Ra Ra Riot Play House While Recording 'The Orchard'

Posted on Jul 22nd 2010 3:00PM by Emily Tan
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For some bands, sharing a house can lead to constant battles over the smallest issues. Still, Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles prefers it to being on tour, especially when it comes to creativity.

"It's actually a lot easier to do than the touring because there was a house," Miles tells Spinner. "If anybody wanted to work on something on their own, they could go back to the house. I know I went back to the house to work on lyrics by myself a lot or the girls would go back and work on string arrangements. There was a lot of room for us to get some free space and come up with ideas of our own. It was a lot of fun."

As previously reported, the band moved to Stillwater, N.Y., to record its sophomore full-length record, 'The Orchard.' While their sole purpose was to make a new album, the band wasn't just all about work. "Matt [Santos, bassist] did bring up his knee hockey set," Miles says. "We did spend more time than we should playing knee hockey in the living room of the house, which is a lot of fun."

While Ra Ra Riot had fun turning their living room into a homemade hockey rink, the band did make sure to be as productive as possible. During the songwriting process, Miles channeled many life experiences, such as his time in Japan, which inspired the song 'Kansai.'

"I studied there for a semester in college and had a really good time," Miles says. And that's what the song is about on the album. It's a region in Japan where I studied and it's about coming back and having a reverse culture shock."

'The Orchard' also features 'Do You Remember,' a collaboration with Vampire Weekend member and Miles' Discovery bandmate Rostam Batmanglij. "Rostam and I came up with this idea and he suggested I bring it to Ra Ra Riot because he thought it would kind of work in style," he says. "So I brought it to the band and we had a lot of ideas come from everybody about what to do with it. It just worked itself out. After we recorded it, I asked Rostam to mix it and he did a great job."

Aside from working on new material and being on the road, Ra Ra Riot did get an interesting surprise last year when 'Can You Tell' from the 2008's 'The Rhumb Line' was picked up for the soundtrack to the Miley Cyrus movie 'The Last Song.' "They asked us, and we just said, 'What the hell? Why not?'" Miles says. "I figured it would be cool. There's no reason not to, I guess."

Before you think Ra Ra Riot will jump on getting their music on other movie soundtracks or TV spots, Miles says that it's not the band's focus right now. "It's fun to see your work in a movie or being supported by other artists, but we're focused on touring the album now and getting new fans and giving something to our fans who have been there for a while," he says. "That's what we're most excited about right now."

Ra Ra Riot are currently touring Japan and will start their North American tour on Aug. 1 at the Osheaga Festival in Montreal. 'The Orchard' will be released on Aug. 24.