We had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Rob Rich, vocalist and guitarist of Philadelphia local band, Rich People, about their new EP “Grace Session”.
How would you describe the writing process for “Grace Session”?
“The writing process was interesting. I wanted to cover the entire writing process so I wrote a book, I just got the physical copies in the mail. It’s pretty crazy. I started writing a blog when we started Rich People as an outlet for me and it’s funny because I didn’t expect people to really follow it or get into it, and then through the past two years every time I’m at a show someone comes up and goes ‘I’ve seen your blog, that one thing you wrote or this or that helped me’. I’m a recovering drug addict so I’m really transparent about that, and just life struggles, post drug-addiction type thing. I just blog about my experience with life. That’s grown and people have encouraged me to write more. I didn’t come into this process with a bunch of self-esteem about writing, I don’t see myself as a writer or anything. When we recorded “Grace Session”, I thought ‘I’m gonna write a book because I have so much to say about this that just won’t fit in liner notes’. It took nine months; I just didn’t write anything on it and then we got a new manager and I said something about a book and he goes ‘yea, you’re allowed to write a book’ and I was like “sick, I’ll write a book!’. It’s 40 pages, it took 5 hours, just life experience. Now it’s literally in my hand and I’m like “oh yea I’m allowed to write a book.”
“The actual writing process was just typical band stuff, ya know? A lot of it I wrote when I was still working at a shipyard, I used to be a welder. I would do that for 10 hours a day and I’d just zone out and hum melodies and then I’d go home and strum it on guitar. Usually while I was at work I’d write the lyrics and whatever would come to me at a certain time I’d write it down in my iPhone notes. I’d bring it to practice and we’d jam out a part on that for 15 minutes and get an actual feel for it and then piece together songs.”
“The songs usually start with me and then they get fleshed out with the guys. The intention was a single and that was Fierce Grace two years ago and then we were like “oh let’s just do three” because we were gonna go up to the studio anyway. And then out of nowhere we wrote interludes and stuff while we were out there.”
Some songs on the EP have been in the writing process for a while, stemming from Rob’s previous band, “Tight Lungs”.
How did Rich People begin after you left your previous band?
“I left Tight Lungs after we released our first full length and after that weekend I got my own storage unit and started writing for Rich People. Our first album, “Jacob’s Ladder”, I wrote primarily alone. It’s a 10 song LP and then about 9 months into the process I got Ty and he brought them to life with drums. We got Con to play bass, it was a natural choice, I really like that dude. I just knew he was a perfect fit and he has a great attitude and he’s a great bassist. Blake is the lead guitarist, we met up, and thank God, he does everything for us. He’s an amazing guitarist, he’s just the best.”
“The interludes that are around the song “Common Sound” are actually from my old band, Tight Lungs. “Common Sound” is about my friend. We were the main writers in Tight Lungs for four years and he’s schizophrenic and he’s just gone through a lot the past couple years; he’s struggled to accept that we all still love him. I was really just trying to write a song to publicly validate “no dude, I love you, here it is”.
“All The Real Girls’, the song before Common Sound that’s a song my friend wrote when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and it’s a song about him not wanting to lose his mind. I thought that was appropriate to put before “Common Sound” because it was a song I wrote with them. Different things about that are relevant to me at different times.”
Favorite song on the album?
“My personal favorite is “Safehull”. I think it has more dynamic than most of the stuff we’ve written; I like that the intro is ambient. When we write we probably come off as a pretty heavy band which is cool, I like that excitement. It’s way more mild and pretty and light and I think that in “Safehull”, the intro really reflects that. We just try to have a more ambient and fluent sound, that’s the direction that we’re moving towards. We’ll always have the loudness. We’ve been using keys and organs and some light synth stuff to kind of add to the dynamic and have more of that quiet, ambient stuff. I got to sing different than I usually sing when I wrote it. I like songs that go from three four to four four.”
During our chat, Rob couldn’t pinpoint which song was his favorite to write, but he did include which was the weirdest writing experience
“Most of the songs are usually written in times of distress, a lot of contrast. I have a funny experience that I forgot to write about in the book:
I was writing “Safehull” and I quit the shipyard about two summers ago, and I thought I was gonna be an Uber driver and run around, tour, have fun. I moved into this basement apartment in Fish Town and as soon as I moved in, there was a gas leak in the basement and I didn’t know about it for about a month. The person who owned the house went to France for a month and when she got home she couldn’t get off the couch and she didn’t think it was jetlag. All throughout that month, I was feeling really sick and I couldn’t get out of bed or function and I thought it was cause I quit my job and I was miserable and depressed; I didn’t know what was going on. She called someone in to look because she thought maybe it was problems with the dryer or the air conditioner. Turns out the exhausts from both of those were going into the basement and the guy said ‘there’s carbon monoxide down here, if you’ve got anybody living down here, they gotta clear out.’ That was not ideal and I’m just glad I’m alive but during that time was when I wrote “Safehull” so it’s interesting. I would’ve never looked into really any of it. I’m glad she came home.”
Rob is extremely open about his life as a recovering addict, writing a blog about it and being fully transparent about his experiences through Rich People’s music and his book.
Do you feel comfortable touring seeing as there is such a huge party scene associated with it?
“It’s interesting because every experience is different. Each tour is different, I think I can keep up my recovery in a physical meeting aspect. Typically going out with my band and touring and doing DIY stuff, yea people use drugs, people drink a lot, it’s part of the lifestyle, whatever. My main thing is remembering who I am when I’m out; I’m not above anybody. I know me, I know that it’s not conducive to my lifestyle. I typically gravitate towards people who also have no interest with that and just get into deep conversations so it’s cool.”
“It’s a weird thing. I just don’t wanna live a life where I don’t run around and play music and that’s something I learned through recovery is definitely that the creative outlets are some of the most important things in life and the rest are just gonna figure themselves out around it so I don’t wanna hide, I don’t wanna live in a bubble, that’s not what I got clean to do. That’s not living a life that’s just surviving. I wanna expand and I wanna live a life, and I wanna live it safely. I just wanna do it.”
So what’s next?
“We’ve been touring for the past year and a half. We went on a three week tour in August, we’ve done a one week tour every month since then. We just keep going on week runs. Last year we did a two week run and then a couple six day things. All southeast, midwest, and Canada a couple months ago. Doing as much as we can. We’ve got a lot more coming up so I’m excited to be more consistent with that. We just run around, trying to get our name out there. We’re gonna go out for a bit in May-June. We have things coming up in August, so in August there will more”
Call me biased, but Rich People are going places. Make sure to check out “Grace Session” on all major streaming sites and be sure to catch the guys on their upcoming tour with The Insides this April!