Introducing The Transatlantic Folk-Pop Trio… Raynes

Emerging British-American trio Raynes are ready to take over the music world. The group first got their start when Mat Charley and Joe Berger met during their college years. After recording an array of demos, the duo began their search for a lead vocalist – which led them to Durham native Mark Race. With their group completed, the young talents quickly got to work on their craft and artistry. In 2019, Raynes finally made their debut with their genre-bending single ‘Lemon Drop.’ Since then, they’ve continued to release heartfelt and immersive music, including their latest track, ‘Time Me Up’ – which was inspired by Mark’s journey from the UK to the US. With more music set to be released later this year, Raynes has their eyes set on music domination. We were able to chat to the trio about everything from their new single, navigating the music industry, and so much more.

Hey Mark, Mat and Joe! How’s your summer treating you?

Hey! Lovely to chat with you. Our summer has been great so far. Absolutely wild, really. We’ve driven something like 3,000 miles in the last month, played a bunch of crazy shows, and just been having the time of our lives really.

Any particular plans for the month of July and August?

Mark is back in London through July, so we’re in the process of recording a few more songs remotely again. Once August rolls around, we’ll all be together again and back on the road! We have a few exciting shows planned and more on the way.

Let’s dive into the music, shall we? What’s the origin story behind Raynes? How did you three meet and form your musical connection?

Mat and Joe met about seven years ago at college in North Dakota, and started hanging out together and working on a bunch of songs that Mat had written. We thought the songs were good enough to form a band around, but neither of us really had the voice to be much of a lead singer. Very long story short, we ended up looking on the internet for the final puzzle piece, and we came across some videos of Mark playing some covers on Instagram. We reached out to him to see if he would be interested in coming from the UK to the states to join a band, and ten days later he was on a flight to LA! Everything clicked immediately and the rest is history.

When it came to creating your sound, were you all on the same page? What type of styles did each of you want to incorporate into the band?

This is a great question. The short answer is that even with our different backgrounds and influences, we all really were on the same page from the jump. Mark is a big fan of artists like John Mayer and guitar-forward singer-songwriter stuff, Joe loves country and hip hop, and Mat grew up playing a bunch of folk instruments and strings in bluegrass groups and orchestral ensembles. So we really had a diverse range of influences. None of us really intentionally tried to incorporate any specific genre elements or anything into our sound, though––as we began playing together, it just came together very naturally. We knew immediately that the core was going to be based on acoustic and folk instrumentation and our three voices, and that’s been a great foundation to build on.

Can you take us through an average studio session for you? What’s your creative process like?

Our process is often pretty unique by virtue of the fact that we’re often not all in the same place at the same time. In general, Mat will come up with a rough track and maybe a topline and send it to Mark and Joe, and over a few days we’ll all discuss it and add our ideas until it’s ready for Mat to write lyrics. Then we’ll all record our parts separately, send them to Mat, and he’ll put them all together. When we’re able to be in an actual studio together (which is definitely what we prefer), we’ll all bounce ideas off of each other in real time. Mark noodles on a guitar, Joe tells stories, and Mat paces around until we hit on the basic melody and structure, then Mat goes off somewhere to write lyrics and we have ourselves a song.

We need to talk about your latest single, “Tie Me Up.” It’s such an emotional and honest record. Can you take us deeper into the song’s meaning? What themes did you want to explore?

“Tie Me Up” is a song that means a lot to us. Even though it’s a pretty upbeat, driving tune, the lyrics are about the inability to commit, to put it sort of inelegantly. We wrote it when we were in Los Angeles a few years ago, and Mark had been forced by the circumstances to leave behind someone in the UK who was very important to him. So it was born out of us reflecting on the choices that people have to make, the sacrifices, when they’ve tied themselves to a dream.

With the music industry being such a mixed bag, how do you three combat those feelings of anxiety or uncertainty?

We knew getting into it that being in the industry was going to be a real rollercoaster, and we definitely do get those feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. But our attitude has always been that the music is worth it. We know we’re making something worth listening to and worth caring about. And the three of us have a bond that helps immensely––if one of us is struggling in some way, the other two will always help recalibrate.

“Tie Me Up” follows the release of your fantastic mini-album Set Fire To The Foxes. How will your upcoming music era differ from your last release? How will it be similar?

Acoustic instrumentation and vocal harmonies have always been the most characteristic elements of our sound, and we don’t really see ourselves straying too far away from that in the near future. There’s almost always going to be a violin or a mandolin or a bouzouki in there somewhere. But even maintaining those elements, there is all kinds of room to explore. The songs we have on deck now are definitely a bit darker and have a sharper edge than Set Fire To The Foxes; there’s more distortion on the electric guitars and more dirt and grit to the percussion. That being said, we don’t really have our sonic evolution planned out at all––we’re just moving in directions that feel right to us

We know that 2020 and 2021 were tough for artists and touring. Has Raynes been able to hit the stage again? Do you three have any performances you’re particularly looking forward to?

Fortunately, after almost two years of not being able to perform together, we’ve just come off a slate of really incredible shows and have more in the books. For us, any chance to play together for people is a gift, whether that’s a few dozen people in a little club or a wild outdoor party. So we’re looking forward to all of them, really.

We are smack dab in the middle of 2022. What can fans expect from you in the coming months? An album? An EP?

We can’t give away too much yet, but we have another single coming out in early August and then will be releasing a project that we’re very excited about in the months following.

Looking ahead, what are three goals you want to accomplish as a band?

We have dozens of goals that we’re constantly reassessing and readjusting, but we’d love to hit at least a million monthly listeners on Spotify, have one of our songs placed on a show or in a movie, and––looking maybe a bit further into the future––play Glastonbury.

Make sure to check out Raynes’ latest single ‘Tie Me Up’ here or below.