Rainbow City Park: Delivering dreamy harmonics and pop rock sound throughout the West Coast
Northern California indie band Rainbow City Park delivered dreamy harmonics and a pop-rock sound to San Luis Obispo on Oct. 14, captivating the crowd at Bang the Drum Brewery with their latest singles and covers.
“It seems like San Luis Obispo has a pretty good music scene here. It seems like there are a lot of shows and people coming through,” O’Keefe said.
Their performance was accompanied by local musicians Cate Armstrong, Ladders and Plywood Love. The group has previously played with local bands Kiwi Kannibal and Tiny Plastic Everything.
The band is composed of vocalist Danielle Judith, guitarists Chris O’Keefe and Nick Nassab, bassist Dwight Struthers and drummer Ryan Williams.
The group’s beginnings started with Craigslist ads that both O’Keefe and Struthers posted in search of other musicians. It wasn’t until O’Keefe friended Judith on Facebook, in hopes of finding a singer, that she soon became a crucial member of the band.
“We had a really, really hard time finding a singer for a long time, and now we’re blessed with Dani,” Struthers said.
Williams joined the group shortly after, followed by Nassab. The band has made rapid strides throughout the West Coast with performances and new music releases after playing together for over a year.
The band has now released six songs on Spotify, the latest being their single “Convince You.” Judith said their first three songs were recorded three weeks after the band officially formed.
Their songwriting process is a collaborative effort, with Judith’s lyrics that share her ways of finding peace and balance in an unstable world accompanying an array of melodic tones and dreamy instrumentals.
“Bringing [songs] to other people that are good musicians and viewing it in a different light adds different textures and layers that I would never think of that helps give it more character,” O’Keefe said.
With this collaborative process comes expected disputes.
“I do think we spend more time disagreeing in this band than any other project I’ve been in. It’s cool to see our influences knock against each other,” Struthers said.
Though the disagreement is birthed from each member’s different musical influences, it has only challenged the group to create an even more distinctive sound.
“We’ve spent hours just working on one measure, and I think that shows how much we all care about the music and want to make it the best it could be,” Struthers said.
Rainbow City Park is far from settling down — they plan to continue piling into O’Keefe’s minivan to perform all across Northern California. O’Keefe said they are trying to branch out from performing in their hometown and will use their weekends to perform with other bands at a variety of different places, including Davis, Sacramento, Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo.
More information about the band and their upcoming events can be found on their Instagram, @rainbowcitypark. The group’s music is available on streaming platforms.
“We potentially think you might like our music. There is a chance, take a chance on me,” Judith said.
