Bright-eyed yet thoughtful beyond what his 25 years would suggest, Luke Rathborne has returned to the music scene after a brief hiatus with a record that is purposely chaotic and hopeful to connect with eager listeners. Rathborne’s Soft pays homage to the icons of punk rock while adding a fresh twist of modernity. Stewing in the heart of Williamsburg and weaving inspiration out of the spiderweb of culture in New York, Rathborne presents this offering of ironically upbeat melodies atop a nostalgic angst that is altogether unavoidable.
Although young, Rathborne and his seasoned band are anything but strangers to the industry. A trio of carefully selected musicians rounded out the dynamic of the outfit and the foursome wasted little time wrapping up Soft and hopping on tour.
After an 11-city roundabout with Scottish-bred Travis, Rathborne is showing no signs of slowing down. Be sure to check out these rockers when they spin through town. You’ll be glad you did.
How did you get started playing music?
I was 12 or 13. I got a friend’s guitar and I started playing in bands around Maine, mostly punk bands. We’d rent out spaces and there were a couple clubs where we’d put shows together. We’d go to different parts of Maine, but we didn’t go much further than that. I started off playing in those bands and then I branched off and started doing my own stuff. Now I’ve sort of come back around to doing the band stuff again.
Is it true that you snuck into a radio station studio to record your first album?
Yeah. That album was called After Dark. I must have been 15 or 16. I got a radio show and I figured out that there was a recording studio in there. I didn’t really have an interest in learning to record music, but I sort of realized that I had to learn how to record it. I’d been in bands where we’d win a contest and get one day for someone to record us, but I wanted to do this project that was longer.
Once I figured out how to get a radio show, I could get into the studio anytime, even if it wasn’t during my show. I’d sneak into the recording studio and just stay in there all night. Sometimes I’d go to school, but more often than not I’d just wait around, fall asleep, and then wake up and keep recording. I started doing really badly in school, but I finished that record. It took me two years of doing that. That record was one of the first things to get listened to when I moved to New York. It got to someone at EMI and they started setting me up with different people [in the industry]. That’s how I got my start in the music world in New York. It was good to [make that record]..
What bands did you grow up listening to?
I had an older friend who exposed me to a lot of music, but I actually got into a lot of the punk stuff on my own. I’m not really sure how that happened. I think it was just a manifestation of skateboarder culture that seemed to connect into punk music. It started out on “poppier” punk and then it turned more into Minor Threat and the Sex Pistols. I remember getting the Nevermind the Bollocks record and calling up my friend and playing it through the phone saying “This music’s cool.” And then there was all the Iggy Pop and David Bowie stuff. A lot of Brit Pop, like The Laws. I always liked the really songy stuff. I actually listened to Travis a lot, which was really weird to get to tour with them. Just a lot of [music], from Brit Pop to the shoegazey stuff to the kind of druggy alternative music.
[Soft] is sort of revisiting that period of time, almost like that [older] music was unfinished work and this record is talking directly to that time.Had anyone heard your music when you moved to NYC?
No one had really heard it. I started working at a recording studio in the city. The studio put out an ad that said, “If you want to work for us, you can’t be in a band. We’re not here to record your band.” So I told them I wasn’t in a band. But one of the guys [at the studio] was really nice and I gave him my record. He passed it along to Joey Levine, who wrote the song “Yummy Yummy Yummy.” He was the one who sent it to to EMI. I was about 19.
You have a song on your new record, “So Long Nyc,” that is a sort of tribute to life in New York City. How has living in the City inspired your music?
It’s a really cool city, but it’s hard to live there. You get contained a lot. You spend a lot of time closed in and then something will happen, like fall in New York and you’ll think, “Wow, this is really beautiful.” You have to figure out how to survive there. I remember looking at the amount of money I made about two years ago and it wasn’t enough to cover my rent every month. How did I do that? I don’t know. You just figure it out, I guess. There’s this attitude if you move to New York that you can’t leave. But then you want to leave because it kind of sucks. There’s something about the city that must be good enough to keep you there.
When did you decide you wanted a full band?
Two years ago. I started playing with Darren Will, the bass player, and it was so much more fun that way and it naturally became a full band.
How did you meet everybody?
Darren and I met through this producer, Luther Russell. Jimmy, the keyboardis and guitarist, was my neighbor. I showed him my record one day and he thought it was awesome so he started playing with us. We used to play as just the three of us. Jaime I met through a friend and he’s just an awesome drummer. He showed up and played everything perfectly.
According to your Instagram videos, you guys seem to enjoy yourselves.
Oh yeah! We all work in film, pretty much. We’re trying to make [those videos] more narrative, but no one wants to force it. Some of my favorite ones literally just happen. At the end of them, I’ll always say “Kiss him. Kiss him.” And people love it when it gets sealed with a kiss! 30 likes! But we just started doing the videos. Jimmy’s been doing them for a while. We did Vine, but Vine just got lame all of a sudden. I think our videos are just weird subconscious kind of things. We shouldn’t talk about it too much…
How was it recording this new album?
Soft was recorded on my own label. That’s been fun because I can pretty much do anything I want. With some labels you end up working towards this unattainable thing. You can’t really get what the labels want. There’s more control [with recording on your own]. And there are periods of time where I just won’t do anything. It’s good to be able to control when you put things out, even if it’s on a smaller scale. It’s nice to be self-reliant. You kind of have a hold on something. I’ve been in different scenarios where it feels like you’re not connected to what’s being put out, but that’s because there are layers in between everything. When you’re directly connected to something and some kid says, “Hey, I really like this. This is my favorite song,” you’ll receive that in a better way. There’s a certain amount of satisfaction that comes with completely doing something yourself. I think more people are doing that now.
How would you describe this album?
This record was done really fast. In about five days. So it has this quality to it that’s kind of crazy. I was conflicted about that at first, but I came around to it because that’s what makes it different. It’s out of control. It’s weird to listen to something that’s kind of intense. Like the “Yeezus” record, which I didn’t think I would like at first. It has those elements that make it sonically hard to listen to at times, but that says something about it.
I’ve read other people describe Soft as “garage pop” or something like that. But I don’t really think people really use the word “garage” anymore. It seems passé now. It’s hopefully a new kind of music, a newer idea. Kind of like the melodic Buddy Holly kind of stuff and more aggressive like The Stooges, but still has a pop element to it.
Do you have a favorite song?
I like “Soft” because it’s probably the most “out there” out of the group. It’s the most aggressive and it seems to be more about what the album is about, which is failed relationships and failure to connect and failure… period. That was a fun thing to write about because it’s so negative but then you have a positive way of approaching it. You have all this negative language over a sunny backdrop and it creates this cool dynamic. It sounds happy but then you listen to the words and it’s bitter and unhappy. It’s fun to listen to something like that.
What’s one thing you’d like people to take away from the record?
I hope that they connect with it. You make [music] to connect with people, but it would be ridiculous to do something entirely for other people. I don’t think you’d ever get [a record] done if that were the case, so it has to be for yourself. However people take it is fine, if they like it or don’t like it.
What’s next on your agenda?
We’re doing the Albert Hammond Jr. tour in November. We’ll probably do another tour after that. Just try to tour this record as consistently as possible, as much as we physically can. And then we’ll work on more new music.
Purchase Soft here.
Interview by Sarabeth Oppliger. Follow her on Twitter at @sarabethster
Photo by Shelby Duncan
