Cool Rainbows was a

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

band based in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. According to a review, "Cool Rainbows make psychedelic indie pop music that is backed by swirling orchestration and layered dreamscapes of sound." They released their debut album, ''Whale Rocket,'' in 2012 on

Lil' Chief Records Lil' Chief Records is a New Zealand–based indie pop record label formed in 2002 in music, 2002. Operating from the Auckland suburb of Mt. Eden, it was founded on releases by The Tokey Tones and The Brunettes. The label's roster now includes a ...

History

Founding

Cool Rainbows was founded as a musical collective and solo project of Djeisan (pronounced "Jason") Suskov, a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

musician. Other members of the collective include Paul Roper, Alex Freer, Cass Mitchell, Jonathan Pearce and Suskov's wife Emily Suskov. Before founding the band, Suskov had been involved in music from a young age; his father founded Revolver Studios when Suskov was nine, and by the age of thirteen he was helping around the studio. Djeisan later maintained close ties with various studios as a producer,. Suskov went on to serve as frontman for the 2000

post punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

band Nova Echo, which later evolved into Cut Off Your Hands. He also played with the

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

band Robot Tigers and the

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band Trees Climbing Trees. Since 2015, Suskov has been a member of

Leisure Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...

2012 debut album

Around 2009 Suskov began writing the songs for the band's 2012 debut album. As influences for the album, he quoted the

Chills Chills is a feeling of coldness occurring during a high fever, but sometimes is also a common symptom which occurs alone in specific people. It occurs during fever due to the release of cytokines and prostaglandins as part of the inflammatory ...

the Clean The Clean was a New Zealand indie rock band formed in Dunedin in 1978. They have been described as the most influential band to come from the Flying Nun label, which recorded many artists associated with the "Dunedin sound", and one of the fir ...

and

David Kilgour David William Kilgour (February 18, 1941 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadian human rights activist, author, lawyer, and politician. He also served as a senior fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Kilgour earned a degree in ...

's solo material, The Bats, Tall Dwarves and

Chris Knox Chris Knox (born 2 September 1952) is a New Zealand rock and roll musician, cartoonist and movie reviewer who emerged during the punk rock era with his bands The Enemy and Toy Love. After Toy Love disbanded in the early 1980s, he formed the gr ...

. He also referenced "a lot of 60s 70s

rock 'n roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African American music such as jazz, rhythm and ...

stuff like

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, dr ...

Byrds The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the sole consisten ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

...stuff that sounds real or honest to me and I can hear the heart of it." He used both production gear at Revolver Studios and his own laptop for initial recordings, and the album was then produced by Jonathan Bree of

in Auckland. Suskov included a large number of friends in the process, with Alex Freer, Cass Mitchell, Paul Roper, Jonathan Pearce and his wife Emily Suskov as core performers. Other musicians on the album include Hayden East, Rikki Sutton, Micheal Ramirez, and Paul McIver. The album ''Whale Rocket'' was released on Lil' Chief Records in 2012, with a video for the track "Reality and a Clue" released that July. In June 2012, the band featured seven live musicians at a time on stage.

Members

;Permanent *Djeisan Suskov – singer-songwriter, vocals *Emily Suskov ;Rotating * arious

Discography

Albums

*2012: ''Whale Rocket'' (

)

Singles

*2012: "Southern Summer Fun" (Lil' Chief Records) *2012: "Lights" (Lil' Chief Records)

References

External links

*
Cool Rainbows
on

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

Cool Rainbows
on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Djeisan Suskov Interview
(March 2012) {{Authority control New Zealand indie pop groups Lil' Chief Records artists Musical groups established in 2009 Musical groups from Auckland