Rainbow Girls are based out of Santa Barbara and can be seen playing at SoHo on January 18th. Rainbow Girls have so much passion and flare in their music that you can’t help but bob your head to their heartfelt music. They are a great inspiration to young girls out there and encourage equality for all women. Their music is electric and has a lot of soul. Rainbow Girls have big dreams and hope to go on a bus tour one day. We are so excited to feature such an amazing group of women this week!

 

GR: How old were you all when you first started playing music? 

RG:

-Erin and Caitlin started on piano before they can remember.

-Cheyenne started on guitar as a young lass, as well as tap dancing at a young age

-Savannah has wanted to play percussion, and only percussion, since she was in diapers.

-Vanessa started playing ukelele last summer, and has since also learned to play a few other instruments.  (WOW)

 

GR: What instrument do you all wish you could play that you don’t already? 

RG:

-Caitlin- electric guitar

-Erin- upright bass

-Vanessa- banjo

-Cheyenne- saw

-Savannah- piano

 

GR: If you all could perform on any TV should what show would you pick? 

RG: None of us really watch TV, but it’d be cool to see a parody of us on South Park or Family Guy some day… That’s really our goal as musicians. Haha

 

GR: Do you all remember the first music you really connected with? 

RG: The Beatles and musicals (majority vote)

 

 GR: Where would you all most like to perform? 

RG: At festivals and all over Europe!

 

GR: Who would you all most like to open for? 

RG: Gogol Bordello, Devil Makes Three, Monsters of Folk, and Furthur

 

GR: People are always comparing musicians to other musicians, is there someone who people are always comparing you all to? 

RG: CSNY, The Grateful Dead, and The Beatles

 

We also get stuff like The GoGos, The Roaches, and the Mountain Goats, but probably just cause we’re ladies and there isn’t very many female musicians out there, let alone entire female bands.  Our styles aren’t really anything like them.

 

GR: Whom would you all most like to meet? 

RG: Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.… And the Pussy Riot gals

 

GR: If you all could travel anywhere where would you go?

RG: Europe, India, China, Chile, Africa… actually, if we could travel anywhere, we’d probably get a plane ticket to a central location in Europe and then busk our way around/through those countries til we had enough money to go through Turkey to Russia, and then China, Nepal, India, and Southeast Asia.  That actually sounds great… we might just do that….

 

GR: What hidden talents do you all have? 

RG:

-Erin and Caitlin can both play sitar.  They took lessons from Scott Marcus, the head of the UCSB Middle Eastern Ensemble, for 2 years.  They just don’t own one, so cannot incorporate it into Rainbow Girls… yet!

-Savannah is an herb, mushroom, and tonic tea fanatic.  She can brew one hell of a tea, and does so every morning for all us gals when we’re on tour!

-Cheyenne loves surfing, skateboarding, and wind skating.  She’ll challenge you before you can even mention you don’t know how!

-Vanessa’s talent is sooth speaking!

 

GR: Besides music, what else do you all enjoy? 

RG: We all like food.  Growing food, cooking food, eating food.  We like produce, and we like it as local, organic, and seasonal as possible.  (Thank you to tom Shepherd of Shepherd Farms for feeding us!)  When we’re on tour, we hit up the co-ops in every city we go to.  While most bands talk about getting taco bell and burger king on tour, we make tonic teas, green smoothies, and giant salads.  One of our favorite secrets is dehydrated soup from the co-op.  All you need is hot water, so every time we stop to get gas, we all fill our mason jars with hot water and poof!  Free, healthy, filling, and delicious meal in under a minute

 

GR: What motivated you all to become musicians? 

RG: The universe.  It just wants us to be musicians.  None of us went to college for music, and some of us dropped out of college FOR music.  It has only led to good things.  Follow your path.  It may not be what you expect it to be, but it’s what you wanted all along.

 

GR: What songs are on repeat on your ipods right now?  

