Photo credit: Kayla Tanee Photography
Want to learn how to RAGE like Aggretsuko? Unleash your inner Aggretsuko with this powerful metal vocal tutorial from Linzey Rae!
Linzey Rae is a metal vocalist and singer-songwriter of The Anchor; a five-piece, female fronted, metalcore band from Denver, CO.
The Anchor and Linzey Rae made a name for themselves with the viral explosion of their YouTube series, Metal Kitchen. The Anchor prides themselves on making metalcore accessible and fun for people who don’t generally listen to the genre. Ultimately, The Anchor creates music to help others find a voice of understanding and simply be themselves.
We recently had a chance to chat with Linzey after she created a metal vocal tutorial for July’s ‘Sanrio Friend of the Month’, Aggretsuko. Get ready to rage with Linzey!
We always have to ask, which Sanrio character is your favorite?
Chococat! Whenever I come across Chococat merchandise, I always impulse buy it. Always.
How long have you been a Sanrio fan?
I’ve loved Sanrio and Hello Kitty for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I had Hello Kitty everything. I was basically the easiest kid to shop for.
You recently got back from tour, how was it?
It was amazing! We got to finally meet all of our fans and make tons of new friends. We ate tons of awesome food and saw so many new places. The thing I will remember most about the tour was seeing so many people, night after night, connect with our music, connect with us, and connect with other people. Every night was so amazing and was spent with amazing people.
Photo credit: Urban Impression
How long have you been with your band?
We’ve been together for about 3 years now. We all came from very different musical backgrounds, which has made this band fun to be in. We each have unique ideas and bring something different to the table. They’re the brothers I never had and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of weirdos to play music with.
How did you get into metal?
My older sister and I were really into J-pop growing up. We loved listening to Utada Hikaru, Gackt, Aiyumi Hamisaki, the works. Then the “it’s not a phase mom” phase hit and she became obsessed with J-rock and Visual Kei. All she listened to was Gazzette and Dir En Grey. I was like twelve years old when she gave me one of Dir En Grey’s albums and I became obsessed. I loved the harsh vocals and heavy guitar riffs. Something about that style of music was really cool to me.
I explored a lot of Japanese metal bands before finding my first American metal band, The Devil Wears Prada. At that point I was hooked. I think what really draws me into metal is the emotion. It’s so raw. Every little piece of it tells a story down to the smallest detail. I feel that metal is an expression of the human experience and it makes people really feel something.
Your YouTube series, Metal Kitchen, has become a viral sensation. How did that come about?
The idea for Metal Kitchen was actually a huge inside joke. People rag on metal all the time for thinking that you can’t understand a single word of it. So we joked that we could sing about anything, even food, in our songs and no one would know the difference. From there we came up with the idea of creating parodies of songs and changing the lyrics to cooking food. I remember uploading the video and thinking to myself that is was such a stupid idea. I would have never guessed in a million years that it would become a viral hit.
We also love your other series, Scream it Like a Girl! Can you tell us more about that?
We started making those videos just to get better at making home recordings and start off our YouTube channel. The name of the series came about because of the rarity of women in metal. It can be tough being a girl in a very male dominated scene, but girls can do anything guys can do, no problem. We decided to play tribute to the “do it like a girl” saying and show that girls can be just as capable. I hope those videos will encourage other girls to step up to the plate and follow their dreams, regardless of the stigmas.
Gonna switch it up a bit here, how did you find out about Aggretsuko?
My older sister, who was in the tutorial, sent me the Aggrestuko introduction video a few months back because it reminded her of me. I thought the video was so funny and I totally related to it. I almost have the same life as Aggrestuko. During the day I am a middle school teacher and by night, I’m playing in a metal band. I can definitely identify with Aggretsuko’s personality.
It seems that a lot of people can totally identify with a metal loving red panda. As an amazingly talented metal female vocalist – what are your thoughts about this?
I think it’s amazing. Most people I know that love metal are normal people with normal lives and jobs. You would be surprised how many people actually listen to metal and you don’t even know it. In fact, I just found out one of my colleagues loves metal. I would have never of guessed it because she’s this sweet little teacher. It’s almost like we all live these double lives like Aggretsuko. Even if you don’t listen to metal, I think we all have our moments throughout the day where we want to rage a little.
So… what’s next for Linzey Rae and the Anchor?
The Anchor is gearing up to record our next album, Summer EP, which is anticipated to release in December 2017. We also have a few more tours planned in future. For the YouTube channel, we have some awesome new video concepts in the works that we are excited to share with everyone.
Photo credit: Urban Impression
Thank you, Linzey Rae for the teaching everyone how to release their inner Aggretsuko scream and for taking the time to speak with us!
Fun fact, Linzey Rae did all the editing on the tutorial while she was on tour with The Anchor! Be sure to follow both Linzey Rae and The Anchor for more!
Youtube: www.youtube.com/LinzeyRae
Facebook: /xlinzeyraex - /theanchorband
Twitter: @xlinzeyraex - @theanchorband
Instagram: @xlinzeyraex - @the_anchor_band
www.theanchor-band.com
www.patreon.com/theanchorband