Q&A: Rainbow Kitten Surprise Returns With New Album ‘Love Hate Music Box’
★★ BY Isabel Dowell ★★
RETURNING TO THE SPOTLIGHT STRONGER THAN EVER — Rainbow Kitten Surprise has just released their first full-length album in over six years, Love Hate Music Box. Known for their lively stage presence and genre-bending music, this North Carolina–born supergroup has found their creative footing after bouts of writer’s block, mental health struggles, and various show cancellations.
Love Hate Music Box is a 22-track perfectly cohesive project that meshes the creativity of Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s members — Ela Melo (lead vocals), Bozzy Keller (guitar), Ethan Goodpaster (guitar), Jess Haney (drums), and former bassist, Charlie Holt — with that of Grammy-winning producers Daniel Tashian and Konrad Snyder. The album also includes a feature from everyone’s favorite country queen, Kacey Musgraves (“Overtime”). Coming in at just over an hour of playtime, Love Hate Music Box moves between emotion and vulnerability to mastery and triumph to cover the expansive list of experiences this band has conquered since their last album release.
“I needed to make this record for me,” Melo shares.
Over the course of Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s hiatus, Melo gave herself a specific challenge: to create at least once a day for an entire year. She held herself accountable and, between demos, scratch tracks, or just picking up an instrument, Love Hate Music Box began to break Melo’s creative block, bringing her visions to life.
Just shortly after the first Rainbow Kitten Surprise show last spring, we chatted with Melo to discuss the band’s origins, the upcoming LP, and what it means to be returning to the music scene stronger than ever.
LUNA: Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with Luna. We are so excited to chat with you! Could you explain a little bit about what Rainbow Kitten Surprise is all about for those who might not know?
MELO: Ah. I mean, it might be arrogant, but I think pushing genres. It's really just about enjoying the music that we make and sharing that with people who are interested in hearing it. It's not a huge, big thing, you know — at least that's how it feels on the inside. It just feels like it's me, sharing intimate and vulnerable moments in music, at first with our band and then the rest of the world once they put their spin on it.
Obviously, you want to play the things that fans want to hear, but you also kind of want to challenge what the perspective of us is and grow in new directions. I know that we've taken a leap with this new record, something that people may not have seen coming, or we didn't really see coming, but I promise it's authentic to who we are. It's definitely just the next step… [We’re] making the music that I personally resonate with in the larger context of the band.
LUNA: Rainbow Kitten Surprise has been praised for its genre-bending music. Why have you all chosen not to label yourself under a specific genre? What new freedoms or challenges do you feel come with this?
MELO: I don't listen to just one type of music, and none of my guys do either. Then again, I don't listen to much music, to be honest. Sometimes, I go in these waves of listening, but I don't know… I don't want to say it's boring because I'm not knocking anybody that picks the genre and goes with it. Or if that's what comes out of them, that's great. That's just not what comes out of me. What comes out of me is what you hear, is what you feel like. There's a certain type of music I think that gets created with you not putting a limit on it.
I'm debating what comes first. Is [it] the sound? Is it the lyrics? And oftentimes it just depends on what we're talking about. I think the music itself is not usually that complex. The lyrics can be anywhere in between a stream of consciousness to really kind of meticulously thought out and [in] a traditional songwriting format.We have examples of that on this record, but I think there's still some stream-of-consciousness stuff in there. I just gravitate towards the music that excites me, and that spreads itself across a whole range of genres.
When I say push the genres, it’s kind of like from the first records that we made — it was a dream of mine to incorporate what other people were doing. Even folks like Imagine Dragons and One Republic may or may not have been using synthesizers and stuff in more acoustic settings, and I always wanted to find a happy medium of all the genres that I enjoy listening to. I think that Rainbow Kitten Surprise is that happy medium. It was like, how do we incorporate these spoken words or rappers? How do we incorporate this? It is heavily inspired by rap music, and it's interesting.
LUNA: I was watching an old Fender interview you did around two years ago. You had mentioned that you were from Boone, North Carolina, and while it was a small, isolated town, there’s a strong sense of community. Finding each other to create Rainbow Kitten Surprise, did you ever imagine the impact Rainbow Kitten Surprise has had on music, fans, or even yourselves?
MELO: I don't know what the impact is on music in general. I think that's yet to be seen. If there is one, awesome. I didn't imagine that it would be as all-consuming as it is, with the kind of lifestyle that we've created. There's something about music and the music industry — you kind of end up becoming closest [with] the people you work with. It's hard to relate a little bit to people who don't live that kind of life. I can imagine that, but between touring and recording, it's just kind of a specific lifestyle that has specific demands.You end up becoming close to people who can relate.
I don't think any of us expected this — we did and we didn't expect that things would take time. You can't really imagine a lifestyle until you live it. In my experience, you don't see it coming until it's here, kind of thing. At least, that's been our experience.
LUNA: It sounds like your hiatus provided you with a lot of reflection and support from bandmates, producers, etc. Even when you were planning to throw in the towel completely, was it this support that ultimately helped you make your decision? What else helped you during this time?
