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I'm rachel

I'm originally from Newton Massachusetts and though I consider myself a wonderful speller (and a good friend) it just took me three tries to get my state to not have the dotted red line underneath it that tells you that you spelled it wrong.

Anyway, I sometimes get sidetracked...but I'll concentrate now so that you can learn a bit about me. I promise.

When I was 5, I wrote my first song. It was called Shady's waltz and my mom thought it was just the most terrific thing she'd ever heard and she searched until she found a wonderful piano teacher who would "nurture my creativity and help me grow without too much structure". (my mom is a lovely social worker who tends to over dramatize things. I have CERTAINLY not inherited this).

I took lessons with the lovely Rita for fifteen years and fell in love with mozart and schubert and bach and simultaneously sang in choruses and school plays and any stage i could find.

I then discovered a capella music. Though I wish I could say I had a "cooler" background, I can't deny my roots dogs. A capella was where it was at.

I loved the harmonies. I loved twisting my voice to sound like any instrument and figuring out what everyone should sing like pulling puzzle pieces out of the air. I learned to beat box at first because no one else in my group could quite get the drums sound right and I had a bunch of friends at the time who used to freestyle at parties, so I asked one of them to show me what he did with his mouth & I went home and practiced for a month till I got it down. :) When I worked with DJ Logic last year on an EP, the first I thing I asked him was to meet his friend Rahzel. Logic you sweet thing, I'm still waiting.

During college, I went to Trinidad and I got to sing with a band for the first time and I found "it". The thing you know you were put on this lovely, confusing earth to do... Sing, play piano, entertain, write songs. yum. You know how amazing that moment is when you're falling in love and the first time you realize it? How absolutely stupidly gitty you feel? Yes, good than you get it!

Nothing makes me happier than when people tell me after a show that my love for the music was contagious...

Well, if you've made it all the way down here, you're a trooper, and a great concentrator. In fact, maybe we should have tea sometime and I can ask advice about how to not get sidetracked ;)

Love,

rachel platten

OFFICIAL BIO & STUFF THAT WOULD MAKE MY MOM PROUD:

"Rachel Platten is a music industry executive's dream. She crafts songs with beautiful, memorable melodies and intelligent, moving lyrics. Then she delivers them with her compelling and powerful voice. She is an accomplished guitarist and pianist with enough stage presence to make you forget that anyone else is in the room. Rachel Platten is one of those remarkable and all-too-rare artists who remind me why I love my work." --- Bob Leone, Songwriters Hall of Fame

Rachel first grabbed the spotlight at Irving Plaza during a Toots & the Maytals concert when she jumped on stage, grabbed the mic from Toots, and stunned the crowd by beat-boxing to "Monkey Man".

* Rachel's 2004 self-released EP rose to 9 on CD Baby's Bestseller's Chart

* Rachel has performed in concert halls, festivals, and clubs alike from New York to the Caribbean (including The Cutting Room, Paradise, Rockwood, Wang Centre & Mercury Lounge); alongside artists such as Rusted Root, Ingrid Michaelson, The Strokes, Susan Tedeschi, DJ Logic (of Medeski, Martin & Project Logic)

* Her song 'She Might Be' was MP3 of the day on VH1's Best Week Ever Blog

* Rachel performed the National Anthem at the Red Sox vs. Yankee closing game on October 1, 2005, and recently at A Red Sox, Oakland A's game in Sept '07

* Selected by Songwriter Hall of Fame as a Featured writer in the New Writers Showcase

* BMI's songwriter of the Month

* Rachel spent six months in Trinidad writing and working alongside International recording artist Andre Tankard