“As artists, we experience being alive quite differently from normative perception and awareness”, RAIBARD
Postscript, the latest album from RAIBARD, spans ten tracks and delves into memory, self-reflection, and the complex emotions of daily life. With a sound that fuses classical influences, progressive rock, and deeply personal storytelling, the record explores both the inner and outer worlds of its creators.
By Sandra Pinto
In this interview, the band discusses the vision behind the album, the innovative recording process across multiple locations, and the ways in which guest artists, acoustic instrumentation, and unconventional structures bring their ideas to life. From baroque-inspired guitar delays to debut violin performances, RAIBARD opens up about translating nuanced philosophical and emotional concepts into music that is both intellectually stimulating and viscerally engaging.
Postscript spans ten tracks and explores themes from memory to personal reflection. What was the overarching vision for the album?
Sometimes you plan out your concept and then implement the specific vision over time. However, sometimes the vision speaks and creates through you over time. That happens when the vision is a bit larger than the human mind can accommodate. Looking back on the process of creating this album, it’s clear that this overarching idea of reflection, joy, and memory, or lack of memory, spoke through us. As we were recording and writing it felt like how can all these different types of moods and genres be connected? Now that it’s complete, it is the most unified work we’ve yet done, because it’s rooted in a place greater than just us. Looking back at the process, clearly we were open to a less linear, more holistic type of integration; one that comes from the subconscious or deeper, and then creates through you.
The album was written and recorded across multiple locations. How did the changing rough environments influence the sound and emotional tone of the record?
Every song, string quartet, symphony et al, has a core idea, usually accompanied by a core emotion, or ethos. Recording separately engenders each member of the group to focus in on their own perception of that particular idea. It also takes away the limitation of time bound recording sessions, where time is literally money, when you’re paying for every hour spent in the studio. When recording separately time bound perception is eliminated, and exploration of personal feeling and perception of ideas is immediate and encouraged. So, counter-intuitively,
this mode of recording can bring out tremendous levels of emotion, because it is not limited to a specific time/place, but rather is approachable over the multiple times, spaces, and mindsets of each performer. It also takes the pressure, both social, and financial out of the picture in terms of performance. Didn’t like the takes you did? Try again tomorrow. Of course there are diminishing returns, but the members of Raibard have many years of experience recording, and know when to stop.
In terms of the usability of tracks recorded in different environments, and locales: with the ubiquitous nature in the current era, of at least decent recording equipment, and software, the technical fidelity of our basic tracks, is at a minimum good, and at times excellent. Our tracks
provided a usable basis for mixing and mastering. It seems that sometimes it is easy to get caught up in trying to make a “perfect” record; we realize that this is not only impossible, but it is almost always counter productive to making good music.
Still Your Name features guest keyboardist Jeff Kolter. How did his contribution enhance the song’s atmosphere and themes of memory and reincarnation?
Jeff is not only one of the best bassists I’ve ever heard, he is also a highly creative, and interesting creator himself, who uses the keyboard to great effect when performing and recording as a solo artist. He’s on bandcamp, and other streaming platforms, definitely go check him out! Anytime we artists collaborate, it’s like mixing different prisms of perception, and then finding the enhanced beauty and cohesion within this newly formed combination of perspective. Jeff’s contribution to Still Your Name enhanced the overall dreamlike nature of the song, which
is about the cloudy vision of reality that happens when our deep sub-conscious mind emerges from its slumber, and tries to integrate with the less esoteric daily mindset. In short Jeff did a masterful job bringing out the mystery and concept of the song: that our consciousness over
multiple lifetimes is what shapes, to some degree, the circumstances of our current mindset and place in reality, which can both confuse and enhance our sense of self.
The title track Postscript examines tension between self-expression and concealment. How do you approach translating such nuanced ideas into music?
As artists, we experience being alive quite differently from normative perception and awareness. We can have the most incredible breakthrough in our art, and the world seems to go on and on without noticing. Postscript was born out of this tension. “Sitting on a bookshelf as time rolls by . . .” So we artists, composers, can have real revelation in our minds and art, and yet are still concealed from the world at large. Which is more real, the inner or the outer world? This is always a primary challenge in art; how do we approach our own greatness, our own vision, while the world seems essentially to be silent, and unaware? Postscript is about being ok with the tension, seeing it from a broader perspective; understanding that we are ok with all outcomes relating to our art. That essentially we are making art and music for its own sake.
Whereas external recognition, or dare we say compensation, are wonderful when they come, these external factors do NOT influence our decision to create. We create because we are human and filled with the desire to share the beauty we have.