MELO: I think when I was ready to throw in the towel, it was at the end of a five year writer's block situation where we made things but I wasn't quite satisfied with them. I mean, don't get me wrong, I feel very supported and very loved by those around me, and by the fans and all of that. That has definitely kept me going through rough and dark times, but ultimately it was the new music that put me on a page of, I had to do a lot of other work. The new music was kind of like, “Oh, shit, I've finally found what I'm looking for, what I've been looking for for five years. I found the sound.” It was this record, and it started right at the top with “Peter Pan” and then channeled into other things.
LUNA: I’m really intrigued with the challenge you gave yourself. to create something a day for an entire year. What was that process like?
MELO: Yeah, I had to create something. I didn’t know what — songs, scratch tracks, or demos … which is more about what is the entire sonic flavor. It didn’t have to be necessarily structured like a song. Some of it is more of a freestyle than anything. I've lived just to create something that I can listen to, and I can share with other people and just be like, “Yo, what do you think of this?” I found that more helpful than when I went in to actually try to create something, maybe for our cast, or maybe in the studio –1 I was just ready to go. I was playing instruments every day. I was ready to go on writing every day and I was ready to go on singing every day, so it was helpful.
LUNA: Are all of the tracks from Love Hate Music Box from this time? How many songs can we expect to hear in the future?
MELO: There are some other ones. When I say I was gearing up to go into the studio, I would go into the studio, I would write Monday through Friday, and then on Saturdays we would go to record. That's where tracks like “Daddy Yankee" came from, and that's where tracks like “No Occasion" came from, and to a certain degree, “SVO.” I always think that everything that doesn't make the cut is getting recycled in some way or another.
Throughout this year, we did it with How to tracks like “Fever Pitch” and “Painkillers.” We've been releasing some of the demos we did it with. I think we did it with “SVO.” Some of the demos and stuff we do release. That'll be a larger conversation with the band. It's like, “Hey, is there anything that we've done over the last… I'd say over the last six years, that merits an audience and that needs to be heard?” As a part of, maybe, to explain some of our musical evolution. Six years is a long time, and we recognize that and we're glad for the folks, definitely, who listen to what's going on now. Whether or not we release it, I don't know. We'll just have to see.
LUNA: You have been incredibly open about your mental health struggles, and it’s clear to see that you have come out of it so much stronger. How are you? How is it returning back to the public eye, your career, and the music scene in general?
MELO: It feels great. We've been working really hard on this record and on just making sure we're ready to go for shows, and it feels that we're in a good place to share both the old stuff and the new stuff with the world. To get back out there, the other night, was a blast. I just imagined that other shows along this tour, we’ve made sure are gonna be a blast as well. We really love what we're doing, and I think it shows. The vibes, everything is just panning out right.
LUNA: You’ve mentioned, “Now, there is darkness in the music but there’s also light” in this new album. Can you expand on that a little more?
MELO: A lot of this record came directly after we played what became our live record in Athens, Georgia. At that time, I was really struggling, and I have had several bouts of stuff throughout the course of the past six years, and I say darkness because there's tracks like “Ghoul” where it's just a little eerie, or “Low as we Go,” but there's also tracks like “Best Man” that are just more fun.
Yeah, I say there's darkness because there was instability in the band, and we were not sure if we were going to continue forward. Several tracks came out of that sort of insecurity and instability. Then tracks also came out of, “Wow, we're really doing this, and it's actually working out,” you know what I mean? So there are both of those perspectives, both from the band perspective and from a personal place of, “Do I even want to do this anymore? Can I do this anymore?” To the point of, “Can I live life anymore?” You know, as I've been going through this kind of thing, [I’ve wondered if] I need to find a new way to do it. I have found that. That's where the light shows. There's another way to live life — you don't have to numb like you do, you don't have to isolate like you did; you can share your experience with people, your authentic self with people, and people are not necessarily going to be scared off by it. I think that's a topic that “Ghoul” covers. If I dig into the bitterness and the anger, will you leave me? If you can't handle me and my authentic self, then do I really know you? It’s that My Brother’s Keeper kind of thing. If I am showing up authentically, and if that authentic self is angry, then will you stand with me? And if not, then do I still hold a responsibility to stand with you and the more neurotic kind of stuff?
It’s beat out. I think the darkness loses to the light every time, and I think it has on this record as well. That pain is what I found. You have to be able to talk about what's really going on with you, or you'll drown in that. Nobody can win on their own. It takes a village. It takes friends and it takes camaraderie. I think that's what this record is about.
LUNA: Love Hate Music Box has an extensive tracklist, with 22 songs and clocking in at just over an hour. Out of the 22, can you name one in particular that stands out among the rest? Why?
MELO: I can tell you what my personal favorite is right now. I'm just thinking through the one that means the most to me, because I never thought that it would be on this record, and I never thought that it would see the light of day: “Finalist.” It's just because it's weird. It’s all organ… There [are] other instruments as well, but it was written on a B3 Organ. Every track that I’ve ever written on a B3 before … never made the record. Or it made the record, but didn’t have the B3 as the primary instrument anymore. I’ve written a lot of tracks like that, but that one was the first time that I really thought I was catching a wave and then it all came crashing down. That was my first and my hardest defeat in trying to write this.