RG: In our rainbow girl van, we don’t have an ipod or a CD player… we have a tape player.  So we always make a point to check out the tape collections at thrift stores whenever we’re in a new city.  Our new favorite is Derek & the Dominos, but our all-time favorite is the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack… that is often on repeat, especially since the tape player just plays the other side once one side is over.

 

GR: Where do you all find inspiration? 

RG: Everywhere.  Friends, experiences, adventures, nature, other songs, books, classes… it’s pretty easy to be inspired when you surround yourself with such an incredible world.  We are so blessed to know the folks we know.  They have so much to share.

 

GR: What musical influences did you all grow up with?  

RG: A lot.  More than the people who came before us had.  We’ve been writing a lot of new songs lately, and one of our new ones by Caitlin couldn’t explain it better:

“I grew up with David Bowie, I grew up with the Rolling Stones, I grew up with Zeppelin and The Doors, The Beatles and the Ramones.  I grew up with Louis Armstrong, I grew up with Radiohead, I grew up with The Who and The Clash, Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead.  There were no women in my favorite bands, no fucking women at all.  There were no women in my favorite bands when I was growing up, when I was small.”

 

That song goes on to say that even though we had people like Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez to look up to, they were still just singer songwriters with an acoustic instrument, and if they ever performed with a band, it was a band of males.  The same goes for every female artist we grew up with.  We’re hoping that will change someday, and we can feel it shifting.  There’s more to music than just singing, and women are totally capable of doing EVERYTHING men are doing.  We’re excited to see what the music scene looks like in 50 years

 

GR: What has been the biggest challenge for you all as a musician?  

GR: Not selling out.  It’s definitely possible to do everything yourself now, the age of A&R and the label is dying out, which is great, but it is a lot of work to do it all yourself.  We don’t have a manager, a booker, a publicist, a roadie- none of that.  We book all our own tours, manage all our own money, do all our own sound, and up until this summer when we went into the studio, recorded all our own music.  Fortunately we have a big support network of family, friends, fans, and each other to help out.  It IS possible to make it big without selling your soul to the pop monster.  We’re not trying to get famous and make it big for 5 years and then live off that til we die… we’re doing this as a career.  We want to be playing music when we’re 60, not getting botox every year and trying to “relive the good ol’ days.”

 

GR: What is your ultimate dream as musicians?

RG: To inspire people in a positive way.  To show people that if we can do it, it’s possible.  To work towards a world where women are seen as equals.  We cannot do it alone, but we can do our part.  None of this Katy Perry, Rhianna, Ke$ha crap, who are only putting women down more by going along with it all.  We are REAL women, REAL girls, and I’m not specifically talking about our bodies.  I’m talking about our brains, our words, and our intentions.  I don’t want girls to grow up wishing they could be a sexy superstar, I want them to grow up knowing they are capable of doing anything.

If we were ever to make enough money so that we could do something with it, we’d open up a school for alternative learning.  Kids aren’t failing school, schools are failing kids.  The public education system is corrupt and backwards.  It is perpetuating falsehoods and stereotypes and seems to leave EVERYONE behind.  If you’re a kid in middle or high school, just get through it.   Life begins when you leave the cattle farm and start to figure out what you really want for yourself.  It has very little to do with grades and test scores.

 

GR: What would you say to a young girl just starting out as a musician? 

RG: I wish we had started that young!  Play every day, play with everyone you can, and learn as many instruments as you can while you’re young.  You’ll absorb it much faster.   And remember, no one likes to be in the “Kelly Smith Band” but Kelley Smith…  Be humble and fair.  It’s not about you; it’s about the music

 

GR: What can we expect from you all in the future? 

RG: More music, more instruments, and more adventures!  And hopefully a horn section someday… ahhh….

 

GR: Where can we listen to your music and get in touch with all of you?

RG: Our music is online for free at www.RainbowGirlsMusic.com. You can find us on facebook as “Rainbow Girls” (no “the”), and we post all our upcoming shows there.  If you’re in the SB area, come see us at SoHo on Jan 18th or Cold Spring Tavern on Feb 23rd!  We’re playing with awesome bands/friends of ours at both shows!  Plus we’ll have new songs