Time opens the album with baroque-inspired guitar delays and philosophical lyrics. How do you integrate classical and progressive rock elements into your compositions?
To me, music is entirely one; I obviously have my preferences, but I never discount any music. In a technical way it is literally all the same to me, as I can hear the different forms of rhythm, harmony, and melody and analyze them as just pure music. Here we’re presented by another
kind of tension, being open and analytical about music, while at the same time honoring your own preferences and choices in a given composition. In a way, these two perspectives can feed each other. For every type of music that I hear or write, I learn more about music, and about myself. I see new ideas that I might never have thought of if I didn’t engage my mind to really focus and listen to new music. This process makes the musical ideas entirely transferable precisely because they’re seen as logical musical ideas. An idea can then be enhanced or
transmuted into a differing yet similar emotion in any genre, and any aspect of an idea can be amplified and expounded upon or not. This is the case for Time, the opening track on Postscript.
It is the beginning intro to a composition of mine, Three Little Wizards, written for Chatham Baroque, a US based baroque ensemble. While I was deep in the depths of writing Three Little Wizards I heard Time and the slightly different chord changes, lyrics, and the different course of
the music, in my head while taking a shower. I jumped out of the shower, dried off, and wrote it down. Interestingly, I wrote Time while I was still writing the 2nd movement of Three Little Wizards, and incorporated Time’s melody directly in the closing section of the 2nd movement of Three Little Wizards.
Path of Day critiques the 9-to-5 grind with acoustic urgency. How do you balance socially conscious themes with musical accessibility?
In a certain real way there is nothing more tangible than an acoustic guitar. As long as someone is sitting and playing at a campfire, or around the table at a party, or sitting on their porch, it’s instantly recognizable and tangible. Acoustic music with socially conscious themes is one of the elements that sparked rock music; we owe that aspect of rock’n’roll most assuredly to Bob Dylan and his switch to electric music. Parenthetically, Dylan playing Maggies Farm electric was in a sense saying, ‘even if my message coincides with aspects of a political ideology, don’t think that I work for that ideology. Don’t try to take my music and fit it inside your conveniently crafted bullshit political perspective. Music stands on its own.’ In terms of Path of Day there’s something more to this tune than just a critique of the corporate system of 9 to 5. It asks what is the human soul left with as a result of the 9 to 5 grind? On the one hand those who work 9 – 5 are amazing – they support families, and provide the means by which generations can exist and live. However, the questions still remain, do human beings have any other purpose than just to exist and “get by?” What is the purpose of a particular soul? Why am I specifically here? Do I have anything to say that is unique to me? Where’s MY voice?! The corporate structure would say no, making a living is enough, don’t look any deeper; while at the same time they are eating up and dominating the resources that could quite possibly be used to free humanity, and allow us the room to explore who we really are.
Several tracks mix melancholy and playfulness, like Steppin’ & Trippin’. How do you navigate shifts in mood while maintaining a cohesive album narrative?
Human emotions are not isolated, and homofaceted. Rather, emotions are multi-faceted and connective in nature. As human beings we have a capacity to feel multiple emotions at the same time, and often the most poignant moments in our lives contain an enormous variety of
conflicting yet cohesive emotions. When expressing an idea/emotion in a composition, the composer has to introspect, and really understand their own emotions and emotional processing in order that the emotion expressed will ring true to the listener. It is precisely because the
presented emotions are multi-faceted and sometimes contradictory in nature that people from various backgrounds and mindsets can connect with the ideas presented. So too with an album of varying types of emotionally resonant music, like Postscript. If the emotional core of the music is true, the extensions of this core, the different songs or movements will feel cohesive and connected even if their external expressions vary greatly.
Forest Queen personifies nature as a healing force. How important is storytelling through metaphor in your songwriting?
This tune was written during a particularly dark time in my life. The only place at the time that really helped me was the forest. I’d walk in it and start to feel the burdens lifting. Start to feel better internally. It literally felt like some supernatural force was holding me, and guiding me; telling me through deep touch and embrace that ‘everything is okay, and will be okay.’ It isn’t so much a metaphor, rather it’s the description of a very real healing experience that happened to me in a forest. In my mind there was a distinct powerful feminine presence this. You might even say that walking in the forest for me at that point in my life was an experience of the feminine Divine. It’s interesting to note – creative people see the world through entirely different lenses and lines of communication, metaphor and personification are the rhetorical devices used to convey their non-normative perspectives. It should be noted – real ideas don’t fit into the logical and tidy notions that dominate our news cycles and paychecks. You need to get outside in the world to discover the deeper ideas hidden in our world. So do yourself a favor, put down your phone, and take a walk in the forest, and learn to trust your deep instinct and intuition.
