We have some breaking news to share with you all here at the BRAG. One of our erstwhile writers – indeed, this very one – has been welcomed as the newest official band member in American rock/soul outfit, The BellRays! Or at least, when the possibility is raised, frontwoman Lisa Kekaula doesn’t say no. She just laughs, which we’re taking as a positive sign.
It begins auspiciously, when my predictions for what will feature in their Rockpocaylpse tour – flaming guitars, exploding drum kits, sacrificial saxophone – land right on the money.
“Oh my God! You’ve nailed everything that’s actually going to happen!” Kekaula is thrilled, so I cut to the chase and graciously accept the fresh position, because subtext. But as she elaborates, there is more to these upcoming gigs than apocalyptic spectacle alone.
“The thing that to me is more incredible each year is that we still know how to play, write songs and actually be in a band,” she says. “The more we stick around, the more incredible that becomes. It just seems to be one of those things where people these days always want to reinvent or do something different. We’re not about that. We’re about getting out there and being what we can be at face value in the most kick-ass way. People can expect what they want to expect, but if they want to just be fucking blown away by people who know what they’re doing, come to this show!”
There is no hyperbole to this claim – The BellRays have been surging across the musical landscape for 25 years now, with a remarkable 14 albums under their belt (and more gigs than you can count). Anyone who has caught them live before can testify to the energy of the band, buoyed in no small measure by Kekaula’s soaring, soulful growl. While there are decades of history to their name, The BellRays remain an act that has evolved organically; there has never been a desire to jump tracks and wear a stranger’s skin.
“It’s not a clear evolution, but I do connect with it,” Kekaula says. “If it were clear, I wouldn’t be that interested in being involved in it. It’s one of those things where the mystery of where you’re heading keeps you sharp. We’re looking to be shocked. Not in a harsh, negative way, but wanting to be intrigued, to have been doing this for so long now and then be surprised by what we’ve just done. The trick, though it’s not really a trick, is to respect it. You don’t base what you’re doing on a pipe dream, which goes on a lot in the music industry but also in life. When you’re new, you have managers and labels telling you that everything is going to be going up and up and up. And sure, it does, but so does everything else – the costs, the work.
“You need to work out what it is you want your life to be, and find the way to do it. If you love what you do, that’s priceless. There’s tonnes of people out there working for heaps of money doing shit they hate. I would never want to be that person.”
With so many recordings under her belt now (including 2014’s Lisa and The Lips release), you imagine Kekaula’s work ethic must be rather intense. Many bands that have been together for decades find their members scattered across the globe, furiously pursuing project after project and only ever engaging with bandmates in times of touring, recording and rehearsals. But such a lifestyle seems to be the absolute antithesis of what makes The BellRays so enduring.
“There’s always time to live. That’s one of the reasons why we’re able to keep going and doing what we want to do. For me, anytime someone starts to say, ‘Oh, life is just too fast,’ I don’t know what planet they’re on. That’s all a state of mind. That’s stuff you got to get a hold on yourself. When you live out of a suitcase, you learn how to be flexible, fast. Both mentally and physically. You have to say, ‘OK, things might not always go the way I want them to go,’ but you have to have time to have a good time. You have to regroup and say, ‘Let’s start it over.’”
While burning the band to the ground and starting from scratch seems fairly unlikely these days, there is certainly truth to Kekaula’s words. Witnessing The BellRays move forward, continuing to tour and record, seems an endless, astounding surprise to her.
“My mind is open, and I’m always thinking it’s about to end anyway. Every time we do something else, there’s that sense of, ‘Oh cool, we get to do this now, how about that?’ I’m never sure that we’re going to finish the next record, and it gets done and you think, ‘Hey, that’s awesome.’ For me, that’s the best way to just keep going forward. If you don’t, you’re judging yourself against the ridiculousness that’s out there right now. That’s what I tell my daughter. Just do what you want to do. You don’t need to put blinders on, but just know that there’s another world out there, and it’s going to do what it wants to do, and you don’t need to fucking worry about it.”
The BellRays play The Small Ballroom, Newcastle onSaturday August 8 and Newtown Social Club on Sunday August 9, supported by Dallas Frasca.
