The Rainbow Arabia Connection

By Erin Lyndal Martin
Published: August 18th, 2009 | 7:00am

"Right now, with the Internet and the world being smaller and closer together, everyone's getting influenced by other sounds — and it should be a good thing!" Danny Preston of Rainbow Arabia says while speaking about the group’s recent EP, Kabukimono (Manimal). To save you a Google, a kabukimono is a Japanese person who dresses in wild, brightly colored clothing. The phrase is also an apt title for this album; both because of the music's brightness, and because it's more than fitting that an American band inspired by Middle Eastern music should choose a Japanese title, as well as a Japanese artist for all of the album's artwork.

When asked if Rainbow Arabia has been facing accusations of musical imperialism (à la the Vampire Weekend backlash), Danny says that most people have been reacting positively to the band's solid fusion of their many, and often far-reaching, influences. Though, he also admits the band hasn't yet garnered enough of a profile to be in the public eye as often. "We haven't been getting that much of that. I don't agree with that. I think it's ridiculous, like, what, people can't share music?” he asks. “How do you exploit it anyway? Maybe if it's done really commercially, I can see how that can be — like if a company is doing an advertising campaign. But that's different than just people making creative music."

Danny’s passion for making creative music is clear, as is his passion for exploring a whole planet's worth of it. He credits the record label Sublime Frequencies as well as Omar Souleyman with helping inspire Rainbow Arabia's first release, The Basta (Manimal), as well as inspiring the whole Rainbow Arabia aesthetic — if a singular aesthetic can be claimed. “When Sublime Frequencies came out with Omar Souleyman, which is actually not really a comp because it's all Omar Souleyman. It was just so punk.” Danny says. “There are keyboard sounds, and there are beats, and it was really lo-fi-sounding, and it really inspired The Basta. Of course it went into another “Tiffany” side … where her way of singing and her guitar influences brought it to another type of sound."

On the subject of vocalist-guitarist (and wife) Tiffany Preston's guitar influences, Danny laughs. "Tiffany comes from a speed metal background. She loves Metallica and Megadeath, and when she was younger, she made a lot of dark music. We both love Joy Division and Bauhaus." While these influences are far from obvious on Kabukimono, there are glimpses of music that was clearly inspired by Factory Records’ bands, like Joy Division.

If the Prestons didn't have influences to collage into their music, they had producer Butchy Fuego (Pit Er Pat) to add vision to the project. "We worked really close together because we wanted to be really progressive and go another level. All my beats are generated by these ethnic percussion drum machines that I use. He really pushed us to hearing other sounds, especially in our beats," says Danny of working with Fuego.

Rainbow Arabia is currently hard at work on their next release, a full-length album that will also be produced by Fuego. In the meantime, Danny encourages listeners to see the band live before forming opinions, saying that Rainbow Arabia's live show is much fuller and deeper than the recording displays. "It's hard to capture things recorded. It really is."

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Rainbow Arabia MySpace

Rainbow Arabia blog

Manimal Vinyl Records

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indiepitkristin (over 2 years)
check out some of their music and pictures here : http://blog.indiepit.com/2009/08/05/the-rising-rainbow-arabia/ awesome.