George W Bush’s appropriation of Christianity as a political tool is one of the most characteristic things about his presidency. Indicative of his rhetoric at the time is the words claimed to be said in a June 2003 meeting with Nabil Shaath, who was Palestine’s foreign minister. According to Shaath, Bush said: "I am driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did."
Conflating religion with war is a very US-centric perspective and almost comes with the manual for the job. Trump’s religious views are more mysterious yet still he’s still doing it. For example, in 2017, when he went for his first graduation commencement speech as president at evangelical Christian college Liberty University, he said to the military personnel who were present: “We’re profoundly grateful to every single one of you who sacrifice to keep us safe and protect God’s precious gift of freedom.“
For Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s lead singer and songwriter Sam Melo – a man who has lived all over the place; including in the Dominican Republic for seven years because he was raised by a missionary father – this rhetoric from the people in the most powerful job on the planet have had a lasting impact on his psyche. Whether or not the singer’s still religious, we don’t speak about; but it’s clear he doesn’t gullibly mop up this spiel, like, perhaps, the fundamentalist right do.
Speaking to Gigwise over the phone about the song ‘Holy War’, the North Carolina-based singer says: “It's about when Christianity participates in the culture of violence. It has been for the entire time the United States was founded as a nation and our president still swears with his hand on the bible. Political aspirations are so intertwined with it. It’s like the parable in the bible when a false leader profits from being a wolf in sheep clothing."
Despite its political reference, it’s not a preachy song lyrically. Instead it works like a historical document to illustrate the brutality of war in the 21st century; it doesn’t tell one what to think. How the singer feels about the issue comes across more in his delivery; when he sings you can feel his compassion for scores who’ve died.
But despite frequent religious imagery on the album (‘Fever Dream’s lyrics are a prime example), ‘Holy War’ doesn’t reflect the album’s overarching theme; it is broad thematically, developed somewhat like a diary entry.
The singer takes a moment and thoughtfully answers with honesty when he’s prompted to detail the narrative: “I wanted a concept album but the struggles to make this musician thing work and pay bills became the narrative,” he says. His answer there may not imply this but he takes a sideways view on this trajectory, avoiding his journey to sound anything like a Hollywood triumph – a rags to riches story - that it might appear to outsiders looking at the recent trajectory of the band’s success; they recently signed to Atlantic after building their reputation from the ground up and are selling out shows across the states. He paints a gritty picture, especially on the track ‘Matchbox' that alludes to the occasional sense of defeat and worthlessness about his adventure:
“It’s about the pressure of change,” he says “It was written the first night of tour in 2017 at Columbia, South Carolina. I was furiously writing outside of this punk venue that was kind of caving in; a real sort of rag-tag place. It’s still what we want to do, love to be doing it, but at the same time, the place I was at made me question a little bit.”
His anxiousness about success isn’t limited to his career, hearing him talk about the doubt that creeps into his mind surrounding the things he values also translates to the track ‘When It Lands’; this time in the context of romance:
“When it Lands,’ is a more theatrical piece designed to tell a one-night story. It’s sort of that waiting at the end of the night when you finally get someone’s number. And you’re waiting at home maybe for the first or second time since talking, and you send the text off and you’re not sure what the response is going to be, but you’ve took that first step.”
It seems, in channelling his insecurities into songwriting, it has helped focus the singer on his job in pushing RKS forward. He has such a strong mentality to persevere and create the rich, expansive sound of their new album. It’s a record that flits between genres within the space of a song and from one cut to another. Bluegrass, indie folk and hip-hop are touch stones. The modern, current sound of a band signed to one of the biggest labels in the world is achieved. Inventive recording techniques to capture the feel of seeing the band live is achieved.
The exciting collage of references that feed into making this album break genre boundaries comes, according to the singer, because they are from a very “isolated music scene. Anything, that anybody in the band likes and you kind of just merge those. We had anything from hip-hop, to punk-rock and a lot of folk. Anything from Iron and Wine to Schoolboy Q and Vince Staples.”
