Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
The name of the group is Kady Rain, but the car is a two-seater. My boyfriend, Ben Bazzrea, and I co-write all of the songs together and we both work as hard as we can together to make Kady Rain great so I want to include him because he's a big part of the project. :)
Kady Rain-vocalist, writer
Ben Bazzrea-guitarist, writer
We work with lots of different writers and producers to get our songs to the finish line but Ben and Kady are the core members of KadyRain!
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Kady Rain? How long has the band been around?
Kady was in several bands performing as Kady Rain before starting this project. Her first band in high school was called The Pickpockets. She sang for the Portuguese band Ze Dos Frangos in 2007/2008. She was also part of a band called The Feels (although we never REALLY decided on a band name) and sludge metal band called De Los Muertos before deciding to partner up with Ben and start Kady Rain the project.
Ben was also in several bands leading up to this project including Tolarosa in high school and Sleep Talk after that.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
Kady Rain is my legal first and middle name! My full legal name is Kady Rain Kale Williams, if you're curious. It's the only thing I've ever gone by and I can't imagine being anything or anyone else. :)
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?
Ben and I are writers on every Kady Rain song. Sometimes it's just the two of us writing, and sometimes we work with cowriters to create a Kady Rain song. We have written over 400 songs and counting about countless subjects. Most of them are about love or relationships, sometimes failed and sometimes magical, but we definitely have some songs that are more goofy and out there than others. Love is universal, just like music, and it's fun to write songs about various stages of love and our experiences with it to reach our audience. I don't think that will ever change.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
I absolutely love Charli XCX. I WANNA BE HER. I think everything she does is amazing, and she directs a lot of her music videos and is very in control of her brand and her content and I think that's very special. :)
Ben and I have been doing some period explorations where we listen to music from a certain era and that has helped broaden our horizons, but we still listen to a lot of emerging/established pop.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
Every time I see a live show I get the itch to make music and perform. Seeing people give their all on a stage is the mostexhilarating experience for me and it will always be a source of inspiration. I can't say that a particular artist drove me to want to perform and make music...I've just ALWAYS wanted to be on a stage.
As strange as this sounds, for me, Ben, I have Ferris Bueller's Day Off to thank for getting me into music. I remember being home in 8th grade when the scene with Twist and Shout during the parade came on, I immediately thought, "Oh,I want to do that!." I didn't really get serious about music until I was in high school and some friends and I recreated that scene for a prom float and it just felt right. I'm definitely not the first person who has The Beatles to thank for me getting into music, but I did have a unusual delivery method!
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …
I do vocal warmups, drink lots of water, and don't eat 3-4 hours before my show because I'm afraid I'm going to burp in the middle of a song, haha.
Ben prepares for a show by getting really blazed, haha. He also warms up on guitar by running scales and songs, and meditates.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
Our song "R.A.D. Moves" got picked and featured on NPR's Austin 100 this year for SXSW artists, which was pretty amazing! The visual artist Jody Steel used "All I Ever Wanted" in one of her videos back in January and it got a million plays in the first month! We've played several sold out shows this year and pretty soon we're opening for CupcakKe and Kreayshawn at Empire Control Room which is blowing my mind!
It's not exactly a highlight just yet, but we recently started working with other artists to help create/co-write some music for them and I am really over the moon about it! Ben and I have a few songs that I really believe in but aren't 100% Kady Rain in style/lyrical themes/genre but they deserver to see the light of day and we're working hard to make sure that they do. At the end of the day, Ben and I really are songwriters and so this is just the next step! :)
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
I would tour with Charli XCX. I've seen her live and she is fantastic, and she also is just such a cool person. Although I'm sober, I wanna party with her! We could drink diet Ginger Ale and sing Cyndi Lauper at karaoke! I don't know if she likes crawfish, but I could also see us hosting an annual crawfish boil together because that's who I am as a person and Charli XCX seems like someone who could appreciate some mud bugs.
If Ben could tour with anyone, it would probably be Fall Out Boy because he's forever an emo kid at heart, like a lot of us, and they put on a good show. From Under the Cork Tree is one of his favorite albums.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
First! I'd like to thank all of the people who helped me create It Wasn't The Roses because their names don't get said as often as they should and they're definitely the unsung heroes!
Charlie Kramsky recorded my vocals at Austin Signal with Ed Boyer overseeing vocal production/general magic. Ben and I wrote the song together and worked with Yuri Zwadiuk (who produced, mixed, and mastered IWTR) to create a song that harkens back to a time when dance music meant something different. They all worked very hard alongside Ben and I to make this song what it is and we're very honored to be working with such talented individuals.
Then we have the folks on the business side of things: Our manager, Louie Carr at Own Path Media Group, deserves a shout out! He has been in the trenches going to bat for us everyday and pushing the Kady Rain train (say that five times fast!) forward tirelessly and we really appreciate all of the effort he has put in.
He is a great friend and an even better manager! John Guertin at CleaRights and John Cook at Work Pants Records have been helping us navigate contracts and provide general wisdom. Contracts and negotiating contracts are WAAAAAY too adult for me to handle but they both wake up every day and looks forward to doing exactly that. It also doesn't hurt that they're both exceptional at it, which deserves some recognition!
Finally, I'd like to thank all of our fans who've been SO supportive! From the people at our first shows to the people who are just now hearing about us, this journey has been incredible and the positive response has been so overwhelming! Before there's any money involved in the music all you really have are the people who believe in you. So, from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU SO MUCH! :)
XO,
Kady Rain