Matt: Hmm, well, there's 2 that didn't make it that we'll be on the Deluxe, right? They’re both fun songs, but I think it just made a stronger album without them. I think if you believe in the format of the album at all makes sense to try to be like well, this is our statement when you start playing with album order and flow and stuff, it's like, yeah, you know, I think singles like win the game. You know and I guess they have for a long time to certainly understand age, because of how music's released, but um, there are people that are still going to be like what do you think about the album? and so like thinking about that as like an art form you want to make sure the albums as strong as it can be so two didn't make it, but they will be heard at some point.
SJ: What are the names of those songs?
Matt: Rip Cord and The Way It Was.
SJ: Do you have any ideas to what direction your future material may go? You mentioned earlier about leaning into the heavier side as well. Do you think that's going to be a direction you're going to go?
Matt: Potentially.
Zachery: Yeah, I mean, I don't want to leave anything kind of unturned. I just want to explore and see kind of where it goes. Sometimes songs just need something and whether it be something heavier or something poppy, or just a stark difference between a verse and a chorus - like 2 totally different moods, but yeah, I don't know, instrumentally, at least nothing is out of bounds.
Matt: Yeah, I think that makes sense. When we did To Better Days, we were trying to keep fans of Slaves on board with and so, we kind of mindful of like not having too big of a departure. Which it wasn't a big deal, I think we made the record how we would have made anyways, but it was something to be mindful of and that I think with self-titled [Rain City Drive] it was something to be mindful of because it was the first album that was initially released under Rain City Drive. So, we wanted people to know that it wasn't completely different band and then for some reason on this record, I feel like, not that we have to, but we can have a big departure if we want. So, I'm hoping that we could just this next album, surely, surely, we earned the right to do something a little different if we want. Not that I'm not saying that we will. I just I don't like when that comes up in conversations because I see it in the reviews, I mean for the past couple records there's sometimes people who are like, yeah, it's good, but it's kind of like what we expect from them, you know? So, I think might be said that I think we've earned the right to…
Zachery: Kind of explore it…
Matt: Even if we don't, I don't like to push back.
Zachery: I also think Medicate Me kind of gave us the freedom to kind of branch off at that because it's not necessarily a super typical RCD sound.
Matt: Definitely no. Not musically, not lyrically, not tonal, yeah.
Zachery: I feel like that kind of opened the gates for us to explore it a little bit more. Let's see where this can take us a bit more.
Matt: Yeah, I feel like in the past, we were maybe trying to mix in the wrong kinds of pop with our heavier sound and it's like a harder sell, but if you're pulling from like that, almost kind of like creepy Billie Eilish, kind of world, it's a little more seamless. I look forward to the next album where everybody's like we need another Medicate Me and it's like no, we don't. I don’t know what the next thing is, but I'd rather that than we need another Talk To Friend, because I'm very proud of both songs and I don't think we could have done them better.
SJ: I agree they're perfect the way they are.
Matt: Yeah, thank you.
SJ: So, you'll be coming back for Slam Dunk.
Matt: Yeah, I know about that. I’ve been hearing about this festival for a long time and that we should do it, so I'm glad it’s happening.
SJ: Absolutely Slam Dunk’s amazing. You've predominantly sold out this tour which begs the question. Do you have any plans headline in your own UK European tour, and will you be coming to Wales?
Matt: Oh man, I don't know about Wales, it’s never even been brought up sadly. Do bands usually come to Wales?
Zachery: Yes, we played it a while ago.
Matt: As Slaves?
Zachery: Yea, as Slaves.
Matt: Then, I guess it's not off the table, I'd like to go just because I haven't been so, I think look out for a potential RCD headliner, late 2025.
SJ: I do have one fun question, with you guys’ touring, staying in these old venues and hotels, do you have any ghostly or unexplained experiences?
Matt: No and I wouldn't allow such things, because I'm very scared of ghosts. I won't watch a scary movie with ghosts, everybody that knows me knows that's my one rule. I don't f*** with ghosts. There was one time in the States. We stayed in an Airbnb, we stayed in this old, converted church and like the way we had the room setup, I had a room to myself at first and there's just creepy the old family photos and stuff everywhere and I picked another room where I could have people around me. I'm like, yeah, I'm not f****** sleeping alone in here.
SJ: Well, that was the last question, but is there anything that you want people to know that I haven't directly asked about, if you have any shout outs or anything to look forward to?
Matt: I think we're going to be touring a good bit off of Things Are Different Now and I'm excited that we're going to south-central and south-central America and Mexico for the first time at the middle of the year, really excited for that and I think this record has some legs and we'll be touring on it for a little bit before we get back in the studio. Soaking it all into write whatever the next thing is um.
Zachery: Yeah, let us know what songs you like the most as that definitely helps inform the next releases, the next albums and everything.
