Rockers anticipate riotous Ryman appearance

Ra Ra Riot, the six-member unit that includes both a rhythm and string section, is among the more unusual musical aggregations in the pop/rock world.

Yet this is not the type of floating, ethereal fare that’s popular in New Age, ambient or electronica circles. Ra Ra Riot is a rock band by choice and approach, and their tunes are precise, assertive and animated, even with cello and violin support.

The instrumental corps includes guitarist Milo Bonacci, bassist Mathieu Santos, cellist Alexandra Lawn, violinist Rebecca Zeller and drummer Gabriel Duquette.

The mixture of acoustic and electric strings, percussive textures and both elaborate and sparse arrangements converge behind the piercing leads of vocalist Wes Miles.

Indeed Bonacci says that having a mix of instruments provides a unique challenge, as well as a great compositional opportunity.

“The first thing that everyone has to constantly pay attention to involves spacing in the playing and writing,” Bonacci said. “When you have that many people and that many instruments, you can start a song from anywhere. Sometimes we may build off a guitar lick. Other times we’ll work from the bass and drums, or we may start with the strings and then bring the voice and the guitar into the mix.

“But you always have to keep some space within the arrangement. You can’t let things get cluttered up, or you’ll have more noise than anything else. It requires some discipline, but it’s also a lot of fun as well as a continual challenge.”

The New York rockers are eagerly anticipating their forthcoming two shows in Music City on Sunday and Monday. That’s because Ra Ra Riot will be performing as one of the opening acts along with Matt Costa for the Death Cab for Cutie show at the Ryman Auditorium. (For more on Death Cab, click here.)

“We know we’re incredibly fortunate to have this type of opportunity for our music and band,” Bonacci said. “You don’t often get the chance to appear with a band that’s the caliber of Death Cab, and it’s been a wonderful experience for us so far. Now we’re making our Ryman debut and getting to come back to Nashville, one of our favorite places to play and to visit.”

Ra Ra Riot began establishing themselves within the East Coast college rock sphere, playing dates at their home base of Syracuse University in 2006 and then branching out to an appearance at the CMJ Music Marathon six months after their first gigs.

By the middle of 2007, they’d been hailed by <i>Spin.com</i>, toured North America with the Tokyo Police Club, and been a big hit during a South by Southwest music festival appearance. Then, they made a key label deal, signing with Barsuk Records.

“We had put together enough songs to record, and we really hadn’t thought about signing with anyone,” Bonacci said. “But when we got into the mixing and final stages, we started thinking about getting it out, distribution, marketing, publicity and all those other things. That’s when we decided to sign with the folks at Barsuk. We’ve hung out with them a lot and they’re real believers in our music, as well as just good people.

“There are some groups who can do all that ancillary stuff, but there are a lot of others who can use the support of a good label, and that’s what we feel Barsuk provides us.”

Besides their most recent release <i>The Rhumb Line</i>, there’s also a Ra Ra Riot EP available through the Rebel Group (therebelgroup.com). They’ll continue touring with Death Cab through the end of July, then begin working on a new release.

“The experience of being on this tour is certainly a motivating force,” Bonacci concluded. “We’re really looking forward later to getting together and starting the writing for the next recording. I’m sure we’ll all have a lot of ideas, especially after we conclude this tour.”