Trying to write Love Hate Music Box was the first time I wrote something where I knew there was something there, but nobody responded to it, nobody really cared about it until I met Daniel Tashian. He was like, “No, this is awesome, let’s work with this.” That’s the one that I come back to most often in terms of, wow, that gives me help. I hope that for everybody that is struggling with a piece of art that they're creating, I hope it gives them hope as well. Or I pray it does, that it gives them hope that that quiet voice, that inner voice telling them, “No, this is good,” wins out over that toxic, deconstructed part of their brain that says, “No, it's just not good enough.”
LUNA: Love Hate Music Box has an incredibly cohesive sound, and the visuals also tie in perfectly. Since this is a longer album, what was this process like to make sure the album was properly balanced?
MELO: We just created and created and created some more until we had our tracklist. We had a pool to pull a track from and everything was made up as we went along. The last day of recording was when the tracklist for this record came together and we just started going down the list and asking ourselves, “What are the songs on [the album]?” It might not have been the very last day, we might have had a couple of days, but it was right there. At the end, we were just like, “Okay, we need a record now. We've just been creating nonstop, what's the record?” We all just kind of agreed on what tracks should follow the next and it all just landed into place.
We were shooting for 14, but we ended up with 22 because no one was willing to let go of their favorites. We just had to agree on it. In a similar process for shooting the music videos, it was just like a push and pull until we got to where we were going. This whole process has taught me that conflict can be really important. Coming up with something like this, if you don't butt heads, maybe it's not important enough. And if you do butt heads, then it's because you both care to make something better than either of you can produce on your own. That's kind of the relationship that this album takes. We had to argue a little bit over what song structure should be, and what songs should be on it. I think that's what makes it special. It's a triumphant moment for all of us that have the opinion and want to be heard, and ultimately did get heard and did get a spot on the album.
LUNA: A few friends of mine were really stoked to hear I had the opportunity to chat with you, so I asked them to provide a few questions. First, since you have been a band for so long, how do you feel your music and songwriting has evolved over the years?
MELO: I think we've all grown to respect each other's opinions and respect each other's space and contributions to the music. I think we've all grown into the direction of, hey, let's not beat the dead horse. You have to where there's trauma — it has to be talked about, at some point, in order to move past it. I think that's the biggest thing that we've gotten better about is being able to talk about the things that are near and dear to our hearts and the things that have also hurt us. Over the years of us being together and where there's injury, we've been able to heal from it and just grow. I think that's the biggest difference between us now and six, seven years ago, we talk, we talk about shit that matters. We talk about hard things and we can also move past it.
My approach to the music has become more laissez faire, and the guys’ approach to music has become more zeroed in on what they want to hear out of their own instruments, to what they want to hear out of this band. We’ve met somewhere, whereas I used to be a little more intense, now I’m a little bit more relaxed and they're a little bit more intense. We've been able to split the difference and come out stronger for it.
LUNA: Next, what advice would you give to your younger self?
MELO: Get a therapist! That's the biggest thing since the pandemic that's clicked with me. You need to be able to talk about hard stuff, and if the people in your circle are not really willing to or not capable at that time of bearing that, then you have to find an outlet to do it. It's not that you need it, but it's very helpful to have. We've undergone that kind of stuff now and it's helpful because it ends up putting a lens on [the fact that] it's not me versus you, it's us versus this problem that we're trying to work out.
At the time, we were just making it, and sometimes when you’re just making it you can’t see what the issues are and the break in the seams until they’re sinking the ship… I’m not saying we’ve gotten past having to do hard things — we haven’t, and more will come in the years, but I've never seen us so capable of dealing with some of that stuff that we are now.
That’s what I would say to my younger self. It’s like, hey, hard times are going to come but ultimately it’s about therapy and being able to talk about stuff. Then for the folks who can’t, you have to know their limit. That’s the number one thing I’ve learned in therapy. I have limits as a human being, and as a nervous system that needs to eat, needs to sleep, needs to breathe, needs space, needs comfort and needs security, I love all of those things. You can kind of go without this or that as you go along, but at some point you have to have it. Knowing your limitations as a human being and what the limitations are of the people around you to be able to hear hard things and what their needs are to process these, just being empathetic to that. That’s what you need.
If you can’t get anything else out of this, just know, you do have limitations as a person, and so does everybody else. As long as everyone can respect their own limits and limits to the people around them, you're gonna be fine. Promise.
LUNA: Last but not least, there are talks of a much larger tour soon! How are you preparing for that? Anything else exciting in the works?
MELO: I wish I could say yes, but I think I think that's probably it. But, just know that we are working hard at that. We're very excited to share this music with the world. And to all the fans, and, you know, old fans, new fans, whoever you are, who's coming out to the shows, we feel very blessed by the fact that you're already coming to see us, and we don't take any of this for granted. We're just looking forward to doing it, time and time again.
