Getting Rowdy With Rachel and The Ruckus

by Tim Wenger

Rachel and The Ruckus is name gaining ever more familiarity around the Denver scene. With a catchy blend of bluesy rock and an emotionally stimulating soul feel, the band has watched one live performance lead to another over the last four years and look to spend a good amount of time on the road in 2016. The group’s new single, “Bounce,” is currently being promoted off their recent self-titled release. CMB caught up with singer Rachel Alena to get the lowdown on the single and how t

CMB: Let’s hear about the new single “Bounce.”

RA: “Bounce” was written about twelve years ago by my drummer (Kyle Comerford) and guitar player (Alec Sims). They wrote it and then it just kind of sat in their archives. We have been playing it at our shows for the last four years and everywhere we play, where it’s a country place or a blues place, people are dancing. So we thought, people love that song, we should probably do something with it.

They really wrote it about how, especially in the music industry, people always tell you you’re going to fail. Even if they don’t say it to your face, that’s just what people think because it’s such a hard industry. So they wrote it about how you’ve just got to bounce back and be resilient.

CMB: How did you come to be as you are with your current lineup?

RA: I was singing in a front range band called Girls On Top and I met Alec Sims. I gave him a cd of some originals of mine and told him I wanted to start a band. He was like ‘I’m game’ so he became my partner. But he said ‘If we’re going to have a band, then we have to meet up with this guy Kyle (Cumerford)’ who was a drummer friend of his that he had been playing with forever. So we brought him in. Then we started looking for bass players and we went through a couple before we found Vinny Carmellini, who is from Cleveland.

CMB: So when you guys are looking for gigs, what is the ideal situation for your band?

RA: Well, right now, we have actually been picked to go showcase at the Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs in Utah. What that is is its buyers from twelve states plus two provinces in Canada and they look at the bands and look to see where they are going to place you as far as doing festivals and touring and opening for some larger acts. We’re super excited about that. It’s on November 13. So that has sort of changed the game a little bit for us and we’re kind of looking towards doing some touring.

CMB: Let’s talk about you a little bit. Are you a native?

RA: I’ve lived here for fifteen years. I’m from Los Angeles originally. My dad was a guitar player so I grew up with music and my parents were in a band my whole life. I was a session singer in Los Angeles and then went on the road and met my husband, and he’s from here, so that’s how I wound up here.

CMB: Did you ever think about going a different direction? Kind of get away from what the parents were doing?

RA: I knew this was what I wanted to do from when I was young, and my first session singing job was when I was 14. So I was heading this direction very young, but then I went on the road and I quit for about twelve years. I just wanted to get an education, I went and got a Business degree, went and got jobs and had kids and wanted to see what it was like to be normal and not be a musician. I did that for a period of time and then I woke up one day and I was like, ‘ I miss myself.’ That’s who I was from the time I was small.

I was hiking with a girlfriend of mine, this was year’s ago, and I was telling her, ‘I just feel lonely for myself’ and she’s like ‘you’re a singer, you’re a musician, that’s who you are and if you don’t do that than you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do.’

CMB: What else do people need to know about Rachel and the Ruckus?

RA: We’re a team. We’ve all been playing forever. We love fans, we love connecting, that’s really what we’re interested in. We want to connect with people and help them to have a good time and maybe to feel an emotion that they haven’t felt in a while.

Online:  rachelandtheruckus.com

Tags: festivals, Rachel and The Ruckus, Bounce

Category: Buzzworthy