UCN Interview at CRS 2013 – Rachele Lynae: “I’m looking for any way to grow.”

11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on UCN Interview at CRS 2013 – Rachele Lynae: “I’m looking for any way to grow.”

Rachele Lynae was a college student in Washington state before teaming with artist and songwriter Jamie O’Neal‘s label Momentum Label Group. Now, with her first album ready to be released, she is gearing up for her first single and ready to take her shot at the big time!

UCN: Adam James, Urban Country News, with Rachele Lynae! Say what’s up, Rachele!
Rachele Lynae: What’s up! [laughs]

UCN: Nice! Tell me a little about what’s going on with you musically right now. I have heard your new single, ‘Fishing For Something.’ I think it’s a fantastic song, it’s a cool, unexpected twist on the hook.
RL: Right now we’ve been really busy gearing up for ‘Fishing For Something’ the next single, and it’s a song I wrote with one of my very best girlfriends. We write all the time, she’s my favorite person to write with. We both grew up with dads who took us fishing, so that was kind of a natural metaphor to draw from. We like to go out dancing and have our girls’ nights, and we found that there’s inevitably some guy, that just appears out of nowhere breaking up the circle and hitting on everybody. We all know that guy. [laughs]

UCN: Yeah. [laughs] RL: So we wrote this song, ‘you’re finishing for something that ain’t in the water.’ [laughs] It’s just a fun song.

UCN: Yeah it is! Normally you think fishing songs, and you’re like, ‘Is this going to be about trout?’ but when the hook came, I was like, ‘Ah, that’s really good!’
RL: It’s not your normal fishing song.

UCN: Exactly, so I was really surprised by it and really enjoyed it. I really dug your voice on it too, it sounds fantastic. The way you guys recorded everything…the trifecta of the piano, the bass, and your vocals were just killer, they really made the track.
RL: Thank you!

UCN: How long have you been working with Jamie O’Neal and Momentum Label Group?
RL: Momentum has been around for a year now and I started working with Jamie before the company was actually formed and they approached me and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to sign you as our first artist!’ and of course, I was totally all in!

UCN: How did that come about, how did they find you?
RL: I knew Jimmy, Jamie’s dad, from Washington when I lived there in high school. We met at a studio there. We kind of knew each other as acquaintances and he gave me advice while I was younger. I’d stayed in touch with him through college and when I graduated and I was like, ‘Oh my word, this is the real world, what do I do next?’ I got together with him to pick his brain and I left him with an EP that I’d worked on in college, and said, ‘Look, if you believe in this, help me out, and if you don’t, then cool, give me criticism because I’m looking for any way to grow.’ But he called me within 10 minutes of leaving our meeting and said, ‘Rachele, I had no idea!’ And then he introduced me to Jamie, and Jamie and I hit it off immediately.

UCN: So what advice did Jimmy give you?
RL: He hadn’t listened to any of my stuff in a while when we first had that meeting so he was talking about ‘Well, maybe we could get you together with some good songwriters and teach you how to write better’ and things like that, and I said, ‘I’m all about that but I’m a pretty strong writer.’ So I tried to find a respectful way of saying that but music speaks for itself so I just was like, ‘Here listen to this and let me know what you think.’ Before you know it, I’m writing with Jamie, and Stephanie Bentley, and Jimmy, and a bunch of people that are just amazing writers. And you can only grow from that. Of course some of my favorite writing sessions are with Jamie or with my friend Hannah Bethel, who I wrote ‘Fishing’ with.

UCN: Ahh, I love Hannah!
RL: Oh, you know Hannah?

UCN: Yeah!
RL: Yeah, she’s the co-writer on that.

UCN: That’s really cool, she’s super talented!
RL: She is! And she and I write really well together because we’re best friends and we can anticipate each other’s lines almost. We were writing a song the other day and we both came in singing ‘ooh’’s at the exact same time. Like, ‘I think right here, we don’t want a bridge I think right here we want..’ and we both just started singing, it was so funny!

UCN: That’s awesome, I could totally see that! Obviously it works really well, you guys writing together. Now what kind of impact has the single had on radio so far? How have you guys been doing with radio as far as the single is concerned?
RL: Well the single hasn’t gone for adds yet. Right now we’re working with a group called New Revolution, and the way they do business, which I love, is that they do all the prep work before even setting the actual add day. So they’re going out and playing the song and getting the Rachele supporters together and getting them ready to have a good add day. So that’s what’s going on right now we’re getting a lot of positive feedback and getting a lot of people who are saying they’ll be there on day one.

UCN: Do they have an anticipated add date, or are they waiting until they get what they’re looking for?
RL: Right now, radio is bogged down with a lot of major releases all in the same week. So we’re looking 6 weeks our probably. Either the very end of March or sometime in April.

UCN: Tell me about the rest of the record. What are you hoping people will take away with them from it?
RL: This year I’ll be coming out with my debut album. It’s going to be 13 songs, all of which I’ve written or co-written and I’m really excited about it! For the most part it’s stories that come from my life or from my friends’ lives, though there may be one or two that are somewhat imaginative. [laughs] You’ll probably be able to guess which ones, like the revenge songs! [laughs]

UCN: Right…you’re only saying that because I’m recording this. [laughs] RL: For the record, it’s not a real story… [laughs]

UCN: Like ‘Before He Cheats,’ that was COMPLETELY made up! [laughs] RL: [laughs] Those crazy chick singers!

UCN: [laughs] RL: It’s going to be great, I’m really excited! I’ve been writing so much lately that I feel like I already have the next album halfway written that I’m excited to get the next one out.

UCN: How much time, if any, have you been spending on the road?
RL: In the New Year, I’ve spent more time in Nashville which has been weird because all last year I felt like I was on the road all the time. But it’s been nice because I’ve been writing a lot, and you don’t have that time to do that when you’re on the road, so I’ve been writing and in rehearsals with my band to get the show set so we’re ready when the crazy time comes, which is on its way.

UCN: So at this point, I’d like you to give me either a cool road story or an inspirational quote that has stayed with you over time and inspired you.
RL: Oh my goodness!

UCN: No pressure! No one will be whistling the Jeopardy theme…unless you take too long.
RL: I should have an inspirational quote, just ready on demand! Thank you for that!

UCN: [laughs] Hey, you never know when someone’s gonna ask!
RL: Let’s go with a road story. We were in the middle of nowhere, which was Sparta, WI. So there were two taxi cabs in the whole town. We went to a movie and then we waited for the cab and when he got there, he said, ‘It’s been a busy night, we had to call in the other guy.’ [laughs]

UCN: [laughs] RL: Already we were like, ‘This is the best place we’ve ever been!’ [laughs] I was with two of my bandmates and we were having a ball. And we finally found this little dive bar and we made friends with this bartender, and it was so cool and totally hilarious! And we made friends with these two random people who just had this hometown charm about them.

UCN: They have a lot of that in Wisconsin, I just came back from there. One of the fun things about the road is just meeting random people.
RL: It is! The people are what make the road awesome.

UCN: Very true! Well Rachele, thank you very much, you’ve been awesome! High five!
RL: [laughs and high fives] Thanks!

 

Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

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