SPILL FEATURE: UP THE RAH’S!!! – A CONVERSATION WITH JACK McLEOD OF THE RAH’S

UP THE RAH’S!!!

A CONVERSATION WITH JACK McLEOD OF THE RAH’S

Meet The Rah’s. An energetic, talented five piece band from Prestonpans in Scotland, a small seaside town just outside of Edinburgh. They formed in 2011. The original band featured four friends: Jack McLeod (vocals/guitar), Jordan McIntyre (guitar/backing vocals), Neale Gray (drums) and Andrew McLeod (bass). They released their debut EP (Give Me Life) in 2012, and this was quickly followed in 2013 with their second EP, Living The Dream.

“Basically the name was a drunken idea. ‘Rah’ is actually the name for a posh boy who feed from their mums and dads, we found this out after naming our band The Rah’s and thought oh well we’d be as well keeping it even though it’s the opposite of what we actually are, said Jack, during a recent interview. “It looked good on paper and sounded good when we were drunk so that’s the true story behind it!”

For The Rahs, it is really a case of friends growing up together in the same town with the same interests. Be it music, sports, or just hanging out. And like most young people, hanging out together can evolve into many directions. In their case, it lead to forming a band.

“The original four members of the band all grew up together right from nursery, through infant, primary and high school. We played in the same football teams from a young age and have been best mates from the start. Jordan (lead guitarist) played guitar from his young teens and always wanted to be in a band so we all decided to try learn an instrument or in my case give singing a go,” recalls Jack.

In 2016, the four became a five piece, when Chris Karpacz (keyboards) joined the band The first release as a five piece is their most recent release, the single “Sweet Talker.” The song itself is sheer pop/rock brilliance. Extremely melodic, and well played and produced. The song itself,dates back over two years, and with the new line-up the song took a different direction. Working with new producer, Roni Szpakowski also contributed to their new sound, and this far the band has had a terrific response from fans and critics.

Even more fun with the single is the accompanying video. Fans may want to go back and watch their 2015 video, which is actually a sequel, of sorts, to their last video “If You Never Try, You’ll Never Know”.

According to Jack, “We worked with the same actor, who is one of our best mates, and the same videographer, which again is one of our good mates (Dean Howie). Basically the first video is about Harvie being a loose cannon, which isn’t far from the truth. And the second video is about him getting back on the straight and narrow trying to get a job by Sweet Talking the managers into employing him. Was brilliant filming it in Edinburgh again, our beloved capital city.”

Derek Taylor, once wrote on the back sleeve of Plastic Ono Band’s Live Peace In Toronto, 1969, “being born in Scotland carries with it certain responsibilities”. I spoke with Jack about being raised in Scotland and how it has influenced and informed their music. Let us not forget the amount of artists that have come out of that musical city; Pilot, Shirley Manson, Boards of Canada, The Rezillos and so many more.

“Yeah I guess living in Scotland will be influencing our music but it’s not something we will notice. If our lyrics are about a specific story then yes it will definitely be a Scottish influenced, drunken or memorable event.”

A new single is due in June, and the band keeps rolling on. “Future plans are keep at it, never give up! Play every gig we are offered no matter where on the planet, with reason and keeping it realistic of course. Fingers crossed it proper kicks off but there’s no point sitting waiting on it, it’s not going to happen by luck we need to make it happen. Hard work is key, as is confidence. We have plenty of both so let’s see… You never know who is watching I guess. Up The Rah’s!!!”

I could not have put it better myself.

Their new single,”Sweet Talker” is out now, on EH32 Records.

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