New York-based band Charlie and the Rays is fronted by sisters who originally got their start as teenagers busking in their hometown of Seattle at the iconic Pike Place Market, where they first began to delve into performance and songwriting.
Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Rebecca Stobbe: rhythm guitar//vocals
Jordan Stobbe: bass guitar//vocals
Ian LeSage: lead guitar//background vocals
Patrick Hagan: Drums//percussion
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Charlie and the Rays? How long has the band been around?
Rebecca and I (Jordan) helped create this band around five years ago with a past band-member/close friend, and have always been fully focused on the progress and growth of Charlie and the Rays since. Although if the opportunity came up to be involved with another band we wouldn’t be opposed!
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
Rebecca and I, along with one previous founding member of the band, helped come up with the name when we first started playing shows. We wanted a name that was strong, and gender-neutral because we wanted to prevent as much of the inevitable generalization about us being a female-fronted band as possible. There is no Charlie in the band! A mystical Charlie, like Charlie’s Angels. It’s been seen as a spin off Ray Charles, although that was not a driving factor in the name choice.
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
Rebecca and I both write all the lyrics and melody, and all members usually write their own instrumental parts. A huge force of lyrical inspiration for Rebecca and I is social inequality and injustices in our society. We’ve always used music as a platform for us to express our opinion and dissent, and hopefully others can relate to a lot of the topics we write about, and make their own personal connections and find relevance in their own lives and personal paths of political vocalization.
We do write a lot about what we are going through in our daily lives though too that doesn’t pertain to politics of any sort! Like loneliness, happiness, love, and the lack of it and search for it. Our songwriting is always evolving, and we are always being inspired by new things -- so yes, I can definitely see it changing over time, but I think the soul in our songwriting will always stay constant.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
This is always a hard question! We go through phases, and new band discoveries all the time that impact us. Right now Jade Bird and Kate Davis are huge inspirations. And then of course there’s our lifelong-inspos that have and always will be constants, like Paul McCartney/John Lennon/George Harrison solo albums, Simon and Garfunkel, Fleetwood Mac, Cat Stevens, Led Zeppelin, and so many more from that era.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
I think for me (Jordan), it was mainly The Beatles. As cliche as that is, it’s the truth. I grew up wanting to marry, or be Paul McCartney, so I chose the latter (although I did weasel my way into meeting him when I was 18)! I wanted that lifestyle — writing and performing, touring, getting to see the world and meet people through music.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …
We have a silly (but very effective) vocal warmup that we always make fun of because it sounds and looks like we’re being possessed/we're in a cult when we do it. So if you hear a seance happening in the greenroom/bathroom/outside a venue, come say hi!
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
We feel so lucky to have had SO many incredible experiences through our music career so far, but we’d have to say the best things are the people we have become friends with who have been in the band over the years, and definitely our tours! Touring is one of our very favorite things, and we always have such crazy, memorable experiences on the road (like when we met the guitarist from The Darkness and his tour bus driver who randomly showed up at our show in Boise, Idaho).
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Current: We’ve been following The Preatures for a long time now, and would love the opportunity to tour with them some day.
Past: Fleetwood Mac because we love them, and also we would get to witness the weird love triangles/drama they always had first hand.