Ra Ra Viper

Ra Ra feels like a brighter, more carefree record than your previous work. What inspired that creative shift, and how did it change the way you approached songwriting?

The creative shift came from spending more time together. Since the last record, we’ve shared and listened to more music as a band, which naturally influenced the songs we were writing and they ended up feeling lighter than the previous album. We also knew the last record leaned darker, so we wanted to move in a new direction and create a clear point of difference that also reflected our old school ra ra style a bit more.

You recorded the album with Andrew Lawson at Debaser Studios, but plenty of ideas came from demos made in your back shed. How important was it to hold onto those rough, original moments?

To be honest, I don’t think it was a necessity or an ego thing to keep the original stems, however it was probably more that some of the snippets we used from the shed sounded so bad that they sounded unique and fun. We did attempt to recreate some of these sounds and whilst they may have sounded better, everyone just agreed that they didn’t suit the vibe as much.

Half Asleep Behind The Wheel (feat. Little Guilt) feels like a very natural collaboration. How did your long friendship with Little Guilt shape the song, and what did they bring that made it feel complete?

Being friends with the Little Guilt crew made the whole songwriting process feel really natural. We could get into the studio, have a few beers, and just enjoy creating together. It made everything easy, and it’s definitely something we’d love to do again. Because the song came together near the end of the album process, it also gave us a fresh burst of inspiration to finish everything off. Little Guilt brought a different sound to the track: Lachie’s keys added a new texture we don’t usually have, and Ella’s gentle, angelic vocals brought something unique to our discography.

The album blends dreamy indie rock, shoegaze textures and heavier guitar moments while still sounding cohesive. How did you find the balance between experimenting and staying true to the band's identity?

Honestly, I think what helped us was not thinking as much which may sound a bit weird. Rather than overthinking every little riff, melody or drum fill, we just went with whatever felt right and because we had all been sharing music with each other it ended up going in the direction we wanted it to. In saying this, we also did have some conversations before the writing process about the direction we wanted to go in, so by the time we were writing we were all on a similar wavelength.

Touring with artists like The Wombats and Old Mervs has put you in front of huge audiences at home and overseas. What have those experiences taught you about yourselves as a band?

Touring and playing bigger shows has been an amazing experience. It pushed us to really focus on every part of our live show. Moving from smaller, more intimate venues to larger stages felt strange at first, especially with the crowd further away, so it took some adjusting. By the end, though, we had learned how to keep the show engaging and connect with the audience even in bigger rooms. Playing overseas in the US and Canada was surreal and definitely gave us a lot of inspiration as a band. Having people on the other side of the world singing the lyrics we wrote in our back shed is something that we will never forget and we hope to return!

With Ra Ra arriving in September and more touring on the horizon, what do you hope this album represents when people look back on this stage of Ra Ra Viper's journey?

We hope people look at this stage of our journey and feel inspired to start their own project. At the end of the day, we’re not the most talented musicians in the world, but we’ve worked hard to put ourselves in a really exciting position. If even one person is inspired by our journey to start something of their own, that would be the greatest achievement of all.