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A quieter Riot?

Ra Ra Riot's sophomore album The Orchard is the next step in a slow but steady climb to the top
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Who: Ra Ra Riot (opening for Wintersleep)

When: Sunday, Nov. 14, 9 p.m.

Where: GLC

Cost: Advance tickets $20 at GLC, Billabong, Katmandu or www.clubzone.com/ciaconcerts

Fans of the East Coast indie group, Wintersleep, are grinning from ear-to-ear in anticipation of the band's upcoming Whistler show, but they should also be sure to pay very close attention to the other name on the bill: Ra Ra Riot.

This modern day chamber-pop outfit boasts an eclectic sound that is simultaneously upbeat and ethereal, even bordering on haunting.

Hailing from Syracuse, New York, Ra Ra Riot is made up of vocalist Wes Miles, bassist Mathieu Santos, guitarist Milo Bonacci, cellist Alexandra Lawn, violinist Rebecca Zeller, and drummer Gabriel Duquette. The group has been together for almost five years now, since they were all students at Syracuse University.

"Milo had a class with Rebecca and he kind of knew that she played violin and asked her if she had any interest in being in a band, and she knew a cello player and I had played in a quartet with her, as well as orchestra, and she brought me along," Lawn explained.

From those organic roots, a band blossomed. Less than six months later they took the CMJ Music Marathon by storm, causing SPIN.com to sit up and take notice, proclaiming the group "one of the best young bands we've heard in a really long time." Lawn explains that CMJ really was a turning point for the band, which had been playing gigs for fun, really, up to that point.

"Having industry people approach you, wanting to build a career with you, it can really change your perspective and it made us go that next step to make it a career."

It wasn't really a difficult decision to make the leap into music, full-time.

"It didn't really require much effort at all," she paused, laughing. "And I think that's part of how we've gotten to the point that we're at, is that all throughout our career, everyone is very ambitious in their own way, and one of the qualities I think for all of us is that everybody in the band is an individual who can just dive right in and kind of be brave about it."

But since breaking onto the scene, their continued success can be attributed to hard work, plain and simple. Lawn points out that today, in the age of the overnight YouTube sensation, there's still something to be said for paying your dues and going through the motions of being a touring band and developing a dedicated and loyal group of fans.

"It's really been gradual since the day we started. Everything was kind of a pleasant surprise in terms of any measure of success."

The old-fashioned approach seems to be working for them: Ra Ra Riot has been slowly but surely amassing a solid fan base of people that love their distinct, eclectic sound. And they're not showing any signs of slowing down. On Friday, when Pique caught up with Lawn, the band had just rolled into Washington and was getting ready for the final stop on a six-week tour of the States. They planned to take a whopping six days off before heading north for their first Canadian tour.

While Lawn admits that life on the road can be "taxing" at times, they're still having a blast on stage. And it shows. A large part of the reason that Ra Ra Riot started getting hyped was because they put on a pretty killer live show.

"Ultimately, the secret is to see a band having fun and loving what they're doing on stage," Lawn mused. "I think one of the saddest things to see is a band going through the motions because this is the kind of career where people tell you, 'Oh my god, your job is doing something you truly love,' and I think that's true. And I would like to think and hope that's why everybody in a band is doing what they do.

"....And also, we're in the van a lot, and this is our chance to jump around and get energy out, and it just kind of takes over you and you're just having fun!"

One thing is clear: this band is in the game for the right reasons, and they have enough confidence in people to believe that their audience can tell when musicians are just going through the motions.

"Our strong suit is that we truly do love playing with each other and that's what it's always been about. We always said that we're doing this because it's fun, and I think it's quietly assumed and acknowledged that once it stops being fun, that's that. There's no point in going through the motions - that's kind of against everything that music is to us!"

What's more, she believes that a passion for music trickles down from the live show and into the songs themselves, eventually. In fact, many of the ideas for Ra Ra Riot's songs are born on the road and then cultivated elsewhere.

"The way we write is everybody in the band has ideas and little bits and those can be as simple as one line, or it can be more or less a completed thought - you know, chords or percussion ideas, melodies, what-have-you - but then it always goes to this very collaborative, hands-on, jam session approach so that ultimately every song kind of comes out of the machine quite different and everybody's parts are there," she explained.

Ra Ra Riot has released a number of albums over the span of their career, starting with their first EP in '07, which was soon followed by their first full-length, The Rhumb Line . After two more EPs, the band was finally ready to get back to work on a full-length project, so they headed to a peach orchard in upstate New York to get down to work.

A peach orchard?

"When we went to the peach orchard last summer to write The Orchard , that was an environment that was so conducive to our creativity."

That isolated, calming environment seems to have helped yield some slightly softer, more subdued results, like the tracks Keep It Quiet and You And I Know.

Come check out what Ra Ra Riot has been quietly cultivating with The Orchard .