Previously a collaborative project between a handful of international artists, RAC is currently coordinated by its most prolific artist and founding member André Allen Anjos. Releasing the debut album “Strangers” mid last year, the aesthetic is a homage to summer with uplifting melodies and vocals keeping the listeners light on their feet. He has announce the dates for his “Going Our Own Way” tour in the fall with half of the locations confirmed scattered across North America.
Photography by Mike Greene
Questions by Mel Truong
What inspired you to produce with soft hand that keep most of your tracks and remixes primary lighthearted?
I think I’ve always been doing the same thing. The music scene in general has become a lot more aggressive in recent years, so I can understand why my music might be considered lighthearted. A lot of mainstream electronic music has basically turned into nu-metal with synths. The music I write is simply a reflection of my taste and preference. I gravitate more towards nuance and texture. I totally get the appeal of aggressive music and I don’t mean to diminish it, it’s just not my thing.
Currently the sole face of RAC, would you be open to adding another member to your project seeing as it was originally a multimember collaboration or have you officially adopted it as your persona?
In a way, it already is. Every song has a different singer, and we travel with a full 5 piece band. I actually still work extremely closely with Karl and Andrew, despite me being the face of it. The constant collaborations with other artists is what keeps it interesting to me.
I battled with the name for a long time. I wanted to change it when I moved into original music. At some point I just realized that nobody cares and I’m overthinking it. At the time I had spent 6 years building a “brand” and it’ll be silly to just toss that away due to a name.
You’ve been posting about cats for Caturday on your Facebook and recently promoted a GoFundMe charity for a cat in need of surgery, if someone showed up after a show with the cat have they named “RAC” would you post about it for the next Caturday?
The caturday thing started as a simple joke. I didn’t invent caturday obviously, but I just started making a routine out of it. I was just trying to make people laugh. I don’t even own a cat! ha
The “Going Our Own Way” your coming up in the late fall covers most of North America with dates set for almost everyday day in November, will we expect to see some dates in December as well?
Yes, we have some plans for December! Nothing confirmed yet though.
You released the music video for “Back of the Car” on the 8th, what was your inspiration for the surrealist approach?
Fortunately for music videos I get to hand that off to very talented directors and writers. I’m involved in the sense that people pitch a concept and I pick my favorite, but after that I let them do their thing. Alex Karpovsky and Teddy Blanks directed the video and I just loved how bizarre it was. I feel like the song had a little bit of that in it. I’m not sure why they chose that, but I felt like it was really unique and worth exploring.
For your tour, what will be your go to meal with such a packed schedule?
Red bull lol
Not but seriously, there’s very little time, so I mostly just eat something closeby or sometimes the venues provide food. It’s a time where food becomes an object of necessity and fuel, as opposed to getting any kind of enjoyment out of it.
