Ra Ra Riot Interview

While their UK tour, Ra Ra Riot played a gig in Newcastle on the 14th of Februrary, and I had the chance to catch up with the cello player Alexandra.
When Alexandra was three years old she started to learn how to play the cello. She never saw herself to become a part of a rock band, and now she is enjoying that very much. A rare thing abut her is that she plays the cello standing up, which I asked her about, in the beginning this was hard and she brought a cinder block along to support her leg. Sitting down she felt like she was not having as much fun as the others, and she would “look dumb either way”.Ra Ra Riot formed a bit more than 3 years ago, they met at University in New York, but are from all over the east coast (New York, New Jersey, Maine, and Massachusetts). I wanted to know where the strange name, Ra Ra Riot, came from. In their beginning they did not have a name for the band, and needed one for their first gig; one of their friends had a name without a band. The name was meant to be temporary, but it still is their name. They like traveling a lot as it is fun. Their success in the UK isn’t massive, but it is present. The great thing about people in the UK is that they come out to the gigs even if they have never heard of the band, just because they have such great love for music.I am a big fan of Tokyo Police Club, so I had to ask Allie about the Ra Ra Riot’s remix of “Juno”. She told me that they had a lot of fun working on the remix, something that they had never done before. They covered with the strings and then added in a couple of electronic sounds.
Currently Alexandra is into into Midlake, who have a bit of a Fleetfoxes vibe going on. Besides that she really likes Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, The Police, she listens to a lot of classical music. Lately she has grown rather fond of music from the 20s, and 30s. Even if a lot of people don’t like them she quite likes the new Kanye West, and Britney albums.If she would be at home and not on tour Allie would most likely be in the kitchen cooking with her family, listening to music or watching Law & Order, or maybe she’d be walking the dogs.

Interview by Solveig Werner


Ra Ra Riot Interview - NSR by Solveig