On Being a Hired Gun for the Killers, Lorde, and Childish Gambino

Instagram/Getty Images/Ringer illustration

From small pubs in Orange County to the stage at Coachella, Ray Suen clarifies what it’s always want to see the largest bands without being in the ring

Hello, friends, and welcome to “The Annotated Road Taken,” Episode 5. As always, what follows is both contextual and encouraging audiovisual materials to go for our conversation with the excellent Ray Suen, who has headlined Madison Square Garden, Coachella (double ) and countless stadiums and festivals around the world.

Have you never heard his name earlier? Since Ray is a so-called “hired army ”; he tickles his musical abilities for great bands that need him, while his own name doesn’t pleasure the marquee. His résumé is Full of jobs like Childish Gambino, Lorde, the Killers, the Flaming Lips, Passion Pit and, yes, even the house group on Last Call With Carson Daly, Amongst Others. It’s probable you’ve seen him play over the previous 12 years without realizing it.

This conversation was fascinating for Baio as well as me. As founding members of Vampire Weekend, our experience of touring–both the setbacks and the expansion –have been vested into a singular thing. Ray’s journey, on the other hand, is more transient, jumping from tour to tour and ring to ring, occasionally looking for stability and sometimes reveling in the diversity of his experiences. The life and livelihood of an auxiliary musician can take many forms, perhaps showcased and out front or perhaps buried away from perspective underneath the stage.

We valued Ray taking the opportunity to speak to us, shedding a light on this often overlooked aspect of touring, and sharing his story about going from acoustic Weezer covers from Clairemont Mesa, California, to headlining Coachella.

Let’so get right into it!

0:40 “Friday, I played Childish Gambino …”

We sat down with Ray between both evenings of Coachella 2019, which he headlined using Childish Gambino. During this clip in the first weekend, amid some delightful crowd interplay from Donald Glover, we watch the large visage of Ray on the huge screen. Looking great! Performing through any slot at a big, outdoor festival is really a experience. The crowd magically transforms from your normal club crowd , say, a few hundred into a sea of humanity. Headlining, that normally happens after dark if stage lights (and viewers inebriation levels) really are involved, is most likely the most potent variant of this mass encounter.

As Ray puts it,” headlining Coachella 2019 was a “closing of a significant loop” for the group, whose very first slot at the festival came from 2012 (Ray is your left-most guitarist in this clip). Both performances took place on the mainstage, and the comparison of both reveals the growth, both artistically and in crowd recognition, of Childish Gambino.

2:48 “He couldn’t create the gig, so I filled in & hellip; & rdquo and moved;

Ray’s tenure with Childish Gambino started on a fill-in date in Vancouver for a violinist that might or might not have had Canadian visa difficulties. I’m not sure if Ray (or anybody ) would have predicted that which this gig would result in on both sides, but goes the life span of a hired gun.

Ldquo 3:30 &;Donald utilized to open the show stand up rdquo & hellip; & place;

Since Donald Glover moved away from his sitcom notoriety toward a artistic existence, he utilized Childish Gambino concerts as the front line. As Ray said, lots of people showed up early on expecting Donald to “bring the humorous. ” One method of bridging either side of the divide was to start with some element of comedy before embarking about the musical area of the evening–occasionally stand-up, occasionally a prerecorded sketch, both finding comedy in what the perception of what Donald and Childish Gambino may or should be.

5:58 “I turned about and looked back and my amp has been on flame …”

In Coachella 2009, the ever-altruistic Paul McCartney apparently gifted the Killers a bunch of pyro (stage fireworks) that he hadn’t utilized during his opening-night headlining set. While Ray was unbelievably jacked up because of his first Coachella functionality –as a headliner no less–he was not jacked up enough to put his amp. This was caused by a number of the extra pyro, as observed here from the waterfall of sparks, even though it likely was still an equally scary and exhilarating feeling to triumphantly complete a functionality only to discover your equipment aflame.

7:03 “I saw her tearing up, just her and Donald playing hellip;”

Here, Ray is contrasting his very own veteran acquaintances with among the fellow bandmate’s more visceral reactions to the experience of headlining a festival. After Donald asks for it, keyboardist Lynette Williams performs “something fairly for the viewers. ” They play with an duet which makes the arctic fields of Coachella feel as romantic as a campfire. We are ’t quite see any however, Lynette is playing superbly and has some good screen time.

9:24 “I sent you guys a picture this morning …”

He did, and here it was in all of its 2008 digital camera decoration!

