Interview with: Erin Zindle from the Ragbirds
I’m Erin Zindle from the Ragbirds!
And not with me, is the rest of the band. My husband, Randle More. My brother is TJ Zindle, our drummer is Lauren Kranz, and our bass player is Max Lockwood.
Almost a family affair?
It is! It is!
So how did you guys start the band? Just an introduction on how you guys met, started.
My husband and I started the band, here in Ypsilanti actually, about five years ago. I had all these songs that I had written that I just started recording. I didn’t honestly know whether it was going to become a serious band project or whether it was just going to be a CD I gave to my grandparents (laughs) or just shared with friends. As it started to develop, I started to see myself as a vocalist. At the beginning, I didn’t really think of myself as a vocalist. I had never sang lead in a band before. Actually, in the beginning, I was looking for a lead vocalist to audition to sing my songs for me. I didn’t really think I could, but it took time as I was recording, hearing myself singing and other people’s encouragement. All of that kind of got me going. I found band mates to perform the songs live. I’ve had some change in the band over the years.. My brother ended up joining the band two years ago. So he wasn’t with us from the beginning, but he’s in the band now. Our base player’s been with us for like five months and our drummer’s been with us for about one month.
Is it because they want to be famous too?
I hope so!
(laughs)
So I noticed there are lots and lots of different music elements in your songs. You have electric violin, which is awesome! And you play like tango style and then you have the African drums it was just really awesome. How did you put all of these together?
Well, I started listening to world music when I was a teenager. There were artists like Paul Simon and Rusted Root that were a big influence when I was just a young songwriter. They introduced me to the wider world of world music. I started to listening to African music and traditional and indigenous music from gypsy cultures, Middle Eastern, India and all kinds of different cultures. I started to dig in to Celtic fiddling, because I’m Irish in my own heritage. I started writing songs back then. As I was listening to music over the years, it’s just kind of found its way into my own song writing. I love to travel in every possible way that I can. I love for music to make me feel like I’m going some place else that I can’t get to physically. Make me feel fresh and different and distance. That’s how world music kind of found its way it to my sound. At times, I attempted a specific style like a tango. Actually, with the tango I started writing a song with lyrics about overcoming fear. I thought this needs to be a very brave kind of dance and that’s where the tango came from.
So tell us about your albums, anything new coming out?
Well, we have three CDs. The first one, like I said, was sort of an experiment. Me kind of testing out my new songs and discovering what my style is. Then we have two other albums. Our newest one was released in August of last year. We’ve been writing songs and working on new material, but we don’t have any plans yet to record right now.
So how was the experience performing at a festival like this? Different from performing from anywhere else?
Well, we play so much in so many different kinds of places. We do like two hundred shows a year, all over the country.
That’s a lot of work!
It is. We tour around and this summer we’ve been playing a lot of smaller festivals similar to this. We’ve done a couple of really big festivals, like summer camp and last year we did Rothberry. It’s a totally different experience playing here at the Jamboree compared to Rothberry or a club or a listening room, where it’s more like a theater and everyone’s sitting down. But I really especially love the Ypsilanti Jamboree, and totally honestly, just because it’s our hometown family and friends and a really really really great vibe, great lot of love, lot of enthusiasm and really just a lot of good people. I’m a little bit partial to this festival, because it’s our hometown! We live in Ann Arbor now technically, but we started here. It’s always fun playing outdoors where there’s all ages and people just are camping. They’re out of their own element, out of there home comfort element. So they’re more….I think they feel like they’re on vacation even if it’s just a weekend. They’re here and they’re able to be more free and have fun and dance and let loose. They’ve been exposed to music all day long, so they’ve been already accustomed to listening to music. They’re ready to engage all day long.
So last but not least, is there anything you want to say to your fans and people who just love your music?
(laughs) You know, it means so much to us that we…gosh it’s such a broad thing! We just feel so honored that we get the opportunity to be given a stage and microphones and that there are people with ears open and hearts open to us. It makes every bit of the work that we do and all of the time that we put into it just worthwhile, because we feel like that communication takes place. It’s so much joy for us.
I have one more question-I saw that you guys have little figurines of basketball players?
Oh it’s a joke. Our bass player is a collector of those things.
Almost like a lucky charm! Yeah you had a rug as well, is that kind of you, you being the band taking kind of your personal space. Or the things that you feel are lucky or important to you and trying to transcend them with your music, like a visual element?
Yeah, I think, I…in a lot of literal and figurative ways, am making myself at home on stage more and more over time. Like bringing my rug into the equation was just… It was a simple thing, but it has made…I love to go barefoot when I’m on stage and I’ve been on so many nasty, dirty stages. Having that rug there just gives me so much more, like I feel more at home and more comfortable. It’s like plush and soft and I can dance around on it and its great. So that’s a new element to our stage that really makes me feel more comfortable and I love it.
Check them out here!
