We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachael Rage a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachael, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I started my career late, after I turned 30. In high school I was the kid who did all the music and theater I could do, packing my schedule with stage band, chamber singers and theater rehearsals. I wrote my first song at 12 and played it at my schools talent show. The song was about a civil war soldier who fell down a path of women and sin and never went to visit his mother. The first verse was “He was a little boy but now he is a man, mother hardly knows that it’s him. He runs along the field where a battle has been, searching for someone’s lost brother…” I was learning in school about the children who were hired to identify and loot bodies on battlefields so I decided to write a song about one of these kids. I still remember most of the song, although the rest is lost in the dusty corners of the auditorium.
After high school I had a really hard time adapting to college and adulthood. I was great at any job I had, (money is a great motivator) but I couldn’t seem to get through college. I dropped out and spent the next 10 plus years in the food service industry.
Music never felt like an option, I didn’t think I was good enough or would be good enough to perform professionally-although I dreamt about it.

I moved to Miami in 2012 and a few years later stumbled upon a tiny little piano bar called The Cabaret run by Edison Farrow. The servers and bartenders were singers and there was a piano player who played requests the whole night. I dreamt of working there but felt I wasn’t talented enough which was a lie I told myself since I was young to protect myself from trying something and failing at it. Little did I know the failure was in the not trying.

So I’d go and watch the show and wish I could be on that stage with the silver Shure Super 55 mic and chandelier.
I was looking for a bartending job and found an ad for a position at a little bar that happened to be attached to The Cabaret but didn’t have live music. I went and interviewed for the position but in the interview mentioned I sing and play a little piano. I was prompted to come back the night night for an audition for singing bartender at Cabaret, I sang Summertime and got the job. My whole life changed incredibly once I started this job. New gigs opened up, I moved up to the piano player position at the Cabaret and I found a confidence I never knew I could have.

Maybe my career could have started earlier, maybe I could be more successful now if I had but the point is that it happened. I found my calling. I owe a lot to Edison and all the Cabaret Kids I worked with but I also owe it to myself to be proud of the work I have done.

If you’re toying with the idea of a career change or starting a new hobby really examine the reason you’re hesitating. If you’re afraid of failing at it maybe it’s time to take that chance to fail because it only takes getting back up and trying again to get to success.

Rachael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a singer and songwriter and piano bar performer. I travel the East Coast to perform at dueling piano shows and piano bars. The shows are all request sing alongs with a few toasts and dirty jokes thrown in. Some places you can see me perform are Jack and Dianes in Greenville, SC, Roca Roja Cantina in Myrtle Beach, SC and The Lobster Trap in Asheville, NC.

I have 3 songs released on Spotify and am about to start releasing more music from my rockabilly project, Rachael Rage and the Magic City Mad Men.

I have a side project under the name AEL where I perform live looping shows with synthesizers and homemade beats using MPC Beats. This is more electronic than the music I release under Rachael Rage. AEL started as a lofi beat production project during the pandemic and has morphed into a live looping performance with fun danceable beats.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I’ve always prided myself in the fact I have never been fired from a job-until I started my career in music.

I had been playing piano professionally for a year or so at this point and I got hired to perform at a restaurant. It was the 4th of July and I had 2 other gigs that day at a nursing home playing for the residents.
I decided to use my cheaper lightweight keyboard for the restaurant gig because I had been running around all day. This was my first mistake. I never use this keyboard and to play a fancy restaurant gig with this was just a bad idea.

I struggled figuring out how to level my sound and clunked through a set, trying to ignore the stink faces I saw on the staff. I just wasn’t sounding good and the more nervous I got the worse I played.

The manager asked me to leave early stating it was slow which was a lie and I drove home in tears as the fireworks went off all around for the holiday. I felt so defeated and hurt, wondering if I was making the wrong career choice.

Years went by and I learned from my mistakes, maybe even had to make them several times over but I spent more time practicing and honing my skill and I ended up playing there on a regular basis before I moved away.

If I hadn’t had these difficulties I would never have challenged myself to become a better player. I learned my equipment and live sound design and upgrade my gear as much as I can afford to. Resilience is being able to bounce back from these challenges as well as the acceptance that there will be challenges.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I recently did a gig near my hometown and was surrounded by friends and family I don’t get to see much since I live so far from where I grew up. Being able to make the trip to visit and do my job AND my favorite people get to enjoy what I do for a living, well that’s the dream.

Looking out to the audience and seeing joy in their faces as I clunk out the tunes we all love to sing brings me to a happiness level I don’t think I can properly describe.

Having the opportunity to share my original music at one of my original gigs allows me to let my creativity flow and take my music from my home studio to an audience.

So for me sharing my skill and passion with people is the most rewarding part of my job.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rachaelrage.com
• Instagram: @therachaelrage
• Facebook: Facebook.com/RachaelRage
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@RachaelRage?si=R5VFOonDtdPUt5GT

Image Credits
1st photo: Elizabeth Grover 2nd photo: Kezia Nell 3rd photo: Valerie Kay Marlin 4th & 5th photos: Mace Morris