#risingartist We chatted with Rachel Bobbit on her adventure touring and her new album
As the snow starts to fall down in the city of Pontiac, with a warm welcome from Rachel Bobbit. Rachel at the time of this article has finished her tour with Mat Kerekes and took the time to chat with us about her new album The Ceiling Could Collapse as well as what’s it like to be on tour with Mat.
With the American version of Thanksgiving this week, we asked what’s one big thing you’re Thankful for this year on this tour?
I’m thankful for a lot of the people I’ve met. I feel like it’s been really, not surprising that everyone I've met has been so nice, but like, especially as an opener for the second leg of the tour with You don't necessarily expect the musicians to go out of their way to like be really welcoming and warm and like open and like I would've been totally fine if they just did their own thing and kinda kept themselves. But everyone we've met has just been so kind and just, I feel like we've learned a lot and they're just so fun to hang out with.
With such a warm welcome. has there been any fun pranks or fun moments with the other musicians?
Ooh, that's a really good question. feel like. I don't know. We all have our own little personalities that come out when we're touring. Cause I feel like touring definitely like pushes like you see the full range of human emotion from your friends when you're touring. For sure. So like, I think we all have our little quirky habits that you get to see and um, you know, things like that. But nobody's pranked anyone yet.
you're on tour and you have a new album out. Let's talk about it. Like how did you come up with the
title?
I was looking up the script to the movie Hereditary. I just really like that movie and I came across somewhere online, someone saying, that the script had a deleted scenes in it.
And I was like, I wanna that, I wanna read all these deleted scenes. And then there was a section of the script that was a deleted scene that was the dad talking to, his wife, the mother who had just lost someone in her family. And she was kind of saying like, well, what if we didn't do this? And then they would still be here if we didn't do that.
You know, they would've survived. And, then the dad kind of said something like, you know, the ceiling could collapse and none of us could stop it. And it was, I just liked the phrasing of it. I liked the alliteration of the ceiling that could collapse. And, um, I liked the dual meaning of like the ceiling could.
So you just have to let go and like enjoy the now. And also it can be kind of like a darker meaning of like the ceiling could collapse and the floor, the rug can be pulled out kinda thing.
So of course we had to ask about the lasted A24 film Pearl.
I love that movie. I wasn't as big of a fan, of x like the first part of it, but I loved Pearl. I thought it was perfect, like five outta five movie for me. Just the acting alone is like so crazy and I love it.
Back to the album, we are so curious about the feel of the album. What were some of the inspirations for this album
I was definitely listening to a lot of like The National and was really inspired by their like thematic kind of landscapes that they have in their songs. Yeah. Like a lot of strings and slow builds and stuff like that. Oh and a lot of, like Jeff Tweety, and his lyrics are really amazing. So yeah, I think it was more like I just collected this group of songs, and then I think looking back, it's easier for me to like lump them into a category, but at the time I wasn't really necessarily thinking of that at the in the torefront the writing process.
we mention one of our favorites was the song “Watch and See” and wanted to know a little more about that song.
Yeah, that song, it was like one of the last songs I wrote for the project and I was probably the least sure about it. Cause I feel like it was the most outta my comfort zone at the time. Yeah, it was just, it felt a bit more like, Loud that I usually go, especially for recorded stuff. I kind of just wrote it about like dissociative moments in that I've had in the past and like feeling really kind of anxiously out of body while trying to like, enjoy days at the beach or like hanging out with friends and stuff like that. So, um, lyrically it's pretty word paint, which I also don't usually do. So I think it was like a stretch for me, but it felt exciting.
Of course, no matter the artist. If you mention a zodiac sign in your album we need to know why. For curiosity's sake. Lucky for us, the song Gemini Ties has a sweet meaning.
that song, um, is actually about me and my twin brother. And were born in like June babies, So it just kind of worked and I liked the. Of it, like cute kinda rhyme. We were both born on the sixth day of the sixth month. And I was six pounds. Six ounces at six o'clock.
At this point in our interview, we brought a few conversation cards for a more interesting quirk of Rachel Bobbit.
What would you like to experience again for the first time?
Experience reading. My favorite book is Watership Down. It's like a book about a Warren rabbit having to flee their home and like the fight war and it's like pretty violent, but it's like a kid's book, but there's a lot you can take away from it.
I think every different stage of your life. And I read it the first time when I was in like, like, Four. And then I read it in grade seven. And then I read it in high school. And then I recently reread it. And like every time I felt like I just have this whole different takeaway from it. Like when I was really little, it was like just a cute story about bunnies that I didn't really understand.
And then when I was in like high school, it was like very political, was like the kind of meeting I was, um, painting over it. And then I think now in my life, I'm just appreciating a lot of the like, um, Phrasing that the author uses and things like that. I think I would read that for the first time, cuz I've read it so many times now that I can't, like distance myself from it. It’s why I have a tatto of rabbits
If you were to press shuffle on your music library right now, what would be the first song that would pop on? Which Rachel quickly pops on to her phone pressing shuffle on her playlist.
We Could Be Looking For The Same Thing by the Silver Jews
What scares you more than it should?
Oh, there are so many different ways you could answer that one. I do spend a lot of time worrying about being misunderstood and I think, I guess like a lot of that's very common, like a lot of people worry about that, but I think especially like creating things, I think I worry a lot about people not understanding where I'm coming from, even if they get something really different from a song, meaning-wise, it's not even that. It's like I worry that they'll read something negative or that there's a bad intention from me or something. Yeah. I guess it's just anxiety that people will think I'm a bad person. So, it is something that I think my brain wants to like control how other people perceive me.
More about The Ceiling Could Collapse
The Ceiling Could Collapse, which Bobbitt co-produced with Justice Der and was mixed by GRAMMY-nominee Jorge Elbrecht, centers on the cycles of life and how we find meaning in extremes: pain, joy, wonder, love. The result is a remarkable collection of songs that introduces a striking new talent. The singles “More,” “Watch and See,” “What About The Kids” and “Gemini Ties," showcase Bobbitt’s songwriting prowess, a skill that Bobbitt has been honing for a long time. She made a name for herself on Vine as a teenager, uploading covers of pop hits and all-time classics to the now-defunct social media site. As her profile rose, Bobbitt found herself overwhelmed rather than inspired. “It was exciting to be doing what I loved, but it was difficult to be observed by that many people at that age where I simultaneously wanted to just shut myself in,” she says. “I’m grateful it ended when it did, because it gave me time to step back and think about what I wanted to create for myself.” She soon found herself at a jazz program, before leaving it during the pandemic to focus on her own music.
“Every woman I’ve ever talked to is in some amount of pain almost all the time,” she says. “That could be physical pain, emotional pain, familial pain, but it’s there in cycles.” In addition to music, Bobbitt draws those same feelings from horror films—and actually pulled the title to this EP while reading the script to 2018’s Hereditary. A deleted scene offered a revelation: “We need to accept that we can’t have our minds fixated on all these things that could happen, and we need to move on—but also the ceiling could just collapse,” Bobbitt says and laughs. More than unpredictability, it’s the endless repetition of life that suggests both things are true, that there’s no reason to worry and something terrible is about to happen. The ceiling collapse may be inescapable, but once it’s gone, there’s just more room for the sunrise to peek through.
