Courtesy Jake Mulka
Audio By Carbonatix
Joe Hertler is cheery and easy to talk to. The frontman of genre-bending band the Rainbow Seekers openly chats about his music and writing process, which sometimes requires long weekends holed up in a cabin somewhere in the Michigan woods. He answers each question thoughtfully and even adds in a little self-deprecation throughout our talk, and when it comes to his lyrics, he’s not afraid to broach deeper, philosophical topics. At one point he mentions the immortality of elves, creatures unburdened by age and the passage of time, in The Lord of the Rings.
“Elves live forever, and they get stuff done. If you were to give humans an infinite life to live, what would we do when all of a sudden we have a lot of time, which is our most scarce and valuable commodity?” he ponders before answering the question himself. “I think it would just go to waste, but the point is that we just have so many years on Earth. You have to get stuff done; you have to live a decent life. I’ve always been one of those people who think that the end is right around the corner. Not in a bad way at all; it’s not something I fear or worry about. But [if] the band can end tomorrow, I’d better write some good songs. I’ve always had that mindset in everything that I’ve done.”
That may seem more emo than anything, but the group’s music is light and uplifting, a mix of hip-hop, folk, indie rock and jam. Or as Hertler breaks it down, “It’s more funk-disco-psychedelic-pop with “a ’90s rock band underneath it all.”
“We do jump genres. It’s sort of a mix of Death Cab for Cutie, Jamiroquai and maybe throw a little bit of Dave Matthews and Flaming Lips,” he adds.
While Hertler has never “shied away from heavy topics” lyrically, he says the Rainbow Seekers like to toast the good times more often than not.
The band will be doing just that when Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers play Meow Wolf on Wednesday, March 29, with opener Bombargo.
“I think the vibe of the band is something that’s intended to be celebratory, like an underlining philosophy that life is hard, and we all have our own private melancholy, but things are certainly worth celebrating,” Hertler explains.
For example, the six-piece’s recent single, “The Last Ovation,” was partly inspired by the late Formula One racer Francois Cevert, who was a highly decorated driver, but pushed past his prime and tragically died in a crash at the Watkins Glen track in 1973.
“It’s about stepping down from one’s identity. I watched both my dad and my stepdad struggle with retirement, when your job is your everything. Someday I’ll play my last show, you know?” he says about the song. “It’s the brevity of things that make them worthwhile, and being able to find the romanticism and magic of impermanence.”
A compulsive journaler, Hertler simply writes about what’s on his mind, but bringing his words to the band to create a tune is when the real alchemy happens.
“As far as lyrical content goes, I wish I could give you a good answer. Lyrics just kind of come. … I’m always just writing stuff down sort of obsessively,” he explains. “Songs, at the end of the day – you’re just gathering experiences and feelings, and all of a sudden there’s a harmonic progression or a certain vibe to a song. Being a multi-genre band, I always find that the different genres offer a different way to say different things.”
Hertler says the downtime over the last few years allowed him to focus even more on writing, which included approximately forty new songs that went into the mixing pot for an upcoming album. “I don’t think I ever had a creative spree like that,” he adds. “Creatively, it was a very liberating time for how confined we were.”
Listening to Hertler explain how his songs come together is like hearing an artist explain how a certain image broke loose from the end of their paintbrush and formed on a blank canvas. It’s almost impossible for him to put it into words, but it’s poetic, nonetheless.
“Sometimes the song just falls on the page. I like to see it as little gifts from the universe,” he says. “I love writing, and I just pull ideas. I’m a little bit more deliberate and slow-paced these days, quicker to revise things, which I like. I love that process.”
He goes on to say that a song is usually a combination of up to five songs that he whittles down through revision and feedback from bandmates and friends.
“I’ll write these songs in patches. Conceptually, they’ll be very similar. Sometimes they’ll even share a line. I’ll plagiarize from this pool of songs, and it always seems to funnel into one master song, if you want to call it that,” he explains. “It’s a sacred process in its own way. It’s not something that I have much control over, but every now and then you get lucky and stumble onto a song. You write a lot of crap in that process, too.”
Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers, 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, Meow Wolf, 1338 First Street. Tickets are $20.