This open minded approach to music stems from the town’s long standing culture of folk and bluegrass that’s cherished in the town. “There’s an old time, folk scene in Boone, there’s always been people busking in the street, but it’s never been a music scene,” says the band’s bass player Charlie Holt, who is passed the phone from the singer.
Melo also credits the open mindedness of Boone’s residents with the success of Rainbow Kitten Surprise; “there’s not a whole lot of judgement, if you’re making it and you’re putting on a good show, you will get supported.”
But not all contemporary bands there have blown up; infact RKS are the band from Boone at the moment. As to why others haven’t come up with them Melo says “We kept doing that and it became something more."
Part of their success is down to their high standards for recording. They’ve an ultra-modern sound and Melo perks up when talking about more technical and less emotional things: “The whole process was incredible, a dream come true. The sound design that came out is credited to Jay Joyce at Neon Cross Studios and Jason Hall, our sound engineer. They absolutely slayed the mixing of this album, the way that it’s mixed […] It really creates the atmosphere, to what it should, it’s an oral experience of seeing a live band play; in a way that I haven’t seen anyone do a record before. It’s one of the most genius mixing jobs I’ve ever seen.”
In terms of their own work in the studio, they had their work cut out: “We had about two and a half weeks. We just rolled in there and wrote a song a day, and whatever song got tracked that day, it got finished and made the record. But, if it didn’t, it didn’t make the record, we never came back to it.”
What they achieved in that short time is remarkable and indicative of their focused work ethic. And the struggle helped them: “"Struggling through with a bit of sickness, exhaustion or whatever is what gets the take. You get it when you’re almost pushing max capacity.”
Melo’s journey to becoming a frontman in one of the most acclaimed rising bands in the US is fairly unique. He spent half his school years in the Dominican Republic and did most of his high school years in the States before starting a college course in dance.
“It was Modern, like modern-jazz, I did after High school, I was working in an office, not really sure what I wanted to do. I saw the film Singing in The Rain, and I was like, ‘man, I wanna learn how to tap dance.’ So, I started taking a tap dance class at a local dance academy and when I was doing that, they were like hey, you should also try and Ballet and I was like, ‘ok’. And then they were like, ‘you should also try out jazz’ to which I agreed. I loved all of it, so I kept that when I went to College.”
But music, and the natural ear he has for it would soon lead him away from dance. In 2013 the band got going: “I had been writing songs for a while, and I wrote a song called, ‘All That And More,’ and played it for my rhythm guitarist (Darrick "Bozzy" Keller) who was like, ‘yo dude, you should do something with that.’ And so, I wrote a couple more, which transcended into our first EP, Mary. And we put that out, and people seemed to like it, so we were like, 'yeah okay, let’s keep doing this on the side'. It was nothing too serious to begin with.
Over the next few months the band bloomed with Ethan Goodpaster (Electric Guitar), Jess Haney (Drums), and Charlie Holt (Bass) who were in the student accommodation in Boone joining.
With encouragement coming from those around them who instilled a sense of passion and belief in the band they self-released their debut album Seven + Mary; their second RKS was released on a label; and third most brilliant to date How To: Friend Love, Freefall on Atlantic Records, who’ve bankrolled them to tour the world. North America remains their main fanbase with two major North American tours awaiting in the coming months.
But it won’t stay that way for long. It seems their astute musicianship, open-hearted lyricism across a range of poignant, personal subjects are a recipe for success they’ve got right. And earlier this year, they sold out their debut London show at Dingwalls and got the sort of feverish reaction usually reserved for arena band. The way they’ve made something so listenable without being derivative is remarkable achievement. It’s the sound of band all moving in the same direction at unstoppable rate. The signer says “to have a modern, current sound. I think that’s what probably connects us more than anything.” To have innovative mindset in an industry that is increasingly difficult to not sound unique with so much that’s been done before it’s great to hear band truly pushing the envelope, and life may be about to get that bit bigger both sides of the pond with loving fans propelling them on.
