A conversation with Ra Ra Riot bassist Mat Santos

Indie rock band Ra Ra Riot will be opening for David Guetta at Spring Fling on April 11. The Daily Pennsylvanian had a conversation with bassist Mat Santos about his experience and Ra Ra Riot’s musical evolution.

Daily Pennsylvanian: How did the band come together?

Mat Santos: We were students at Syracuse University. It was last semester, and Milo, our guitar player, just really wanted to start a band, so he started getting people together. It was kind of funny because none of us were friends before the band started, which I think is kind of unusual. Milo just did some networking. He knew that I played the bass and that Becca played violin, and he asked her if she knew any cellists. We all just met at the first practice. It was just supposed to be something to do for that semester, but we ended up having so much fun that first semester that we were like, “Oh, let’s go on tour this summer!” It just sort of picked up steam, and now it’s been eight years.

DP: So you guys have become friends since then, right?

MS: Yeah, we’re more like family, probably.

DP: How would you describe Ra Ra Riot’s current sound?

MS: It’s kind of hard to say. When I listen back to the recordings we’ve made, it’s easy for me to pick out little things. To me it’s totally a collaboration, just a mix of what each of us are into individually at the time. It’s hard to say, but I think we all have pretty different tastes, but we overlap in that we all like ‘80s pop — classic rock and classic pop — we all grew up with our parents listening to it. We all have an ‘80s vocabulary.

DP: Ra Ra Riot is known for incorporating orchestral instruments into its music. Where did that come from?

MS: I think that was part of Milo’s idea when he was first putting the band together. He had this big idea where he just wanted a whole bunch of different instruments in the room together. I think he was probably influenced at the time by Broken Social Scene or Arcade Fire. I think it was a goal of his to get a violinist and a cellist involved just to have different themes to work with.

DP: It’s been said that Ra Ra Riot’s sound underwent a shift between “Beta Love” and the previous album. Was that a conscious change?

MS: I think all bands change over the years naturally — you know, the people change and their interests and inspirations change. So I definitely feel like it was natural. I don’t want to say it was a conscious decision, but I think we knew going into it that it [“Beta Love”] was going to be pretty different because our original cellist had just left the band. We’ve undergone some lineup changes over the years, and that was the first time we were going to be recording as four original members [instead of five] ... we were all interested individually in branching out and doing different things. We all added more keyboard, we were writing more ambitious songs with more harmonies and stuff. So I think having the lineup change right before we started working on the record helped us let go a little bit and just sort of go for it.

DP: Who are your musical influences?

MS: It’s kind of funny — we’ve been on a little bit of a break recently, so everyone’s kind of been off doing their own thing and getting into different things probably, so it’s hard to say how that’s going to translate into the next record. I personally have been listening to a lot of fusion jazz — Weather Report type of stuff and a little bit very recently of Chet Atkins. I saw Sting and Paul Simon a couple weeks ago in New York City, so I’ve been revisiting some of my favorite Paul Simon and Police records. It’s always a whole bunch of stuff.

DP: Ra Ra Riot toured South Asia last year — how did that differ from performing at American venues?

MS: We did a couple tours there last year, most recently in November. It’s always such a blast and so much fun. In parts of Asia, they get particularly excited when an American band comes through. The crowds really react and get excited — it’s like we’re coming all the way over to their hemisphere to play music. It was really fun ... we got to meet a lot of people after the shows. Everyone was super gracious and thankful and really excited that we were playing there.

Also a funny tidbit: I feel like in Asia — but particularly in Japan — while you’re playing the crowd is really, really quiet. The first couple of times we played there it threw us off a little bit because it was hard to read, and it seemed like people weren’t into it at all. But they’re just really paying attention to the technical aspect of the band, and they want to see how each person is playing their instrument. It’s pretty much dead silent until the last note of the song is rung out, and then they’ll start clapping. They’re very respectful of the whole performance in general.

DP: What’s your favorite concert memory?

MS: There have been too many to name. I guess this past summer we played in Boston ... While we were playing there was a guy dancing very, very enthusiastically on the side of the stage while we were playing. He had some strange dance moves. The entire crowd could see him and they all started copying him, and so the whole last half of the set turned into this huge, crazy synchronized dance thing. It was just wild to see from the stage — I thought it was like a flash mob or something. The crowd really got into it, and everyone was having a lot of fun.

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