Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrew Murrain. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Andrew , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project that I have worked on so far is a song called “Pursuit”. I say that because first, the song is made for my mom and starting out, I was not making a lot of things my mom wanted to listen to. And thats not to say that was the decided factor of what was good or not but i’ve always appreciated my moms taste in music. Thats where so much of my influence comes from musically. And second, she (my mother) is the hardest working person I know. From the military to school to her regular jobs all the way down to her volunteer work, she has done everything you can think of. She always explained to us that we should be grateful for what we have because there is someone out there with so much less but still just as happy.
The song is meaningful because it just feels good. You can play this song at any time of the day and around anybody and in any setting. You can’t hate on happiness! Think Pharrell -Happy but its chill baby brother.
Andrew , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
For those who don’t know, my name is RRains. A simple play on my last name. When I was in high school, Limewire was a thing, my cousin who had lived with us had downloaded what was Fruity Loops at the time. (Shoutout to FL Studio, don’t worry I bought a license.) At the time I didn’t know what i was looking at but i could def hear it. To be all the way fair i didn’t even make it far enough to have anything worth keeping but it for sure set up the future. Fast forward to graduating music school in NYC, I was already producing for about a year before walking the stage as well as shooting videos and such for other artist. But while doing all these things I realized, while i love doing all these things, these don’t satisfy my itch for my own creative process as these are always for someone else. I started to rap on the projects that I was producing, started using other producers work, and started to figure out more of what I wanted to sound like. While in New York, I worked at Bloomingdales in Manhattan, where I happened to meet very accomplished battle rapper, K Shine’s manager, Angelo(Shout out my brother). He would explain tell me stuff like “don’t play around with this music, I feel like you could really do something with it” That confidence would lead to the opportunities to take pictures and videos for K Shine in addition to a placement on his mixtape “Motivation”. Those were really big boosts to my ego/music mental because at that time, I had heard i was kind of alright from a few people (people that i dont know) and deep down I knew i had a different sound that did sound good. I just didn’t know how to tell people without sounding like I was saying i was better than everybody. But now I had a literal co sign that meant something to people that like to see that type of thing. Continuing down the path of making my own music, I recorded most of my earlier songs with MixedByMidas( my blood brother) which mostly helped with HOW I was going to sound like wanted. Even thought Brooklyn and the city were treating me well, I very abruptly moved to Juneau, AK to pursue a fresh breath of life. Uprooting my self and landing in land locked soil, I thought to myself if I gains the fans of Alaska and I network correctly, I’ll use this time to create the brand that is RRains. Throughout the years in Alaska I worked very hard with various artists and around the state and outside trying to build the perfect resume to take to the rest of the world. All that leading up until now recording within a group that houses so many styles, performing at multiple venues, creating content thats actually worth giving a watch and a listen. Opening up for acts like Afroman and Wutang Clan’s Killah Priest, things seem to be headed in the right direction as (at the time of writing) we are preparing to go on tour with Fairbank’s own Alaska Redd. To anybody reading, RRains is a bond, RRains is a feeling, RRains is none other than true emotion syphoned into an audio file. The goal of RRains is to build a musical space that while I may not relate to every situation everyone goes through, I want you to know there is someone that does hear you, and that i’m not i’m behind you, i’m right here next to you. I dont want followers, I want side by siders.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
The goal is to help people far beyond my immediate family. Lets not get me on here saying i wouldn’t like all the fancy things i’ve dreamt of but i would like to help people just as much as myself. Very Mr.Beast-esque but those who give to give, can relate with the feeling you get from seeing an aura change on a complete stranger whom you both know very rarely will cross paths again. And if were being super honest, I don’t have what i want right now so its hard to give anything which hurts more than not having sometimes. If i can make you happy through my creativity, perfect. If we cross paths and I can bless you on the way to your next stop in life, perfect-er. I want to pop up on your phone, and you get that feeling of joy. I want you to hear my work in passing and you instantly get pulled into that feeling of happiness. Life is too short to not have it any other way.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Literally my whole New York experience. NYC is filled with people who are either doing the same thing as you or done it better than you. At every corner you hear music whether it’s a rap cypher, a sax player, the random mariachi on the train, a whole EDM DJ in front of the Q train platform, everything. You name it. And thats just music, you cant forget all the other creatives. With that being said, I attended an engineer convention in Manhattan which was very cool. Being in that networking mindset, I saw a group of people having a conversation decided to see if i could get a honest opinion on my work. Acknowledging that i was interrupting their time together, I walk up introduce myself and ask if i could have about a minute and a half of their time. Without a moment going by half the group told me “no” and just about formed a new circle to continue the conversation. One refused and said they were on the way out. The last one pulled out a pair of wired earbuds and motioned for me to hand over the phone. About 45 seconds in he completely ripped the beat to pieces but in a way where I know he really listened because it was all relevant and constructive info. I say that to say that, you’re gonna get a lot of no’s before you hear that yes. And sometimes that yes opens up into another no. But if you let every “no” effect you its gonna be hard. So go out there and get some more “no’s” and take all the information from those refusals and turn em into a yes!
Contact Info:
- Website: Coming Soon!!
- Instagram: TheReal_RRains
- Facebook: @RRains
- Twitter: @RRains
- Youtube: RRains_LikeTheWeather
Image Credits
Garrett Speiss