When Jess Haney was asked to join Rainbow Kitten Surprise while the band members were in college at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, he certainly wasn’t thinking it would be a long-term commitment. In fact, as commitments go, it was as minimal as it gets.
Credit: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Credit: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
“I got into the band through Ethan,” Haney said, referencing guitarist Ethan Goodpaster during a recent phone interview. “Me and Ethan went to high school together and we kind of played in my basement and did covers of random things. I wasn’t like a full-time drummer. It was just kind of a thing I did in high school with my friends. And Ethan ended up getting into the band and he was like ‘Well, my roommate used to play drums and he might be able to help us out with a few shows. I was like ‘OK, I’ll do one show with you guys and then we’ll figure it out from there.’
“I always thought it was funny that I was insistent that I was only going to do one show,” Haney said. “It changed my life forever.”
Until then, Rainbow Kitten Surprise had been the duo of singer Ela Melo and guitarist Darrick “Bozzy” Keller. But before long, Melo and Keller decided they wanted to have a full band, and that’s when fellow students Haney, Goodpaster and bassist Charlie Holt joined up.
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Even by this early stage, there were signs that Rainbow Kitten Surprise might grow into something more than a just-for-fun college-years band. In 2013, Melo and Keller had self-released a three-song EP, “Mary,” and the band followed that with a self-released full-length, “Seven.”
The group then worked out a deal with Split Rail Records, a student-run label at Appalachian State’s Hayes School of Music, and in 2015, released the album “RKS.” Things have happened fast since then for the band, which got its unique name when visiting a friend in the hospital, who while in a heavily medicated state, inexplicably kept repeating the phrase Rainbow Kitten Surprise.
One trigger for the success came when the band submitted their song “Devil Like Me” for the VH-1 reality show “Make a Band Famous.” Even though the group was eliminated in the first round of the show’s competition, it brought a notable measure of exposure.
“Devil Like Me” went on to get radio play, as did two songs from “RKS” — “Cocaine Jesus” and “Lady Lie” — and this propelled Rainbow Kitten Surprise on to tours and appearances at such notable festivals as Bonnaroo and Sasquatch.
That success drew the attention of Elektra Records, and the major label signed Rainbow Kitten Surprise, setting the table for an even bigger breakout.
This put the band on a very different level. Suddenly the five musicians found themselves driving to Nashville (where they all now live), booked into a high-end studio (Neon Cross Studios) and working with one of the most in-demand producers there is, Jay Joyce.
The band had arrived in Nashville with only a couple of songs somewhat written and all of roughly two and a half weeks to write and record the rest of the songs for what became the 2018 album, “How To Friend, Love, Freefall.” The band rose to the challenge.
“I think the (time) restraint was probably good for us,” Haney said. “Yeah, we were pumping out a song a day and it felt good. Obviously, some days we didn’t get anything. But then some days we got more than one song. It ended up working out.”
The band’s popularity has grown significantly since the release of “How To Friend,” as songs from the latest album, such as “It’s Called: Freefall,” “Fever Pitch” and “Hide,” have helped push the band’s total number of streams past a half-billion. The group has followed those songs with a stand-alone single, “Work Out,” which was released in June. And now, the band is headlining a three-night stand at the Eastern in Atlanta Dec. 29-31.
What’s also contributed mightily to the band’s success is their exuberant and energetic live shows. The band’s music is a distinctly modern, vocally layered wide-ranging mix of styles — including rock, hip-hop, world beat, folk and pop — that evades categorizing, but somehow feels accessible and highly inclusive. The Rainbow Kitten Surprise live experience was documented with the release last year of the 25-song concert release, “Live From Athens Georgia,” which was recorded on tour in 2019.
Fans that see Rainbow Kitten Surprise on the band’s current tour can expect some visual pizazz and a wide-ranging set list and show inspired by a three-show stand the band played between Christmas and New Year’s Day 2021 at the Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville.
“Over those three nights, we played the entire catalog and some new ones,” Haney said. “So we’re trying to take that forward and just play as many of the songs as we can, and as many of the new ones (the band is in the early stages of work on a fourth studio album) that we can fit in there, too. Hopefully we’ve still got it from Christmas.”
CONCERT PREVIEW
Rainbow Kitten Surprise
8 p.m. Dec. 29-30; 9 p.m. Dec. 31. $55-$125. The Eastern at The Dairies Complex, 777 Memorial Drive SE, Atlanta. easternatl.com.
