Hard work and determination are a recipe for success no matter what you do. From the Midwestern portion of the USA in Indiana, singer-songwriter Jeff Rains has been plugging away for over a decade now, and in recent years has seen his drive pay off with a successful self-released debut album Stories which featured hot singles “Liar”, “Look In My Eyes”, and “Pressure” played regularly on SiriusXM Octane. Without the help of a record label, Rains took on the rock scene on their own and have already toured with the likes of Five Finger Death Punch, All That Remains, and Hatebreed, among others. Now ready to take things to the next level, the working class musician releases his sophomore album From The Ashes. Balancing music, family, along with everything else life throws his way, Rains talks with CrypticRock about his experiences as an independent artist, visions for the music, and much more.
CrypticRock.com – The concept of the band Rains was born almost fourteen years ago and over that time you have put an immense amount of hard work and passion into creating music and offering it to rock fans. In 2010, your debut studio album Stories was released and followed with some success including singles heard regularly on SirusXM Octane. Knowing your blue collar approach to everything, how redeeming was it to see the work you put in starting to pay off?
Jeff Rains – I went into music, in general, so blind. I really had no idea what I was doing. I actually recorded two albums before the Stories record and started where I had written some songs and thought maybe I will put them on CD and see if it sells; that was right when MySpace was getting really big. All of a sudden, within a few months I sold 13,000 copies of the first record; which was a piece of crap of a record, it was horrible (laughs). I thought, “Well maybe there is something to this.” I did another record after that that never even got released, but during that process I had been talking with some labels, hooked up with some producers and managers. I did four songs for Stories, and when I was up in Toronto recording the rest of the album doing vocals, one day my manager came and said, “Come here right now, “Liar” is on the radio!” I ran into her office and “Liar” was playing on SirusXM Octane. I thought, “Holy crap, maybe this will work.” Through that we did “Liar”, “Look at My Eyes”, and “Pressure”. During that time I was also touring and figuring out the business. Knowing I kind of did everything on my own, I cannot image it being more gratifying.
- Self-released
CrypticRock.com – That is great. It is exciting that it caught you by surprise. Sometimes when you do not have any expectations, big things happen.
Jeff Rains – Yes, I knew I wanted a career in music. To me it was I am some punk kid from a little town of 2,000 in Indiana, how the hell am I going to make this happen. I was smart enough to really pay attention the whole time I was coming up. I work with a lot of other bands now, producing and managing. I tell them to just pay attention to everything every step of the way, because everything is a tool you can use down the radio. Magically, one day the songs were on the radio, the songs worked, people liked them and started buying CDs, and we were getting tour offers. None of this was easy, but it was well worth it.
CrypticRock.com – Absolutely, the debut album Stories really caught a lot of people’s attention. As mentioned, that debut album really caught many people’s attention and since then Rains has toured nationwide with some big acts such as Five Finger Death Punch and some big festivals to help spread the word of the band. Having hit the road and brought the music to the people, what was the feeling like on stage and how have audience’s responded?
Jeff Rains – It has been kind of weird because I never really had a band. It has always been me; I will write, produce, and record everything in the studio. I will always put a band together after the fact, after a song would be on the radio and I book a tour. I would start piecing together a band for that tour. For a while there I did not know what the hell I was doing. To be honest, I thought it was a terrible live show at first. You realize we are on the radio now, we are going to have to play everything how they hear it. People are spending their hard earned money on this. It really took a lot of time picking apart live shows and how other people do live shows. Once everything started clicking, it is amazing to be standing in some random city and know you are doing well on stage, hearing the crowd sing every word back to you. It is just a crazy feeling.
CrypticRock.com – One can only imagine it is. Besides the band, you are also a father and a husband as well. Anyone who has a child knows that your family always comes first. How do you manage your time between your family and the music, and is it difficult to keep the two balanced?
Jeff Rains – I have been very fortunate. I paid enough attention to the business side that I kept track of numbers. I have a really good business on my team. We made it possible when I go on tour, we are not in a little van touring around everywhere, we are in a tour bus so my family can actually come with me. My daughter can do home school on the road. On the Five Finger Death Punch tour, every night my daughter would want to go on stage and watch All That Remains bass player Jeanne Sagan and hang out with her on stage. I think, how cool is that, this little six year old gets to sit out on stage in front of 20,000 people with All That Remains, or Five Finger Death Punch, or whoever. They will come out for a month, go home for a month, and go back and forth. Not being on a label has allowed me to tour for a year or two, come home for a year, spend time with family, and go back out. It is really kind of on my own terms.
CrypticRock.com – It seems like you have a good formula going. You do not want to be away from your family too much. That is extremely important.
Jeff Rains – It is the hardest thing. People who are in the military are away from family for years. Trust me, I am not comparing what I do to what they do, I am just saying as far as being away from your family it is a horribly hard thing to deal with it. There are nights the show may not go well, or whatever the circumstances may be, and you sit back and you ask is this worth it. Is it worth it to put my daughter in the family business so I can live my stupid little dream. When there are more times than not, that is fantastic. My six year old gets to go on tour with me and she just thinks it is normal. For me, I think I could be working in a factory or something like a normal person, but I get to do this. It is crazy.
CrypticRock.com – Exactly. It has to have its moments where you wonder if it is worth it. The positive outweigh the negative. You released your sophomore effort From The Ashes digitally in January but now the CD gets a physical release. This record was in fact put out independently. Tell us about the writing and recording process of the album?