Courtesy Ray Suen

This really has been backstage after Vampire Weekend and the Killers played a French television show named Taratata, that was renowned because of its lush light show and incredibly clap-happy audience. This show was among VW’s before forays into Continental tv, and we all thusly gave it our all using a pay (in French! ) ) Of Plastic Bertrand’s song “Ça plane pour moi. ” The more seasoned Killers did an odd bilingual interview and smashed two tunes during their promotional run resulting in their album Day & Age. The Killers were extremely pleasant and friendly to us that afternoon (they didn’t have to be), and that run-in was heartening and uplifting to us at the time.

11:42 “I played in a pay band in an Irish bar …”

Before Ray got his first flying gig, he was playing with acoustic Weezer covers at the Blarney Stone in Clairemont Mesa, California, with the group Fever Crotch. Apparently the bar keeps its own & ldquo;laid back, acoustic nights neighborhood feel & rdquo; and still has each weekend.

14:05 “The first show I ever played Louis XIV was at Red Rocks …”

Ray’s touring truly traveling begins as violinist for the group Louis XIV as they opened for the Killers across North America. I couldn’t locate any footage in the specific show, but rsquo;s Ray learning his craft onstage and at radio channels . The motive Baio and I respond so strongly for this anecdote is how historic and daunting the venue Red Rocks is and how much whiplash that has to have triggered as Ray’s first post–Blarney Stone gig.

25:02 “I really did the entire Day & Age cycle with them …”

After a luminous pun and aftermath, Ray’s done with the Killers during their great 2008-2010 series of shows through which they went from Bogotá to Cape Town to Columbia, Maryland. This ’s a highlight from Lollapalooza in Chicago, where you are able to see a bit of backlit Ray on stage left, and here he is learning how to walk to stage at a Scottish festival.

26:23 “The very nervous I’ve ever before Saturday Night Live …”

This is becoming a common refrain on The Road Taken. For quite a few, SNL is your singularly prestigious and stressful functionality no matter if you’re a band member, hired gun, or anyone else involved. Looks like Ray and the Killers defeated so difficult that they had been asked for some in-house/off camera encores.

29:57 “In the NY Times review of the Barclays they called me out for wearing 5 Nets championships …”

When Vampire Weekend played with the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, in 2013, I needed to pay homage to my beloved and oft-beleaguered Nets. The best idea I could come up with was to walk on stage using five championships on simultaneously and cycle over the span of the show, that is, admittedly, a absurd thing to perform . But it did get me a special mention in the newspaper of listing and, you know, move Nets, #WeGoHard, etc.. Additionally shouts to Baio’so long hair and beard mix from this age. It seems great !

31:30 “I came up to the front of the stage, and frankly that was frightful …”

This I am seeing my nerves if Vampire Weekend played the song “Taxi Cab” during our Contra-era shows. On that song I played sampled sounds from a pad which was placed to the viewer and in front of the drum kit. I wasn’t accustomed to using that amount of visibility that is perceived or standing up, and it tweaked me out before we start an early performance, as evidenced here by mind and my little arm shimmy shake.

37:04 “The drum riser at Richard’so on Richards was high …”

Ray first found Vampire Weekend perform at the now-defunct Richard’so on Richards in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ray recalls us ldquo;sounding dreadful ” that day, and I remember the onstage drum rise being ldquo;insanely significant. ” Well, my memory isn’t precise (the riser appears as though it was a fairly normal height), also I wager Ray’s being unnecessarily harsh on young VW. We were probably at least fine if not approaching great.

37:36 “I remember being like, ‘Wow, they’re enjoying Sheratons…”

A Sheraton is a kind of electric guitar created by Epiphone that’s been the major guitar in Vampire Weekend’s live show from the very start. 2008 Ray has been judgmental about that since they’re not so high-end guitars, but on our ears rsquo & they . Fun fact: I picked out the VW Sheraton at a Guitar Center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, as a Sort of beater guitar to carry to school. A few decades after, it was utilized by us and it’s in the onstage guitar turning to this afternoon.

38:29 “I’ve been lucky enough to do that for Lorde rdquo & hellip; & this record;

Still another of Ray’s much more interesting gigs was the musical manager for Lorde on her journey behind the album Melodrama. As Ray explains, being an MD involves organizing, conceptualizing, and carrying out all of the musical elements of a concert. This means as it does for, say, an opera performance different things for a pop display. Whatever the instance, the MD role holds a whole good deal of innovative and responsibility flexibility to produce the show as good as it could be. To get Lorde and Ray (and choreographers and stage manufacturing, etc.), here is your first performance at Coachella 2017 of in which they finished upward .

43:48 “The Bronx guys called and said, ‘Hey, we are in need of a violin player’…”

One other group that Ray has played and toured with is Mariachi El Bronx. There’s Ray on the left of this acoustic functionality in the punk/mariachi hybridvehicle.

44:50 “It does take me back to the Joe Walsh quote …”

The story of Ray’s musical journey brought to Baio’s thoughts this mythical passing in the documentary History of this Eagles.

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