Moment’s Pride features your debut violin performance. How does introducing classical instruments affect your approach to progressive rock arrangements?
Ill let you in on a secret, most modern classical music is quite similar to progressive rock (I mean this primarily in terms of harmonic progressions and their rhythmic timing.) The main difference is in the audience, and what sort of SPL they are used to listening at. Try this – take a classical composition, say Shostakovich Symphony no. 5 and turn it up very loud on your favorite listening device and see how you feel? You’ll be surprised I promise. The opposite is also true ifyou’re more of a classical fan, take a prog rock band and turn it down, and just listen, you’ll also be quite surprised. In my writing, the two art forms inspire each others’ expression! Classical music sometimes inspires me when I’m writing progrock, and progrock sometimes inspires me when I’m writing classical music. As far as arranging is concerned the questions that always come up in any arrangement are ‘what type of scoring does the arrangement call for, and what instruments do I have at my disposal?” Moment’s Pride definitely called for a fiddle (violin) in the arrangement, and I am a decent player so I figured why not? Just to add, the title track of the album Postscript, features an arrangement for string orchestra. Parenthetically, I am more than just a decent player. I studied violin for many years with a student of the late great David Oistrakh.
RAIBARD has a unique rehearsal structure, alternating problem-solving with flow work. How does this approach impact your songwriting and live chemistry?
Memory is a fascinating thing. Through memory, specifically the multi-sensory memory which music engenders, we can often relive our experiences. So when we practice music in the contex of performing with a band, we are both remembering our time together even though we’re apart, while simultaneously focusing on the singular notion of our part/s in the music. The opposite is also true. Our singular focus when practicing alone, is remembered, and felt deeply when we play together. Playing together is and should be a balance between flow, each of us paying attention to each other’s emotional and physical cues which engenders improvisation, and also focusing on the structural discipline of playing exactly what was written. It’s the actualization of individual and communal goals and the cohesive nature of the musicians’ connection to each other that engenders good chemistry, and dare I say it also opens the ‘energy flowing from above’ into a live performance.
Your influences range from LED ZEPPELIN and RUSH to JETHRO TULL and Shostakovich. How do you synthesize such diverse inspirations into a distinctive sound?
I can’t say definitively how, but I can tell you that the art of composing & writing music has to do with one thing: figuring out what you particularly want to hear. Composition is the art of honing the ability to recognize the truth of what you actually like and enjoy in music. So when I listen to a piece of music, I learn. I learn just a bit more what I like and what I don’t, and this is not entirely related to what I’m used to hearing, or what I’ve been listening to my whole life; it’s an evolving sense of self-discovery over time. This has something to do with the deep human mind and its intuitive sense of what you like and what you don’t. Music is the bridge that connects us to our individuated yet deeply connective mind. So, I suppose any genre that I listen to helps in my own musical development as well as the sound of a given project. This fluid nature of learning is the main factor in synthesizing my reservoir of musical knowledge into whatever I feel inspired or hired to write. In addition, as I mentioned before, I have an ability to hear music in isolation from whatever culture or time period the music comes from. However, it’s very important to recognize where the heart of music lies, as all diverse influences are ultimately put through the emotional lens of the composer. So, while seeing music analytically is incredibly important, this cannot be at the expense of personal emotion; as music without emotion is ultimately a waste of time, as it’s not really music.
The band emphasizes musical execution over spectacle. How does this philosophy shape both your recordings and live performances?
Whether through a recorded medium or live, it’s in the direct connection with each other and the audience that the magic happens. Spectacle can be fun, but nothing, absolutely nothing, is greater than genuine connection. The real connection, the focus on the music, and the intense
nature of listening makes for great and highly affective, and effective performance. The music hits because it is a slice of truth stolen from a moment which the musicians then present to an audience. The musical idea flows from the revelation of a previously hidden truth, from above, from a higher or different perspective than the every day, and then from the mind of the creator and performers towards the audience. This simple concept of from above to below and then outwards, is the core idea of the creative, and the more directly presented the idea is, the less crap we put on top of it, the better.
Looking at Postscript as a whole, what do you hope listeners experience— emotionally, intellectually, and viscerally—when engaging with the album?
I hope people who listen to our music uncover new understandings and new feelings within their own mindspace. Perhaps our music will help them relax, or contrarily get moving, depending on where they are in their life. Nothing is greater than someone who listens to us and discovers something within themselves, finds ideas that we never intended. In any genre, creating music is kind of like passing the baton of universal positive energy to the listener; the question for the listener is “What are you going to do with it?!”
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