Joel Rakes

Joel Rakes (born February 16, 1986) is an American singer-songwriter and musician based in Nashville, Tennessee. Rakes first began releasing his music independently on his own, starting with 2005 release Third Person Present Tense. His 2008 sophomore release was entitled A Sudden Change in the Atmosphere.^[1] Rakes' most recent production, The Philadelphia Session live EP, was released on February 16, 2010.^[2]

According to sleeve notes, The Philadelphia Session was recorded at Range Recording Studios in Ardmore, PA. It was recorded on August 16, 2009 over the course of only five hours. This was accomplished by tracking all six musicians live in studio.

Rakes has a very original twist to his music. This can be seen on A Sudden Change in the Atmosphere, where he puts to use his full repertoire of instrumentation and his vocal capabilities. Some of his earlier lo-fi demos featuring just his guitar and vocals speak just as clearly and show his talent just as well as full-band studio recordings. Rakes has released very well-accepted free Christmas songs on his website in recent years.^[3]

Early life

Rakes was born 16 February 1986 in the United States. He grew up in Plano, Texas and Dover, Delaware, and graduated from high school in 2004.

A multi-instrumentalist, Rakes is well known for playing Taylor acoustic guitars, but he also plays banjo, piano, and several other instruments. He plays all of these on his albums through the use of multitrack recording. In The Philadelphia Session and A Sudden Change in the Atmosphere, Rakes utilizes various other sound effects and musicians.

While attending the University of Delaware, Rakes studied marketing. He graduated in 2008 and moved to the city of Philadelphia. He currently resides in East Nashville. It was during his college years that he really came into his own as a songwriter and performer.

Influences

Rakes cites influences as being Sufjan Stevens, Denison Witmer, Dave Barnes, Aaron Roche, David Mead, David Bazan, and Derek Webb.^[4]

Career

Rakes, May 2008.

Rakes began his musical career early in life. His father is Pastor of Worship at Grace Church in Dover, Delaware;^[5] he composes and performs contemporary Christian worship music. Rakes' sister is a private voice teacher. Music has always been an important part of Rakes' life, and in 1999 Joel started to play guitar.

While in school at University of Delaware, Rakes wrote and recorded many songs. He frequently performed live shows at coffeehouses, festivals, and local bars. His time at UD culminated with the release of his album, A Sudden Change in the Atmosphere, which was released independently. He collaborated with Jenny & Tyler for some of the lyrics on this album.

In 2008, he moved to Philadelphia. During his time in Philadelphia, he performed with accompanying musicians at many of the top-tier city music venues including World Cafe Live, the Tin Angel, Burlap & Bean, Connies Ric Rac and Milk Boy Coffee. In August 2009 he began work on a new EP which was recorded live with a full-band in a one-day marathon recording session.

2009 brought Rakes to East Nashville, Tennessee, where he currently works, lives, records, and performs.

Guitars

Rakes currently records and performs with his Taylor 310ce and 614ce models. He also owns a Grestch Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitar

Festive Mood Inducing Music

For the past four years, Rakes has given away free recordings of Christmas music in December. A week or so before Christmas in 2006, he posted some simple recordings of himself playing Christmas carols. He posted a song a day for 5 days, leading up to Christmas Day. These five songs were festive.mood.inducing.music.volume.1. In 2007, Rakes posted a new song once each week before Christmas, starting on Sunday, November 25. festive.mood.inducing.music.volume.2 featured better quality recordings along with more tracks being added to each song.^[6] In 2008, He released festive.mood.inducing.music.volume.3 which featured even more elaborate arrangements and increased exposure from the blogosphere.

2009 brought about festive.mood.inducing.music.volume.4, which was received very well online. Rakes' download server received thousands of downloads throughout December. New recordings were released weekly, and past years' recordings were also available for download.

Young Life

Joel has a long running history of involvement with the youth organization Young Life. During the summer of 2008 and 2009, Joel was the special guest musician at Southwind Young Life camp in Florida.

Spiritual Themes

Rakes' faith has been ever-present in his song writing process. While his songs are not always specifically about faith, his works have an underlying theme of hope, grace, and Love.

Discography

The Philadelphia Session EP

Release Date: February 16, 2010
Length: 25:52
"Recorded live in only five hours." Done at Range Recording Studios in Ardmore, PA. Features Joel Rakes on acoustic guitar and vocals, Sarah Pisano on viola, Josh Schurr on piano and background vocals, Ryan Crump on drums(!!), Jeff Scott on electric guitar and banjo, and (the extremely dislikeable) Mitchell Ebbott on bass.

A Sudden Change in the Atmosphere

Rakes with "The Dreamwreckers", May 2008.

Mike Odmark Productions
Release Date: May 21, 2008
Length: 30:02
Recorded and produced by Mike Odmark at Winter Beard Studios in Nashville, Tennessee throughout February 2008. The album demonstrates Rakes' ever-increasing sense of musical composition. It features banjo, piano, guitar, bass, drums, and a wealth of other instruments and effects. The album was released on May 21, 2008 in Newark, Delaware at the first of five CD release shows/tour dates with his one-tour band, The Dreamwreckers.

Recording session musicians included Gabe Ruschival (bass) and Jeremy Lutito (drums) of Disappointed by Candy and Jars of Clay. The album was mastered by Matt Odmark (Jars of Clay).

t.w.i.p.ep

Release Date: August 10, 2007
Label: who ganked my gnome? records
Length: 28:40
t.w.i.p.ep = the works in progress ep
This is a homemade ep with some of Rakes' demos from the Fall of 2007

Third Person Present Tense

Release Date: July 18, 2005
Label: who ganked my gnome? records
Length: 56:20
Recorded with friends in Rakes' bedroom. These songs are not often performed live anymore.

Singles

• "This Girl", 2007 - music video won a video contest hosted by the University Of Delaware media design center^[8]
• "No Mo' Ho Ho Ho", Christmas 2007 - was chosen by Sufjan Stevens as one of the top 36 songs out of 650 song entries in an original Christmas song contest^[9]

Collaborations

• Rakes played shows and recorded with roommate/bandmate Tyler Somers between 2006 and 2007.

References

External links

• Joel Rakes - official site
• www.myspace.com/joelrakes - myspace page
• www.virb.com/joelrakes - virb page
• www.joelrakes.com/blog/ - official blog