Halloween was last week, but according to singer Erin Chapin of northern California folk-pop harmony group Rainbow Girls, every day is Halloween for her band. So much so that there’s a strict scary podcast listening policy in the tour van: Supernatural tales, not serial killer stories, Chapin clarifies in a phone call with Eugene Weekly.
Rainbow Girls perform Nov. 11 at WOW Hall behind their brand-new album, HAUNTING, released last month: A collection of spooky acoustic folk-pop and rock with three-part harmonies, an old-timey aesthetic and flourishes of indie rock recalling boygenius.
“SMS to the Void” is an acapella ode to the loneliness of texting-style communication that has a Phoebe Bridgers’ way of making modern problems sound timeless. “Dead Ringer” is centered on a hellfire and brimstone bluesy slide-guitar riff that Chapin says was inspired by Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Chapin says they carry the gothic Americana mood to their current stage show. Typically a guitar, bass and vocal harmony trio for fans of Shook Twins or Joseph, this time Rainbow Girls come to Eugene with a drummer and, along with other stage decorations, will perform with large DIY candles made from pool noodles and tea lights “They look much cooler than they sound,” Chapin jokes.
Chapin says Rainbow Girls prepped two albums worth of material last year, divided into two parts. The first became HAUNTING, and the next, leaning further into Rainbow Girls’ indie rock side, will be released as an album of its own sometime next year.
On her group’s two sides — ethereal harmonies and moody atmospheres alternating with uptempo “indie rock bangers,” as Chapin calls them — “I like to put on a record that has a whole vibe,” she says. “I want to listen to sad songs when I’m sad, happy songs when I’m happy. When I’m driving down the road,” she adds, “I want things that pump me up.”
Rainbow Girls, who all met in Santa Barbara, California, have been around in one form or another since 2010, and early on, they worked the European busking circuit. “I think that’s what sets us apart from most other bands,” Chapin says.”We have a way of working the crowd we honed from years of busking.”
She adds, “We write these songs and have these harmonies, and people are like, ‘Oh, so lovely.’ But then our show is about the banter that changes every night. It’s a little hint of standup. It’s fun for me.”
Rainbow Girls have played Eugene several times at Tsunami Books but needed a bigger space this time. “We love them so much that we had a hard time leaving them,” Chapin says of Tsunami. Chapin has heard all the tales of WOW Hall. “Now it’s time” to try the venue, she says.
Referring to the vocal harmonies between Chapin and her bandmates Caitlin Gowdey and Vanessa Wilbourn, who also play guitar and bass, “It’s an intimate thing,” Chapin says. “It is the thing that brought us together, but I don’t think we were good at it when we started. It was the most magical thing we had ever heard when we first did it. We sat back and thought, ‘Oh my god, we got to do that again.’”