Jeff Rains – What was released in January was somehow the demo version of the album that got leaked. That was literally the version of the album I did sitting in my house at my computer. Then I had to rush around and get the real version out, which was released in late February, but then we did the official physical release on June 17th.
It has been kind of a weird process. For the first record, no one had any expectations of anything, it was just put it out there and see what happens. This time, people were trying to find it so hard they somehow got leaked demos, it was kind of crazy. Doing everything on my own as far as the writing and recording, not being a on a label; it is good and bad. It is good because I really get to take as much time as I want doing a record. It is bad because I do not have someone breathing down my neck saying put this record out. Sometimes I think I took too long. It is definitely a process, it is not like the whole band gets together in a room and starts pumping out drums. From the drums, bass, guitars, vocals and pianos, I have to think of everything in my head and start putting it together. For me, it is an extremely involved process, but I obviously had control over the whole situation so I think that is a good thing. I just never been able to sit down and write with other people, it just never made sense to me.
CrypticRock.com – Yes, and many who have written and recorded an album will tell you it is never an easy process. You want to put the best product out there.
Jeff Rains – Yes, especially being the second record anyone has ever heard. The pressure from that, the last record, I realize now, it was super easy because no one ever heard anything. There was no expectations for me, it was just put it out and here we go. Now that we have sold a lot of copies of the last record, did a lot of touring, and people have sort of fallen in love with the band, the second album was not put it out see how it goes. It was this thing better be good and live up to some expectations. I think that added a lot to the stress of the album. I am kind of realizing that because I am already three quarters done with the third album. The second one is done, the hard one was done, I do not see another record being as hard as the second one was.
CrypticRock.com – That is great that you are already working on new material. This new record is perhaps a little less distorted guitar, heavier than the debut, but the songs do come across deep and textured. Was that your clear intent in the direction of the music?
Jeff Rains – I think that was a natural progression. I would compare it to more mainstream rock, so going out with Five Finger Death Punch for six months, people automatically felt the next record was going to be heavier. After that, we went and toured with Black Stone Cherry for six months and people felt ok maybe the next album will be lighter. For me, I just felt I was going to write and I am not going to try and make it heavy or light, I am just going to write. I think through developing my song writing and producing skills, it is a lot broader as far as audiences. That was not anything intentional as I said, this is my natural progression. I grew up on radio music, that is how I write, I feel like if it is something I would want to hear on the radio, it is going in the right direction.
CrypticRock.com – As long as you follow your own artistic vision, that is what matters most. When it comes to music, if you are following of what you believe is the best without too much outside noise, people will gravitate to that because it is truly sincere to who you are.
Jeff Rains – Yes, I am not signed so I really have to pay attention to what people like. I realized pretty quick lyrics are big things for my fans, they do not like the cookie-cutter “We went out, got drunk, and had sex” lyrics. They want meaningful stuff, and that is what I like to write and like to hear myself. I realized that is one thing I had to stay very consistent with, the quality of the lyrics. There were just certain things that people would point out they really liked about the first album. It was something I naturally did, felt comfortable with, and probably pushed it a little bit in the studio. Stuff that people did not like, songs they did not like, I am sure I unintentionally stood clear of making more songs like that. In general, I was not like this song has to be hard and heavy or this song had to be light. To me, this is what I do and that is what you are going to get.
- Self-released
CrypticRock.com – That sounds very organic. Having been involved in music as long as you have, you have seen your fair share of ups and downs. What advice would you have for up-and-coming bands?
Jeff Rains – The number one thing I could say is pay attention. This business is filled with snakes and great people too. It is just really hard to pick apart who is who. Everyone is going to tell you that you are great, your music is great, and your songs are great. Everything is perfect and good, hire me. Of course if you are paying someone they are going to say you are great. Like I said, just pay attention, pick everything apart as much as you can. So many bands will sign a record deal and realize it is the worst they have ever signed. They will get on a tour and realize they did not cover all their bases and they are completely screwed. There is really no going back, once you are locked in, you are locked in. I had a business manager earlier on which really watched things for me. Unfortunately, it is not you can play a bar on a Friday night and maybe an A&R guy will see you. That just does not happen anymore. You have to run everything like a business. If you are not doing that, to me, you are kind of screwed. I am sure there are a lot of other ways to go about it, but that is the way I have always looked at it.
Crypticrock.com – Right, that is some good advice. When it comes down to it, obviously, it is for the passion and love for music, but it is a business too. It has to be hard to decode who the real people are. What are some of your musical influences?
Jeff Rains – I grew up with a lot of 1970’s rock such as Led Zeppelin. I was also brought up on a lot of Country. Then I got really hardcore into the Seattle scene. I think lyrically, the Country music had a huge influence on my lyrics, but musically it was the Seattle scene; Alice Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, all that kind of stuff.
- Atlantic
- Columbia Records
CrypticRock.com – The 1990’s Seattle scene was great. My last question for you is pertaining to movies. CrypticRock.com covers music and horror films. If you are a fan of horror films what are some of your favorite horror films?
Jeff Rains – I am the biggest pansy when it comes to that kind of stuff. I do not watch them because they scare the crap out of me. I like any of the Rob Zombie films, but I have to watch it during the day because I will probably end up crying on the couch.
CrypticRock.com – (laughs) Is there any film that sticks out for you as a child?
Jeff Rains – One time I was watching A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II (1985) at my friends house. After that I was pretty much done and never wanted to watch a horror movie again. I never wanted to ride the school bus again. I like documentaries and I am obsessed with mafia movies. I think my favorite is Casino (1995).
- New Line Cinema
- Universal Pictures
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