Raviner is an alternative indie rock band out of Nashville, TN. They have a rock, electronica soulful sound with lead singer Kamber. Her voice radiates the tracks on their latest EP Disconnected. All of the songs work together but are drastically different making each track engaging and diverse.
Tour Dates
- Chattanooga, TN at Ziggy's Underground Oct 28th
- Atlanta, GA at The Music Room Oct 29th
1. Who are you and what do you do?
- Kamber - I am a classically trained pianist. I started lessons at the age of 6 and developed my training as a church musician throughout my teen years and into college. I studied music in college as well. However, as far as songwriting goes and writing my own music, it’s been since I was about 14.
- Austin - I’ve been playing guitar since I was 16, and started recording when I was 19. When I first started college, I was a math major and after recording my first song, I realized I wanted to record and be a musician for the rest of my life.
2. How would you categorize your music?
- alt // rock // grunge // dark pop
A soundtrack to a psychological thriller directed by Sia and Kurt Cobain
3. What went into making the music video Scarlet? Anything fun to share in performing the song for the music video?
To create the video for “Scarlet”, we decided to treat it almost as a filmset or a theatre set in a lot of ways. We wanted to create a “scene” that we could perform in. So we took MANY trips to all sorts of antique stores, yard sales, and of course, Goodwill, and scoured through lots of secondhand goodness to find what we needed.
Absolutely everything that you see in the video - all the old furniture, appliances, birdcages, is stuff we picked out to set the scene. Meanwhile, the actual “set” is none other than the garage in our house. We transformed it into a music video set with custom lighting and fog machines to set the mood as well. We love to embark on larger than life creative endeavors with limitations. We don’t have a lot of frills or big budgets, but we like to create something beautiful with what we have.
4. How did you come up with the name for the band?
Raviner comes from the old french word, raviner, meaning to “ravage”, and “to pillage”. We “Americanized” it to be easy to say (pronounced RAV-ih-ner). I have always been intrigued by ravens. When we were discovering our band name, I spent hours scouring the internet researching symbolism from all sorts of folktales, myths, and literature for these magical creatures! They are one of the most intelligent birds.
They represent life, death, truth, and they are historically messenger birds as well. It’s definitely an important symbol for us.
5. What types of music are you most influenced by?
Austin - my last band was a metal band based out of Portland, OR. There is definitely some hardcore influenced laced throughout our sound. Anything dark and dramatic. However, I love more than just heavy music. I’m super inspired by pop as well because I get to produce a lot of pop music. It’s different than producing rock. I like to combine those different worlds in what we do as Raviner.
The band - Raviner
Kamber - I’ve got a classical // sacred musical background. I’m a classically-trained pianist so I studied Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Mozart, and Schumann. My first love was definitely the great works of the romantic era - i loved the idea of “painting” with notes and rhythms. It definitely bled into my songwriting. I learned the nuts and bolts of performing doing church music. I was blessed with a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow in my abilities in a safe and welcoming environment. Once I hit high school and college however, I was playing out in town and that’s when I started playing with other musicians and forming bands. I fell in love with heavier acts like Nirvana, Flyleaf, and Underoath, and found this great chasm between my classical training and my pop // rock infatuation. Then came Tori Amos who explained it all. A friend of mine introduced me to her music, and I realized I could express both worlds. Raviner is definitely a culmination of all of these influences - rock, alternative, pop, electronic, cinematic, metal, classical, all rolled up into one unified sound.
6. What's next for you?
Now that the EP is out we plan to keep touring. Right now we are playing the midwest and southern regions.
Fun questions:
1. If you were stranded on an island that had animals, and water what five things would you bring?
- Austin - a guitar, a phone that could catch some ‘sweet’ water Pokemon on the beach, and 3 taco bell AM Crunch Wraps “at least I would have three good mornings”
- Kamber - my Kawai stage piano (assuming there’s power available haha), a good book - maybe a Victorian feminist novel, a deck of cards, a vat of diet coke, and good notebook to write, journal, play tic-tac-toe
2. If you could play at any venue where would it be?
Austin - the Columbia River Gorge Amphitheater in Washington state.
3. If you could meet any musical legend who would it be?
Austin - Steve Albini (recorded In Utero by Nirvana and Surfa Rosa by The Pixies)
Kamber - Tori Amos
4. What would you pick to live in a scary haunted house or a little shack on a beach?
Austin - scary haunted house “duh” - I would haunt the haunted house that would be freakin' awesome; I would choose to live in a haunted house and film it everyday and make a kicks music video
Kamber - Little shack on a beach because I’m scared.
5. If you could impersonate any singer who would it be?
Austin - over exaggerated Chris Cornell (or any other 90s rock, post-grunge vocalist) and emphasize the “r” in every word
Amy Lee from Evanescence. (I do a killer impression of her singing “Bring Me To Life”)
