Interview: James and the Rainbros
Posted: 6/12/2007

James and the Rainbros are beginning to draw attention for their searing blend of blues, folk, and good-old-fashioned hard rock. Riding the success of a popular internet music video, James Linck, Steve and Dave Kendzorski, and Chuck Vroom look to make serious headway in the Detroit music scene.

Detroit Fashion Pages caught up with James before the band’s headlining show at the Belmont, on April 12th.

DFP: How did the band get started?

James: I had been writing songs for a while, a couple months, so I wanted to get a full band on them. My buddy Steve (Kendzorski) and his brother Dave had been playing together since they were kids--drums, bass, and guitar. We knocked out three of four tracks and just threw them up on the internet, but it wasn’t quite a real band. A few months went by and we started getting requests to play shows. We added Chuck on bass and we started practicing to play a full set.

DFP: What does the band sound like?

James: We all have similar musical interests, but our favorites are all pretty different. Basically, we just try to put together some stuff that everyone can feel, without stepping on anyone else’s toes. It makes for a nice blend. We’ll try some folkier stuff and sometimes it just comes out rocking; some blues stuff that will come out heavier. We just want to explore all the things we like and take it to whatever place we want to take it.

DFP: Talk about the "Children of the Universe" video.

James: Seth (Welton) is an art and film student at U of M. He asked us if he could do something for "Children of the Universe" and the video he came up with was incredible. It took him like three months to do it, all in construction paper. He put it up on YouTube and one day we look and it was the number one featured video--like 300,000 hits. We got on the YouTube Underground contest and ended up getting an honorable mention, and our name on Good Morning America. The people at YouTube chose it as one of the best videos for 2006.

James and the Rainbros hope to have a recording out early this summer.

To see the video, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDZhOgPXzMI

Nick Degel
nick@detroitfashionpages.com

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