Words: Michael Rabinowitz

Photo: Doron Gild

Pop orchestra acts, deriving from an academic background, rarely garner expedited mainstream success without inviting questions of pretentiousness or irony. (See Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend.) 

Too many performers, too many instruments, too many cooks seem counterintuitive to the fluffy nature of pop music. 

But for Ra Ra Riot, composed of former University of Syracuse music students, the balancing of string sections (cello and violin) with your standard Fender Strat inside a tight song structure, accommodating  the shortest of attention spans is as effortless as the melodies they produce in the collection of layered pop synched to perfection on their debut LP for Barsuk Records, The Rhumb Line.  

“I think our music is kind of a throwback to what pop music used to be,” explains Alexandra Lawn, Ra Ra Riot’s cellist. “There are two different kinds of pop music. We are more on the scale of U2, music that sounds good and is fun, more of an organic approach to pop music.”

Lawn, who was just “flopping around” college a year ago, learned her craft through the ranks of Montessori school, came to Syracuse to get serious about music ... business, that is, when she met the group’s guitarist, Milo Benacci in class. From the beginning the ensemble was supposed to be fun, a hobby shared by musicians, but most importantly, fans of music. Maybe that is why Ra Ra Riot’s songs carry a frivolity and innocence that focuses on melodies reminiscent of the Beach Boys and, more currently, The Shins.  

Take the track “Next Year,” with lyrics that reference Harper Lee’s literary classic about the loss of innocence, To Kill A Mockingbird. The potential for dry literary analysis is huge, but the entire sextet (including Lawn and fellow violinist, Rebecca Zeller) raises the song to an upbeat, danceable effort, that captures the childhood foolishness of the book’s protagonist, Scout Finch. 

The whole “School of Rock” thing was not even in Lawn’s plans when she first matriculated to the University.

“When I went to high school,” she admits, “things got serious and I was going to do the Conservatory thing, and then last minute I decided I didn’t want to do that and I went to a liberal arts school and studied music business instead.”

So, when a Ra Ra Riot caught fire at CMJ in 2007, entrancing both music critics and the often fickle nature of the independent music blogosphere, the response was a surreal experience for Lawn and her band mates. After all, Ra Ra Riot was just supposed to be fun, not a job.

“It was really blatantly in my face after we played CMJ,” explains Lawn. “We played five shows there. We were still a different band. We were coming into our own a lot. We had a really good reception. It was surprising, since here were some industry people, who are seeing hundreds of bands at CMJ, and they are paying attention to us. Maybe we can turn this into a career.  We are having fun and why not? It was our first taste of this whole underground indie scene.”

Since the origins of Ra Ra Riot were purely organic, there was never any intention to succeed, or drive to become the next “it” band.

“We were never like that,” she says. “We came together to have fun. Over a lot of time, we’ve grown into the band we are now. Everything has been extremely organic and nothing has been pushed or rushed. None of us were like ‘let’s start a band and get signed, we are going to be on this label, and tour here.’ We worked hard and things kept falling in our lap. But we only did that because we were having fun and loving what we were doing.”

But for Ra Ra Riot’s final product, the trick is brevity. Keeping each track as light as cotton candy requires Lawn to put some of her conservatory dreams in check.

“It really comes from the music that inspires us and influences us,” she says. “We are just writing music that we like and we think sounds good. There are plenty of people out there that can do new and experimental things and whatnot, but that is not what we are going for, at least right now.”

So for Lawn, whose solo cellist performances are put aside for the grander plan of ensemble pop music, what would be a greater accomplishment: performing Brahms with Yo-Yo Ma or the band performing at the Grammy Awards?

“I’d do the Grammys because I know it would mean more to everyone else than just me,” she modestly offers. “I think I would enjoy having everyone as excited as I was.” 

Unless, of course they can reschedule the Grammys - then she’d do both. 

“Exactly!” she chuckles.

Ra Ra Riot plays Orlando's The Social October 7, and Tallahassee's Club Downunder October 8.

myspace.com/rarariot