Quick Q and A with Rani Arbo
 by Kathy S-B  ·  6 March 2010

Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem have to be one of the most fun and energetic acts to have graced the stage of the me&thee coffeehouse. They’ve been called an “unusually gleeful string band.” The Boston Globe described the band as “neo old-timey with cosmopolitan splashes of contemporary pop and jazz.” All we know is that we love the music and the joy we feel whenever we hear that music.

To learn more about Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem, go to their website. Here’s a peek at what they sound like in concert.

If you had to describe your music in three words or less, what would they be?

Eclectic, fun, deep

What’s the story behind the name “daisy mayhem?”

It was a chance discovery. In 1999, when the band coalesced, we went looking for a name that spelled fun, and one that made a nod to our sometimes chaotic mix of old and new musical styles. As we looked around, I got a call from my friend Sonja in Minneapolis, whose all-girl punk band — named daisy mayhem — had just broken up. I asked if we could use the name, and she said yes. Later on, we found out that Daisy Mayhem was a character from a Hanna Barbera cartoon. Even later on, we learned it was the name of a bright pink recumbent bicycle manufactured in Rockford, IL. And that’s all the daisy mayhem trivia that’s fit to print!

Do you prefer live appearances over the recording experience?

They are so different, and they call on different energies and skills. Live performance is simpler to love, because it’s so ephemeral. You give everything you have, without thinking about it, for an hour and a half, and you enter into an energizing exchange with the audience that has the potential to truly fill you both up.

Recording can be equally thrilling, but it isn’t ephemeral, and it can take weeks or years to complete. It asks us for more reflection and editing, and so it’s more intellectual and occasionally frustrating. That said, our goal in the studio is to capture our live performance — that spontaneous, ephemeral energy — as best we can. And after we do that, then the painstaking process of listening back, adjusting sounds and adding textures (which we sometimes, but not always, do) can be very rewarding.

To add another thought here — being listened to changes how one plays. It makes playing into a conversation, rather than a soliloquy. The treasure of a live performance is our relationship with the audience, and the way that compels us to give immediately of our energy and music. After 10 years and hundreds of shows together, we can take that live-performance memory into the studio and conjure it up; over the years, we have gotten better and better at doing so. Also, we’re lucky to be a band of four people who can play for each other, applaud each other, laugh, get silly, and be frustrated together. So, even when we’re in the studio, we still have a chemistry to work with. In turn, the reflective studio time often informs choices that we make on stage — arrangement choices, lyric adjustments, and so forth. In our experience, live and in-studio work really complement each other.

How do each of you go about presenting your songs to each other? Do they end up being altered after they’re introduced to the band?

Usually quite shyly, and often at sound check. No matter how long we’ve known each other or how well we get along, presenting new songs and ideas takes a moment of courage. We don’t use every song or idea; some work well for the band, and others less so. Given a little time, we can usually pronounce a unanimous decision on what works. Most songs do end up altered after they’ve been introduced — we almost always add harmony ideas, and the arrangements can fall together quickly or take a long time. Sometimes a song can take weeks, or years, before it finds its musical “home” with us.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing independent musicians these days?

I can’t speak for others, but my biggest challenge is balancing touring and having a family, because of the logistics and the finances that result from being an independent musician. I (and Scott who is also in the band) have a six-year old son, who has been on tour (on and off!) since he was 5 weeks old. Now, he often chooses to stay home with his grandmother or a babysitter; but as he grows, our balancing act won’t get any easier. Traveling together has been an amazing experience for us as a family. We’d like to continue it, and honestly we have to continue to stay in the business as we are now. As independent musicians, we have to hit the road to visit radio stations, play festivals and shows, peddle CDs, and let people know we’re out there. Maybe down the line we’ll have to make some different choices, but for now we’re still committed to making it work.

I do believe that one of our biggest challenges as musicians, independent or not, is to keep live music available and accessible to a generation that’s increasingly plugged in. I love that they are listening so much; that so much different music is so universally available. But the rewards of hearing live music go way beyond that, and I hope we can just stay out there and keep making it happen — both for ourselves and for the audiences who listen. We are all looking forward to a great night of making that happen at the Me & Thee!