Stricken City : Rebekah Raa
Rebekah Raa is the beautiful and ethereal lead singer of Stricken City, a band she leads with best friend and guitarist Ian Pettifer. She is originally from Wales but now living on Holloway Road, which is where I find myself, in her living room, being offered a cup of tea. Rebekah is sweet and quite self-consciously charming as she sinks to the floor of her living room, allowing me to sit on the sofa, we chat about birds, poker, the band and the new Stricken City mini album, among other things.
“I had a student loan and I brought a guitar and a twelve track recorder and I was like, ‘Right, I can’t play any of these things but I’m gonna learn!’ And I did.”
Few bands have been formed upon such a simple notion but unfortunately not everything has been so easy for Rebekah Raa and Stricken City. Since forming properly five years ago, the band has been through quite a
number of members. “We’ve had
maybe four bassists and five drummers over the years,” ponders Rebekah, “I don’t think it’s because they hated us or didn’t like the music, but it’s tricky
because we don’t make any money so everyone’s gotta work. It gets to the point where it’s like, ‘Well, we need to do this but everyone’s got to work.’ So it’s like, ‘Arrrgh, what are we gonna do?’” However, the bands current
line-up, which includes Mike Hyland on bass and Kit Godfrey on drums, has now been together for about two years and Rebekah is confident they have found the right balance. “Mike’s been in it for about a year and Kit’s been in it for about two years, I think Mike and Kit are very much like, ‘We’re in a band now, this is it!’”
It’s not just the band that has
suffered with bad luck when it comes to jobs, Rebekah herself studied fashion at the London College of Fashion
before interning at Alexander
McQueen. Although she found her time there rewarding, it ultimately left her disillusioned with the fashion
industry. “I got a bit fed up of it because the whole industry’s difficult to get into. The people working there had been there for nine months for free and it was like, ‘You’ve graduated, you’ve been working here for nine months for free, what the hell are you doing?! You’re never going to get a job here, they have only got one job every year. It’s ridiculous.”
