| Ra | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Los Angeles, California |
| Genres | Alternative metal[1] Hard rock Nu-metal[2] |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Republic Records Universal Records Cement Shoes Records Sahaja Music Records |
| Associated acts | Trixter Absence of Faith |
| Website | http://www.ra-band.net/ |
| Members | |
| Sahaj Ticotin Andy Ryan Ben Carroll P. J. Farley |
|
| Past members | |
| Skoota Warner Sean Corcorean Brix Milner |
|
Ra is an American alternative metal band from Los Angeles, California, taking their name from the Egyptian sun god. The band has been around since the 1990s, but did not actually evolve into its current form until 2002. Their music was described as "exotic yet familiar, heavy yet funky, direct yet sophisticated, sensual yet soulful, unrelenting yet cathartic."[3]
The band is known for their hit songs "Do You Call My Name", "Fallen Angels", "Don't Turn Away" and "Broken Hearted Soul". To date, Ra has sold around 350,000 albums in North America.
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Frontman Sahaj Ticotin has commented on the origin of the name Ra in multiple interviews. "...There's an underlying theme where 80 to 90 percent of the songs have the word sun in it. So I have a little sun fetish and I thought that Ra was appropriate." He has also stated that he likes the idea of the name because it's short -- "If your name is Ra you've got two giant letters taking up the same amount of space so it looks like your name is bigger" -- melodramatic, and "sort of an odd thing and really unique."[4][5]
Marcus Ticotin, Sahaj's older brother and Abandon Entertainment president, financed Sahaj's first record while Sahaj was living in Greenwich, CT with mentor and friend Rob Jones. They held open auditions in New York City to fill out the lineup with a drummer, guitarist, and bassist. Skoota Warner was chosen as a drummer who fit in well with the blend of funk and hard rock in Sahaj's writing style. R&B bassist Kirk Lyons and guitarist Ben Mauro, the latter of whom would later play with Lionel Richie and Britney Spears, completed the initial configuration of the band. The members' influences did not completely mesh, but the lineup did produce one commercial track in "Crazy Little Voices," which appeared as the end title track for the movie The Rage: Carrie 2.
The moderate success of "Crazy Little Voices" led to the band signing with Edel Music. Ra recorded many tracks including "Rectifier", "Fallen Rock Zone", "Only", "End of Days", "U Need Me", "What I Am", "Sky", "The Foundation" and the first real version of "Do You Call My Name". Edel, unbeknownst to the band, was on its last legs and was weeks away from closing shop upon album completion.
"Do You Call My Name" received heavy airplay on WAAF in Boston, Massachusetts. Based on this local success, the band released the EP One with the guidance of their then manager, Arma Andon. The band sold 7500 CDs in a month and a half, which led to a two-album deal with Universal Records who had otherwise not seen the band perform live.
Sahaj's friend, Will Pendarvis (K-rock NYC, Sirius), introduced him to a friend, Hip-hop Producer/Engineer Paul Logus (Puffy, Jennifer Lopez, 112, Notorious BIG, Pantera) with whom the band spent over $170,000 redoing "One" and turning it into "From One".
From One was released October 22, 2002. The lead single, "Do You Call My Name," reached number 10 in early 2003.
Originally slated to co-produce the next LP with Sahaj was super-engineer Dave Schiffman (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Mars Volta), a health condition of a close family member forced Sahaj to produce the record at home alone. Universal was unhappy with the album the band delivered to them and they recommended using Bob Marlette (Saliva, Seether, Shinedown) to record an additional few songs to give the album more radio potential. The band had an additional budget of more than $400,000 to produce new songs. With Bob, Ra would record "Got Me Goin'", "Take Me Away" and "Say You Will" and would submit these songs to Universal only to receive yet another lukewarm reception. Desperate and very unsure of the right course of action, Ra went to Los Angeles to make one last attempt at a first single for Duality. The outcome would be "Tell Me", a huge arena rock anthem shouting out to the world for guidance. The song was approved by Universal, but the executives initially decided to leave the record unreleased instead of spending more money on what had become an expensive record to make.
In the winter of 2004, Universal/Republic hired a hungry radio promotion director named Dave Downey. One of his first activities was listening to all the records that he might potentially work. After listening to "Duality" he made the executives upstairs aware that they may have made a mistake with Ra and that they were missing out on a potentially great record. By this point, drummer Skoota Warner had left the band to find a more stable income. Universal released the album June 21, 2005, albeit with little promotion. However, the album sold 80,000 copies on the strength of tracks like "Fallen Angels" and "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic", a Police cover.
The band left Universal Records and signed with Cement Shoes Records. On October of 2006, Ra released their third album entitled Raw, which includes 11 live tracks and one new studio track, "Don't Turn Away". The new song (and single) was meant to be a teaser for their next album, Black Sun, which was said to be "dynamic."
Black Sun was released September 23, 2008, under Sahaj's new label, Sahaja Music Records. It featured their newest single, "Broken Hearted Soul". "Faulty Information" was going to be the second single and would hopefully receive a music video, but through a lack of funds and time, neither occurred.
On June 10, 2009, Ra released a fourth studio album called Black Sheep. It contained 13 rare tracks including their debut single, "Crazy Little Voices", as well as their new single, "Supernova". The album is only available digitally.
Sahaj's solo album is tentatively titled, "Sahaj - Another Minute", named after the first single, "Another Minute".
In August 2011, Ra released the single "Running Blind", perhaps the first piece of their next studio album. On Sahaj's facebook (Sept. 13, 2011), he stated that a new Ra record will be released in in the first 3 months of 2012.
Ra is generally called "nu metal with an exotic twist".[2] The twist is the Indian or Arabian mode that is used in many songs. Sahaj says, "The great thing about it is that you can play the meanest Meshuggah, heaviest rock riff you could possibly imagine under any scale and you [sic] if you sing over it in a harmonic minor scale it doesn’t lose its heaviness, but it also doesn’t lose its melody. It still manages to be cool, but also melodic."[6] Notable songs that use this scale are "Do You Call My Name", "Violator", "Skorn", "The Only One", and "Broken Hearted Soul". The band has also been said to use the genres of: progressive metal,[7] modern progressive rock,[8] and pop rock/metal. GarageBand.com says: "Twisted melodies, polyrhythmic beats, and heavy guitar chords fuse together with middle-eastern motifs, hip-hop, and melodic balladry to make a cohesive visionary statement percolating with emotional fervor." [5]
| Date of Release | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | One | (Self-released) |
| 2002 | From One | Universal Records |
| 2005 | Duality | |
| 2006 | Raw (live album) | Cement Shoes Records |
| 2008 | Black Sun | Sahaja Music Records |
| 2009 | Black Sheep |
| Year | Single | Peak | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Main |
|||
| 2002 | "Do You Call My Name" | 14 | From One |
| "Rectifier" | 30 | ||
| "Skorn" | — | ||
| 2005 | "Fallen Angels" | 29 | Duality |
| "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" | — | ||
| "The Only One" | — | ||
| 2006 | "Don't Turn Away" | 36 | Black Sun |
| 2007 | "Broken Hearted Soul" | 38 | |
| 2009 | "Supernova" | — | Black Sheep |
| "Crazy Little Voices" | — |