Refs from the bedroom
The influences that drive Rachel Trachtenburg’s mega musical output
In the new issue of HEROINE, we profile the Bedroom Producers – eight exciting young musicians making music out of their bedrooms. Drawing inspiration from art, film, culture and fellow music-makers, they pull it all together to create their own individual output. We’re pulling out those rich references that guide these young creatives in this new series – step behind the creative process to find out how the magic happens.
At the age of nine, Rachel Trachtenburg made her TV debut on Late Night with Conan O’Brien as drummer and back-up vocalist of her family band, the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players. In the thirteen years since, the Seattle-born polymath has built a CV that reads like a 21st Century renaissance woman. Stretching a 24-hour day to its breaking point, Trachtenburg has balanced work across music, acting and modelling with her zealous passion for political and animal activism – from speaking out against New York’s Mayor Bloomberg to hosting her own culturally-engaged radio show with friend and Sunflower Bean frontwoman Julia Cumming.
Trachtenburg’s latest music project, Wooing, is a dedicated medium, and with it she’s cutting and pasting her influences to realise a grunge- psych monster that cannot be caged. Here, she takes us behind those eclectic references.
GALLERY
On Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett
“Well my mum is a huge Pink Floyd fan, I remember whenever we would tour England she’d always be really excited when we went to Cambridge and we’d see these fields of cows and she’d be like, “It looks just like Atom Heart Mother!” I think that’s kind of where my first attraction towards Syd came from and I just loved everything I heard of his from then onwards. It’s always been that kind of music I can listen to, no matter what mood I’m in, and just feel grounded. I think that his art is really inspiring and of course his story is fascinating. He was just so free and I love how child-like most of it was.”
On radio and protest
“I was at a protest against Bank of America and one of our favourite nutritionalist-slash-author-slash-guru-type-health-nerds was there, so I went up to him and I was like, “Hey, my name’s Rachel, I’m a vegetarian, I really love what you do…” and he offered me my own radio show. It was a really great experience, I got to interview a lot of really incredible people who I would’ve never spoken to otherwise. One that really sticks out in my head is Bill Ayers, who was one of the activists in The Weather Underground. That was one of the biggest moments of the show, I was like, “Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m talking to him right now.” Other than that, we did a lot on anti-fracking, health and nutrition and whatever issue was relevant and we were passionate about at the time. We were trying to get other young teens involved.”
On old classics
“If there was no music to save me I don’t know what would happen. Even listening to old classics like Let’s Live For Today by The Grass Roots can make my day so much better and hopeful, music can help me cry everything out or dry up those same tears. Don’t you agree? It saves us all.”
For more on Rachel and Wooing, check out the band’s Facebook page.
Behind the scenes with Wooing. Photography Wooing for HEROINE 5