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Rains is a talented rock band formed in a small town in Indiana twelve years ago.  Vocalist Jeff Rains has faced many challenges along the way, but has persevered through his talent and hard work.  The hard work has certainly paid off as their debut album, Stories, is receiving rave reviews.  Their hit song, Look In My Eyes has recently broken into the Top 10 on Octane/Sirius/XM and iHeartRadio.  They are winning over fans all across the U.S. and this independent band undoubtedly has a great future ahead of them.

In a recent in person interview with Jeff Rains, he talked about his start in the music business as well as the new album, tour and what the band has in store for music fans.  Talking about their first headlining tour across the U.S.  “It’s cool, kind of scary, you know. We’ve done headlining tours in our regional area, but it’s going really well so far,” he said of the tour.

As far as his earliest musical influences, Rains was brought up on country music, and 60’s, 70’s and 80’s rock ‘n roll.  “Then I saw Woodstock ’94 on MTV and that really kind of made things click in my head.  I really got into the Seattle grunge music scene…Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam…and I think all of that stuff influences the way I write, even today,” Rains said.  When he saw the Green Day mud fight on TV, he knew he wanted to make a career out of playing music.  “My brother and I weren’t allowed to watch MTV, but we had a little 8-inch TV and when our parents went to bed we stayed up and watched the mud fight.  I wanted to play drums and my brother wanted to play guitar but we both sucked at both of them so we decided to swap,” Rains said.

The band started twelve years ago and although there have been a lot of line-up changes, Rains says that the band has a “solid line-up now.”  To someone who has never heard their music, he explains it as this:  “a modern day Seattle grunge sound, but the lyrics are more like country lyrics because there’s a lot of storytelling.  I just got sick of the same crap on the radio about drinking, doing drugs and all that, and I wanted to put out real stories about myself and other people and see if people can connect with that.  It seems like they have.”

He spoke about the state of the music business.  “It’s terrible and we’re not involved in the label scene.  We’re independent and always have been,” Rains said.  It’s inspiring to see how hard he has worked to get to where the band is today.

Look In My Eyes is his favorite song to play live.  He said, “In Johnson City, Tennessee, the crowd was singing so loud.  It’s awesome that people know it so well…” One of Rains’ most memorable moments to date is playing a sold-out arena show in Council Bluff, Iowa, with about 13,000 people.  Of the show, he said, “Five Finger Death Punch hired a professional photographer and all the bands took a photo on the drum riser with the crowd behind us.  It was bizarre…it was cool.”

When asked if he could choose any band to perform with, he said, “Alice in Chains with Layne Staley…I’d really like to do a Shinedown tour…Breaking Benjamin, 10 years, Tool…to us, if we can pull off opening for Hatebreed, we feel like we can open for just about anybody.”

Rains has a full year ahead of them with more touring, appearing at SXSW, and hopeful to be back in the studio this fall.

Rains is:  Jeff Rains (Vocals), Joe Schultz (drums), Matt Hopkins (bass) and Jason Anderson (guitar)

Stories track listing:

  1. Look In My Eyes
  2. So Easily
  3. Liar
  4. Five Minutes
  5. American Dream (The Story of David)
  6. Pressure
  7. Hate
  8. Right or Wrong
  9. Hurricane
  10. Fake
  11. Wait
  12. Something New

For more information about Rains:  www.rainsmusic.com

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