User:Rekapse

Band breakups are never easy, but often needed and the members of Rekapse know this all too well. It was 2008 and Matt Osborn, drummer of the group, recalls the few months before joining the band. The breaking up of his former band had forced him to face the fact that his future may include career options without drumming, an intimidating, yet necessary fact. “Lying in bed each night I’d stare at the ceiling just wanting to play drums,” recalls Osborn. Fate intervened one fall evening when keyboardist David Bollmann phoned his acquaintance Osborn. In their conversation, David talked of the current drummer leaving his new forming band, Rekapse, and his need for someone able to commit. Stacie, Kelly Scott, and David (siblings), along with Stephen Lee (the four current members), auditioned Osborn later that week. As Stephen Lee sees it, “It was not quite an audition but more like the solidifying of a beginning.”

Within the next two years, Rekapse worked on honing their sound and as often as they gigged, ten times the effort was put into their own development in song writing. “Yea, we don’t often leave our practice spot” says Kelly after breaking from a writing session and stepping outside for some fresh air and sun. Virginia Beach has always been home for the band and where a dynamic collaboration between the band members’ personal musical tastes materialized.

Through a healthy blend of experimental beats, British rock influences, and a lovely female fronted voice, they seized their own alternative/rock/pop/beats sound. They reached out to friend Dave Elkins (MAE) who fell in love with their music and produced their first three song EP.

With an increasing collection of songs and a quickly growing fan base, the band started to make a name for itself. Onboard investors solidified the formation of a small Indie label and team, launching the band forward by the end of 2009. Travel to London, New York, and northern Virginia in hopes of recording their first full length record, the perfect blend of chemistry was created with the meeting of their future producer, Paul Moak, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rekapse started and completed their first album as a solid band in early 2010, in Nashville. Paul Moak (Mat Kearney, Martha Wainwright), stretched the band continuously while producing them and helped the band to use their collaborative energy to bring forth the depth of their songs. With strings composed by Sally Herbert (Florence and the Machine, Radiohead), a familiar, yet fresh, mature sound was captured. Even Stacie, lead singer and only female member of the band admits that after hearing her Neumann CMV3 recorded voice playing through the studios’ speakers, “I couldn’t have dreamed of our music sounding this good.” It was a new sound — unique, individual, and not expected from a young and upcoming band.

Since the completion of their LP which is soon to be released along came a friend now manager Brandon Stokes aka "Shaggy" who heard their music and passed it along to Grammy Award Winning Producer and Virginia Native Timbaland, who then expressed an interest in them and has followed through with remixing/recreating one of their songs entitled “Anybody” (a future release). They have also done a couple more songs with Timbaland which will be featured on Timbaland's new album Shock Value III due out later this Fall.

Eager and ready to tour, Rekapse has embarked on bringing their sound and their new single “Daylight” to radio. Their full length record is due to be released this year and they are slated to do cameo appearances on other artists’ songs. “To dream bigger. To work harder. To listen better. To write purer,” are just a few of the goals Kelly says help keep this band together and honest with each other.

Behind the scenes, Rekapse band members will admit they’ve had their share of sweat and frustration just to get this far, but they know it is part of the process — and they welcome it! “We’re ready,” David mentions as the common phrase repeated by each of them to keep the ball rolling. Knowing that through the ups and downs of the notoriously ever changing entertainment industry, when their “break” happens, it will make their journey that much better knowing they never gave up.