Rainbow Kitten Surprise offers fans soundtrack to explore their lives
When it comes to Rainbow Kitten Surprise, just remember the old axiom to never judge a book by its cover.
If you can get past the band's quirky name, you will find one of the most exciting and innovative acts with a current headlining tour that is almost completely sold-out throughout the country, which is pretty impressive for an outfit that first began out of Appalachian State University.
Growing in numbers after recording "Mary," their debut EP, in 2013 as a duo, the five-piece's constant has been the commanding presence of frontman and lead vocalist Sam Melo, whose chilling full throttle vocals underscore lyrics unlike any found in other popular indie rock bands today.
Melo, whose parents currently live in the Raleigh area, embraces the poverty and oppression found within modern day society, while also incorporating the sounds and spiritualism he found as a child accompanying his family on a years-long mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
"(The Dominican is) definitely all over the lyrical content, references to it are in the music," says Melo in a phone interview during a stop in the tour that will bring the band to The Ritz in Raleigh on Friday and Saturday night, with the Raleigh shows acting as album release parties for "How to: Friend, Love, Freefall."
"Songs like 'American Shoes' (from the 2015 album 'RKS'), rhythmically those Latin American roots are present, not necessarily highlighted but they have the reggaeton backbeats in the drums," Melo said. "I was there from 1999 to summer 2006, moving with my family when I was eight, and didn't know a lick of Spanish."
His father is Dominican, which helped, but Melo, his three brothers and mother had to learn Spanish in a relatively short period of time.
"I remember going into the third grade without knowing more than about three or four words; basically 'I need to go to the bathroom,' 'yes', and 'no,'" he recalls. "It was rough, but kids adapt pretty quickly to stuff, so within six to eight months we were all pretty fluent. You realize as soon as the language barrier breaks down that kids are the same everywhere, and you just begin making friends in whatever neighborhood you live in. It was different, but it was our way of life, and I wouldn't trade anything for it when I think about it now."
Hailing from a missionary upbringing, it's no surprise that Melo's songs offer spiritualism and mysticism aspects largely unexplored by other indie-folk rock bands who are the band's peers out on the road. But more surprising is how the band found such a large — and still growing — fanbase among the same age range that studies show are turning their backs to organized religion in droves.
The singer downplays those studies, remarking that he hasn't noticed that himself, but believes that his group's fans view their music as perhaps the soundtrack to their exploration of personal beliefs.
"I don't know that people are turning away from spirituality," the frontman says, "as much as I think its that people are interested in exploring other possibilities, especially today where you are more likely to find out earlier that wherever you are growing up isn't the same as every other place in the world.
"I think that leads to people either holding tighter to what they've been taught, or to let go of it almost immediately upon making this discovery," he said. "Religion and spirituality are very tightly tied into American identity, and how we view ourselves, and it's in some way ingrained into all of our cultures."
Because religion was such a significant part of Melo's life, he said it's impossible for him to brush it aside in his music.
"It's a choice of whether to highlight it or downplay it," he said. "I think that's true for a lot of people, in what makes them true to who they are, and how they understand the world. To avoid that and pretend it isn't there is ultimately rejecting a part of who they are, and makes the world a little less colorful."
While this is the only pair of Triangle shows on their current tour in support of their Elektra Records debut, one would think that Melo's roots in the Triangle would help the odds for another stop on the next headlining tour. With their current string of sellout dates, however, their next venue is sure to be not as intimate in crowd size.
The band's leap from bar gigs to prime slots on music festival schedules to selling out clubs that would normally hold a buzzed-about band on the indie scene for a few more album cycles has been shocking, even to the members themselves.
"You never expect that to happen, or that reaction (from the public)," Melo acknowledges. "Every time you book a tour, it's just, 'Fingers crossed, I hope this goes well.' You hit a market once, and you come back with your agents telling you that you're going to be booked into a bigger venue, and it just seems like the (occupancy) numbers are impossible until the people actually start to come out for it. This has been amazing for us.
"I think every band, when they first start, become a band because they think they've got something good and want to share it with everyone. I'll admit, we were cocky as hell, dreaming of fame from the very beginning. We've been doing it for five years now, and we struggled to pay bills for a lot of that time, so at this point we've learned that anything that we're getting now is a blessing. We don't feel entitled to it."
Details
Who: Rainbow Kitten Surprise with CAAMP
When: 9 p.m. April 6 and 7
Where: The Ritz, 2820 Industrial Drive, Raleigh
Cost: Both nights sold out
Info: RitzRaleigh.com
This story was originally published April 6, 2018 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Rainbow Kitten Surprise offers fans soundtrack to explore their lives."