Neu Rainer: ‘Only Two Of You Can Be Offended!’

It’s easy to see how the two members of Rainer ended up in the same place. Rebekah Raa used to front a band called Stricken City. They did pretty well, announcing their split in early 2011. Casually Here completes the duo. He’s been unveiling track after track for the past couple of years. It’s a project he describes at one stage as “armchair dance” or “nightbus music”. Together Rebekah and Nick are finding out the advantages of working as two.



There’s “no band politics” for starters, as Nick addresses. “If you’re in a group of people, it’s difficult if one or two or three people don’t feel like they’re getting enough of a say,” Rebekah follows up. They both readily admit the biggest advantage is “only two of you can be offended!”

With practice sessions and cabin fevered recordings defining the pair’s past two years, they’ve had their fair share of bust-ups. “I think there was a period of time when I wasn’t answering the phone to Nick after about a month,” Rebekah confesses. Quick fixes to heated arguments came in the form of Snickers and other confectionary. “It’s hard to be really cross while eating a bag of marshmallows,” states Nick, speaking gospel.

Rainer’s had its head in the studio for several prolonged months. You can tell. “I’m not allowed to go to the shop without Nick because that’s always a really exciting, fun outing,” jokes Rebekah, summing up. Now the project’s beginning to announce itself. A debut single on ASL Records is readied. Rainer’s no longer a hushed secret.



Not that it ever was, particularly. The two would show rough versions of songs to friends. “Sometimes they get bored of us saying ‘this isn’t the final mix, this is just a demo!’” It’s only until recently that the public even heard a song. Out of four unveiled to date, ‘GIRLS’ is the standout. A fidgety dance number shrouding a simple pop hook, in Nick’s words: “I always thought the beat sounded a bit like it was falling apart.”

Half accident, half process, Rainer isn’t highbrow music - Rebekah laughs at herself when she says she hopes the band’s audience is “intelligent” - but there are little subtleties to each of their songs. Slight, cleverly executed tidbits weave their way into focus, but this isn’t for the purpose of alienating casual listeners. “It’s not about putting it into a 5/4 time signature just to be all ‘fuck you. We can count’.”

If anything, these are basic melodies the two are playing with. Only, they’re throwing every redeemable point of interest into a big melting pot. Sometimes it’s chaos, occasionally it strikes gold. “You don’t wanna hear what it sounded like before,” Rebekah says of ‘Girls’. Somehow, as Nick claims, the song “holds its shit together.”

For the time being, pre-live experience and ahead of an album, Rainer are enjoying resting in their comfy bubble. Long may that continue. “We’ve got loads more deadlines,” Rebekah claims, but Nick’s quick to state: “You have to think about music as play. When there’s no pressure you’re not thinking about singles. You just make sounds that you like. By not having put anything out, there’s no expectations about what it should sound like.“

Rainer’s debut single is released on ASL Records, 9th September. They play London Birthdays the same night and Dummy AGM Fest, 28th/29th September.

Read the full interview in the new edition of DIY Weekly, available from iTunes now.