A Rather Nice Interview: Local band Rather Nice discusses their latest release A Rather Nice band photo Rather Nice is an indie pop rock band composed of lead singer Joe Johnson, guitarist Mike Tenreiro, bassist Nick Reagan and drummer Oliver Littlefield. Together, they write tunes that are equal parts melodic and quirky, while assigning new feelings to familiar emotions. My favorite songs off their latest release Volume 1 have to be “Diversions” (because it’s incredibly catchy) as well as “Hectic” (that guitar solo made my jaw drop, seriously). These guys are so humble about their talents, but that doesn’t make them any less gifted. I was so pleased to get to speak with them a little bit about what they hope to accomplish through their music, and how Mike worked his way into the band before the other guitarist even formally quit! It’s safe to say that these four are fantastic together, so it was definitely for the best. Angelina Singer (Motif Magazine): I’ve listened to Volume 1 – your latest release, which is great, by the way. What was your process like putting together this album? Joe Johnson: So we usually make a few EPs every year (so that’s a shorter album). And then at the end of the year, we combine them into a volume – which is one album. So we figure we can either do one album a year, with one release date, or split it up into a few songs every other month, and have more days to hype up releases and stuff. So that’s how we usually go about it. AS: Do you start with lyrics? Do you start with melody? What’s your process? JJ: We definitely start with the music first, because none of us are too good at doing lyrics. But writing music, I think we’re pretty cool about it. It’s usually the last thing to come; we’re never able to make good lyrics until the song’s ready, so we can write down what it sounds like. Then we compare it to a story we’ve experienced, or something. Sometimes we’ve finished lyrics the day of recording. Oliver Littlefield: Or even come up with stuff while we’re recording, like, “Oh that might sound better,” or whatever. AS: Yeah a lot of people tell me that! And it blows my mind, because I figure you’re in the recording booth, and now all of a sudden, you have an idea. And you want to change it last minute! That’s crazy – but really cool. So I really dig that. And how long have you guys been a band? How did Rather Nice come together? JJ: We all met in our high school about two or three years ago. Three of us knew each other from our school – and we’re all percussionists, so we were all in the same section, and knew each other pretty well. At a percussion festival in our state, we met Mike [Tenreiro] there – because he’s also a percussionist. He was performing with a different school, but we talked to him at the event during intermissions. So that’s how we met him. AS: I love hearing that you’re all percussionists primarily, because that makes a lot of sense with the music. Even your guitar and bass is very rhythm-heavy, which makes sense since that’s what you’re most comfortable with. I have been playing guitar for 13 years and want to teach, so I pay more attention to guitar – that’s my thing. So when Mike gets here, I have some questions about the guitar solo in “Hectic” – I’m just gonna say, that’s sick. My jaw dropped. So when he gets here, I’ll be asking. JJ: Yeah, it’s sick! He did a pretty good job. AS: What do you hope that people get out of your music in general? I mainly focused on your most recent album, but I know you’ve got a lot of stuff out. So what’s the central message you hope to get across? OL: Enjoyment. We hope that people can listen to it and kind of relate. Like, if we can do it, you can do it. It’s a feel-good type of thing. Hopefully they think, “Oh, this is nice.” JJ: We’re a major do-it-yourself band, because we record and write everything at home, and Mike produces it. So we want people to know that if they want to start a band, they can. We’re doing exactly that, and we’re not doing too bad right now. We try to do interviews as often as we can find people, and we actually have a few in-venue shows coming up for livestreams. We don’t have any money to spend on PR and stuff like that, so I’ll just message people on Instagram and see if we can talk to them and play at places and stuff. So I’m basically tour manager, as well as the vocalist. And Oliver makes all of the art for the band, and for the shirts that we sell and stuff. So everything is done by the four of us. AS: And you guys clearly have such a good ear for music, and business – you’ve got a really slick website. Everything going on is really impressive. I love the mix of your music, because you have very emotional, deep songs – but you also have quirky stuff. JJ: *Laughs* so that’s the thing about indie – even when you have a song that sounds fun, the lyrics are usually really depressing. It depends – sometimes it’ll be a real unfortunate experience. Other times, we just think it would be funny to talk about. That’s the range that you get. If you can think of the song that you’re thinking about when talking about sad, we can go into the story of it. AS: Yeah, I was thinking in a more general sense, because it wasn’t sad so much as maybe melancholy, or emotional. But I think “Honeymoon” has a lot of those qualities. Even “Cheese Milk” has a lot of depth to it. I was very curious to ask you about “Waste.” I think I have a love-hate relationship with that one. *Laughs* I mean it’s sonically interesting, but the lyrics are surprising. JJ: Yeah, so first of all, we wrote that when we were 15 – actually, I think it was 16. Okay, Oliver was 15, I was 16. So the thing about that song is, obviously you have the imagery of wetting yourself, but the fun part of that song is that it’s supposed to tell the story of releasing depression. Like not being able to get out of your bed to use the bathroom. We wanted to end it in a place where you didn’t know how the character was doing. The character asks himself why he was so stubborn. So the story is – did he overcome his depression, or did he succumb to it and accept his fate? We don’t really know what happens to him; we just left it open-ended. AS: Yeah, and I definitely got that. I will say that lyrically, it’s a bit distracting, just because I was like “What is going on here?” *Laughs* But I enjoy the idea behind it; I think it’s very powerful, and I think you’re speaking to a lot of things that, although that may be an extreme, a lot of people might feel touches of that in their life. Even if it’s not quite to that extent. I enjoyed the emotion and the creativity behind it, as a metaphor, for sure. What would you say is your favorite song off of your latest release? I know you said it’s a collection of EPs, but still – what’s your favorite? JJ: Let’s go around. Nick, what’s your favorite song on the album? Nick Reagan: On the album right now, my favorite song has to be the revamped “Diversions.” AS: Oh it’s so catchy! Oh my gosh, guys, I was gonna bring that up, too. It’s so catchy. OL: Thank you! My favorites from the new album are definitely “Gentle” and “Dusk.” NR: I like those too. JJ: My favorite’s been “Friday” for a while. That one’s just really fun to play. AS: Yeah, I’ve also noticed Joe – you have a really beautiful vocal range. I feel like for guys especially, it’s hard to get those high notes. And you’re pretty on key, like for the most part. It’s pretty impressive! JJ: The fun thing about my vocal performances is that usually – at least once per song – I’ll be really flat or really sharp on one note. And we just leave it in, because it just makes it feel more real to me. So on “Friday” in the second verse, I just totally and absolutely do not sing the right note, and we just left it in, because it felt more realistic, I guess. That adds to our DIY-realism kind of thing. We get an excuse to not be perfect, and we don’t have to fix it. AS: I totally feel that! Some people want it to be perfect stylistically – whether it’s auto-tuned, or whatever. Then other people like you guys wanna leave it kind of open. Oh, there’s the guitarist! JJ: Mike, she wanted to ask you specifically about the new solo in “Hectic”.