Interview with Rachel Grimes, October 4, 2018

Partial Transcript: "I know that you come from a very musical family. Can you talk a little bit about that, and how you have come to music in the first place?"

Segment Synopsis: Rachel Grimes discusses her musical childhood and in what ways her family has influenced her music career. She discusses her very first band which was titled "Lemonade Hayride," how the band members got together, and what type of musical genre, and the influence the band took from. Grimes discusses the various bands that evolved from Lemonade Hayride and Hula Hoop. Grimes explains the tour Hula Hoop took in Britain.

Keywords: Babylon Babylon; Hula Hoop; Lemonade Hayride; Rudyard Kipling; Sudsy Malone's; Teeny Pee Pee; Tewligans; The Smiths; Uncle Pleasants; Velvet Elvis

Partial Transcript: "Did you have any influence on zine culture in the Indie music scene? Were you reading zines?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes states that she was never interested in zine culture. She comments that many of her male friends were interested in zines and also created some themselves. Grimes does not believe she has a "collector" gene. She loved listening to mixtapes, but would not feel inclined to go buy the album. She discusses working at Hawley-Cooke Booksellers, where she would beg to work in the record collection. Tim Barnett would make mixtapes for her, and she discusses the importance of those tapes in her life.

Grimes explains the variety of live bands in Louisville, Kentucky and how those bands influenced each other through live music. She describes feeling a part of something in the music scene, and the feeling of freedom to express herself within that scene.

Keywords: Barnett, Tim; Hawley-Cooke Booksellers; Influences; Noble, Jason

Partial Transcript: "Can you name some of your favorite bands that you listened to during that time?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes discusses the various bands that she listened to and worked with in the Louisville music scene. She discusses how the scene operated and what venues were involved. She states that she spent a lot of time in bars as a teenager, not because she wanted to drink, but because she was a musician, and these bars were not incredibly strict on policy.

Grimes describes her relationship with Jason Noble, and how they got together to create the band "Rachel's." Grimes states that Rachel's initially was not meant to be a band, but was meant to be more of a music-writing, experimental project. She describes the various instruments that were involved in Rachel's music. They incorporated both classical acoustic instruments, as well as rock instruments - she describes the difficulties that come with pairing these very different instruments together.

Grimes describes the different venues in Louisville, and what types of music were played in each, as well as the audience-band relationship that was created/expected within each venue.

Grimes briefly discusses what Rachel's Tours looked like.

Keywords: Clifton Center; Drinking Woman; Fancy Pants; Folks on Fire; Hula Hoop; Lead Pelvis; Noble, Jason; Poor Floyd Moore; Rachel's; Rachel's Halo; Rodan; Rudyard Kipling; Shellac; Tewligans; Twice Told Coffee House; Uncle Pleasants; Zeta

Partial Transcript: "That is a shift away from the Indie scene to the more art scene. Do you see that as your progression to the current projects that your working on?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes states that she does not feel that Rachel's entered a new scene with their music. She felt that the music was different from what she had been creating before, but she did not feel like it entered into a new scene. She discusses some of the various labels that supported the bands in the scene.

Grimes attempts to describe what sort of "aesthetic" her music fits into. She states that she heard the term "post-rock" and she did not initially understand what that term meant. She felt like what Rachel's was doing was one style, but rather many styles within even a singular album.

Subjects: Labels

Partial Transcript: "Are you still playing music with Rachel's?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes describes the various projects and tours Rachel's was a part of in its lifetime as a band. Grimes states that Rachel's first record was in 1995, they put many records out before the year 2000. She describes a collaborative project called Systems Layers with a theatre group from New York called Citi Company - that record was released in 2003. Rachel's worked on a film score for one of their members Greg King. The went on a final tour in the year 2006, and then went on hiatus because they felt they were all moving in different directions. Grimes states that two of the band members have now passed away, Jason Noble, and her brother, Edward Grimes, who was the drummer. She describes coping with the loss of her brother and Jason Noble.

Grimes describes the various physical memorabilia that Rachel's has.

Keywords: Citi Company; Grimes, Edward; King, Greg; Systems Layers

Partial Transcript: "What has been your post-Rachel's projects?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes describes what types of projects some of the band members when on to accomplish post-Rachel's. Grimes states that has done a lot of writing, specifically chamber music writing. She also discusses some of the other bands and projects she was involved in. She describes her piano solo music composition publication called "Book of Leaves" and the solo tour that came from that project. She discusses creating compositions for the Louisville Orchestra, as well as a current project called "The Way Forth," which is a folk-opera composition that will be performed in February of 2019.

She describes The Way Forth project that incorporates Kentucky women's voices from the past 250 years. Her inspiration for the composition comes from historical research and primary resource documents such as letters, postcards, newspapers, and oral histories. She discusses her own personal family research and how it lead to this project.

In her research, she found out about a slave woman named Dolly who was a part of Daniel Boone's expedition. Dolly has become a central character in The War Forth, and how these stories of women, especially oppressed women are integral parts of Kentucky's history.

Keywords: Abrams, Teddy; Book of Leaves; Donna Lawrence Productions; Frederickson, Christian; King, Greg; Louisville Orchestra; Miller, Eve; Noble, Jason; The Way Forth

Partial Transcript: Grimes discusses some of the visual and physical artifacts of Rachel's that belongs to the Louisville Underground Music Archive.

Segment Synopsis: Grimes discusses how Rachel's planned out their albums and projects.

Keywords: Rachel's; Soundscape; Visual Art

Partial Transcript: "Was it a space for a lot of people to voice their opinion?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes discusses the sort of "hierarchy" of Rachel's. She states that Christian Frederickson, Jason Noble, and herself did all the composition. She goes into detail about the Systems Layers project.

Keywords: Frederickson, Christian; Noble, Jason; Rachel's

Partial Transcript: "So you have your current project. Do you already know what the project will be once it is completed?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes discusses the current project she is working on, and how it was meant to premier at a festival in Knoxville, Tennessee last year. Grimes had to leave the festival, because her brother, Edward Grimes, suddenly passed away. She expresses her grieving process, and how his passing effected her. She continues to describe The Way Forth.

Grimes describes her vision for the project, when and where she wants it to be performed and shown.

Keywords: Grimes, Edward

Partial Transcript: "Do you have any 2020 projects?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes discusses some of the future projects on her horizon for the fall of 2019.

Partial Transcript: "Do you have any other stories that you want to share with us?"

Segment Synopsis: Grimes states that she will attempt to come up with more of the band names from the music scene of the 1980s and 1990s. She also expresses a desire to view the Louisville Underground Music Archive Photograph Exhibition with her band mates.