Country music fans might know Rachel Reinert as part of the former trio, Gloriana, but Reinert is on her own these days and re-establishing herself with a brand-new career.
Following a move to Nashville as a teen, the young musician had high hopes of making it big — and while there were plenty of highs as the lead singer of Gloriana — it was not what she envisioned. Now she is starting over and moving forward with, what she says, was the plan all along.
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“Being in a band is a lot of compromise” she told PopCulture.com. “I think that you just have to put aside your own dreams. In that case for me, I had moved to town to be a solo artist and that was my intention.”
“I thought I was going to be a solo artist,” she continued, “and then I had the opportunity to be in the band.”
Gloriana formed in 2008 and put out three albums before calling it quits in 2016. It was at that point that Reinert took a leap of faith and launched a new career, for herself.
“I didn’t have any master plan or any idea of how anything would line up,” she said. “In fact I walked away from everything. I walked away from the label, team, management, income, tour bus, everything amazing that I’m working towards now.”
It’s been nothing short of an unexpected uphill battle for Reinert since making her daring decision.
“After I left, I sort of had this idea that all of these opportunities were going to come flooding in,” she explained. “I just thought that based off what I had done before that that was going to translate into my solo career”
Reinert believed that with her connections and success, the industry would jump at the opportunity to help her launch her new journey. Unfortunately, her mission has become a lot more challenging than she expected, but she is determined to move forward with grace.
The 29-year-old put out a new single titled “Dark Star” which bleeds powerful lyrics defending her transitional journey from being on top, to starting at the bottom once again. The single is different from what her fans have heard before, at least partly because it’s from a much more personal space.
“It sort of stemmed from a place of frustration just because I had been hearing a lot of things about myself, untrue things, that I had given up or that I wasn’t doing music anymore,” Reinert explained. “That was so frustrating to me because here I was making all the necessary sacrifices and putting the work in and meeting people and really putting in that effort to write the best songs I could possibly write but I was staying out of the spotlight.”
“This song was sort of my answer to defending myself by saying ‘I still have this light within me, people just haven’t seen or heard it yet,’” she added
Along with a new path, Reinert is developing a new sound as well.
“I grew up in southern California,” Reinert recalled. “My parents raised me on music from the Laurel Canyon 70’s era, so to me, my sound it kind of this California country vibe.”
In addition to her critically-acclaimed song “Cool,” “Dark Star” is one more story added to her first solo album that is currently in its final stages of completion.
For more information and to listen to “Dark Star” visit her website.
Photo Credit: Angela Talley