British-American trio Raynes formed when North Dakota natives Mat Charley and Joe Berger came across a video of UK native Mark Race and invited him to Los Angeles to start a band. Shortly after their inception, the band signed with Sony Music Publishing, and since then have released six singles and two EPs, earned stories in publications ranging from Billboard and People to Earmilk and Atwood Magazine, and headlined shows from London to Los Angeles.
As Raynes, they combine their diverse influences to form a group whose taste spans the globe, incorporating elements of folk, Americana, and baroque pop with Celtic and world music to create a wholly original sound. Even with the band’s refusal to limit themselves to the boundaries of any particular genre, there are certain unmistakable hallmarks of a Raynes song: a soaring ear-worm of a chorus, usually supported by multi-part vocal harmonies; richly layered acoustic instrumentation; thunderous percussion; and, more often than not, the sound of something surprising––a bouzouki, perhaps, or a harmonium, or an ensemble of djembes and taikos. The subject matter of their songs is as expansive as their sonic palette, ranging from the classic (love, loneliness, regret) to the unorthodox (mental illness, Samson and Delilah, the London Blitz of WWII), and their lyrics are insightful, affecting, and keenly honed.
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