Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Range Life

Range Life is the project from New Jersey musician Mike Chiarappa. Best known as a member of The Stolen, Mike is stepping out on his own with a collection of lo-fi tracks that he performed, mixed, and wrote. Pop Culturalist caught up with Mike to learn more about this exciting chapter, his newest single “2001,” and the story behind how he came up with Range Life.

PC: How did you come up with the name Range Life?
Range Life: [laughs] A lot of people have been commenting on the name. I will say, it is a bit weird. I’ve gotten so many jokes from my friends—they say it sounds like a golfing Instagram page. [laughs] It’s actually from a Pavement song, a nineties band that I like a lot. I was jamming to one of their songs for the whole summer, which is called “Range Life”. It was my mood at the time. I’d put that song on every day, and I thought it could work for a band name. You know me, I don’t take myself too seriously. I was like this is a funny name…I’ll use it.

PC: You’ve been part of The Stolen for over a decade. What is it like stepping out on your own? What’s been the biggest lesson you learned as part of the band that you’ve now been able to apply to this new chapter in your career?
Range Life: It’s pretty crazy, you know. The Stolen is still an existing band. We all love each other. But I had these songs that didn’t particular work with The Stolen; that’s why I started this project. I was like, “Well, I’m going to put these out under something else.” It’s completely different. I love working with those guys.

For this project, I had to come up with the bass part. I had to come up with the guitar part. I challenged myself as a musician. I knew I wanted to record everything myself. You know, Rob, my brother does that for a living, and he’s killing it. I knew I wanted to do this myself. I wanted to play every instrument. It was a big challenge.

I’ve learned a lot from my band mates, especially with songwriting. I guess that helps musically. I can always learn something from Rob, Dom, and Kevin. But if anything, this project has been harder. It’s a lot easier when I’m the drummer in the band and I just come up with the drum part—with this project, I’m doing it all.

PC: That’s a great answer. You just dropped your debut single as part of this project. Tell us about “Runaway” and the inspiration behind the song.
Range Life: As time goes on, you see people that you went to school with grow and change, and do the nine-to-five. You look around and you realize things are changing, but you want to keep that feeling you had when you were eighteen going on tour. It’s that freeing feeling that nothing really matters. The song is about not losing who you are as you grow up; it’s about keeping that innocence.

PC: With this being your debut single, what was the process selecting what would be your musical introduction for this project?
Range Life: That’s a great question. All my other songs are a bit more lo-fi and a bit more raw. This was the most palatable song on the record. It’s easy listening, not to say that the other stuff isn’t. It’s just the way that the EP flows; it’s what makes the most sense. A lot of people like to release their best song first. I like each song to build on the next.

PC: Tell us about your new single, “2001.” What was the inspiration behind the song?
Range Life: “2001” is about a married couple that got divorced because of an alcoholic husband. The story line is pretty straight forward. I like to write about other people’s lives. Whenever I think my life sucks, I realize that others are going through their own situations. It makes me realize that I should stop complaining. [laughs]

PC: What can fans expect from the EP?
Range Life: It’s just realness. There’s nothing that I’m trying to be; there’s no genre that I’m trying to fit into. These are freeform songs that I have. I was writing these songs as I was feeling them in the moment, like most artists. I tried to keep the production raw. I wanted it to be an old school, nineties feel. You know, records where the drums aren’t perfectly edited in time, the guitar isn’t cut in and out. I basically did everything in one take. That sounds like it was easy to do, but it wasn’t because it’s hard to get the right tone in one take.

Performance wise, I was never a singer or guitar player—I’m a drummer—so getting these all perfect in one take was definitely tricky. That’s what’s so cool about it. I don’t see a lot of modern artists doing raw production. I hope we start seeing more of that. I know in the DIY scene, we’re totally seeing that in Jersey, like bands making their own records. There’s something to be said about raw production, not that I don’t love super polished production. There’s just something genuine about it.

PC: You performed, mixed, recorded, and wrote the EP by yourself. Of all those different aspects, which was the most challenging?
Range Life: I would say a tie between recording and singing. I’ve only really sung in my bedroom. When I recorded, I didn’t want to use autotune or anything like that—it would defeat the purpose of what I was trying to do. Getting the singing right was definitely a challenge. With recording, even though it’s raw, there are rules that you have to follow. They usually say you can break the rules once, but I didn’t really know the rules going into this. [Laughs]

With the EP done, I feel way more confident. I was trying to figure out the right tones, where you should be putting your EQ, mics, and instruments. I was annoying my brother like every day. I would be like, “Hey, this sounds really bad. Like what do I do to make this sound better?” He usually had the answer. Thank god for Rob. [laughs]

PC: What’s the biggest lesson you learned putting this EP together?
Range Life: That’s another great question. For a while, I was questioning whether or not I should put this out. It was less about whether people would like it and more about feeling exposed. I don’t like feeling exposed. I felt good about these songs. I worked hard on them and I was like, “They can’t be only for me to hear.” I hope that people like them and so far, they’ve been responsive to it. They’ve said a lot of nice things. That’s what I hope for because it would be selfish to be like, “No one else can hear these.” Music is completely subjective. For anyone who’s an aspiring musician or wants to work on a project, just do it. If that’s how you feel, put it out!

Second, I would say being an all-around musician, playing other instruments is challenging. I knew how to play the bass a bit, but I didn’t know how to take a bass fill or do a guitar solo. I thought it would be a bit easier than it actually was.

PC: Do you think in a post COVID world where you can tour again, you’ll hit the road as a solo artist?
Range Life: Possibly. I really don’t have an exact direction right now with what my plan is with the project. People have been way more responsive than I thought, which is great. So, I mean, I’m totally going to play shows, and it looks like people want to hear it in other states. Yeah, why not? I’ll definitely do a tour, that would be fun.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: First album you bought?
Range Life: ACDC’s Highway to Hell.

PC: First concert you attended?
Range Life: My dad was always taking me to concerts that I didn’t care about it as a kid, so I don’t even remember. I was way too young, but I would say maybe Kiss.

PC: An album that changed your life and why?
Range Life: I’m not sure I have an album that’s changed my life. There have been songs that really hit for me—certain songs that hit depending on the state of mind I’m in. If I’m really emo, maybe I’ll listen to an emo song that hits hard. Like I was saying earlier, “Range Life” was my summer jam. I put it on my car, rolled down my window, and smoked a cigarette. I was just vibing. I can’t say there was a record that changed my life, though.

PC: A venue on your bucket list to perform at?
Range Life: I like holes in the wall venues. When we did the Jake Miller tour, there was a nice venue in San Francisco. It was an old school venue with sculptures, crazy paintings.

PC: A must-have on the road?
Range Life: Dunkin.

To keep up with Mike, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Photo Credit: Benjamin Lieber