By Gary Flick
Anyone who is a fan of Oshkosh’s eclectic and progressive music scene knows who Nicole Rae is. Maybe not by name, but at least as that “drummer chick from The Traveling Suitcase.”
What most don’t know is that behind the tattoos, wild hair and general badassery that comes with being the focal point of a red-hot rock band on the rise, is an Oshkosh citizen who doesn’t forget where she came from.
That place she came from wasn’t state championships and prom committees or the school band (she was kicked out because she couldn’t read music), it was a place of being picked on for looking a little different, being ridiculed for being openly bisexual (in the 90s… “gay” was more of an insult than an orientation), having a family with a history of addiction problems, and ultimately falling victim to that same addiction before she was even old enough to drive.
Though she doesn’t blame anyone for what happened, she did say that there was not a lot of support back then for someone who was a little “different” in the administration’s eyes.
She got suspended for things that she believes would be lawsuit-worthy-discrimination nowadays, and also added that there was no sort of LGBT community or support in the school.
“I felt cornered by everything and I needed an escape.”
That was the feeling she remembered, that was the feeling that led to her addiction, and that is the feeling she hopes to prevent anyone else from having, and is doing so by being a “voice for the voiceless” with the addiction support group Rise Together.
Rise Together was formed two years ago by a group of recovering addicts who were looking to help spread awareness of the addiction problems in our state.
In its short existence, Rise Together has already partnered with more than 150 schools in the Midwest and has spoken to more than 70,000 students.
Rae has been onboard since the beginning, and is now even mentioned by name on the site’s home page because of all her contributions.
“Heroin use is absolutely an epidemic in Wisconsin right now,” Rae said. And even though not every kid who is bullied turns to drugs, she knows first-hand that many of them do, which is why her primary focus in Rise Together is the youth community.
When Rae was young she was bullied, had “faggot” and “dyke” written on her locker, and even got letters telling her to kill herself.
“Bullying is just awful,” she said, and explained why letting these kids know that it’s okay to be different and that they should embrace those differences is one of the most important things they can do to make sure the youth never find themselves in the same corner she was in when she was 15.
On average, Nicole speaks with 3,000 to 5,000 middle school and high school kids each week throughout the state about what bullying did to her, and how it led to drug use, which led to trouble, depression, and even jail time.
“It can be even worse now because of social media and I really shine light on that when I talk,” she said. “And I’m not afraid to call those kids who do bully ‘assholes’ either.”
After answering a few questions and interacting, Nicole sings a couple of songs for the students as well.
The first song is about her family overcoming hardships, and the second is called “8 Feet Tall” about “losing hope and finding hope again,” and knowing that it can always get better.
She explains her troubles and her addictions and also tells the kids how focusing on something you’re passionate about can truly save your life, as music has done for Nicole.
“Play every show like you’re gonna die the next day.”
Not only does Nicole possess the skill set to play any position in a standard four-piece rock band lineup of guitar, vocals, drums and bass; she also has the musical prowess and work ethic to do them all extremely well.
She writes most of her songs on the guitar and occasionally performs solo acts (outside of her Rise Together speeches) with just an acoustic guitar and a microphone.
She also writes, sings and strums with cellist Stephanie Tsech as Wilfret and Miss.
“Wilfret and Miss is kind of out of a different vein,” Rae said of the mellow and melodic duo.
The different vein is the different emotion that Rae puts into each project. For Wilfret & Miss Nicole is “laying back and being timid” and focusing more on accenting Tsech rather than being the creator, as is the case in most Suitcase songs.
“I think silence is such an underrated thing in music,” Rae said of her work on Wilfret & Miss, and she makes those feelings known lyrically in her most recognized and popular band The Traveling Suitcase.
“There’s beauty in silence” is a lyric from the opening track “30 Below” on the band’s album “Nobody Wins” which was released in January, but there is also beauty in sound, and the three-piece rock outfit has an abundance of it.
The band has a little bit of indie rock, a little bit of jazz, a little bit blues, and a surplus of emotion that has been building up for years.
Shortly after high school, Rae needed a scene change and jumped in a friend’s car which was on a one-way trip to Colorado where she met up with Oshkosh native Joe Solomon and started writing music.
“Nicole is an absolute genius,” were the first words from Joe, who co-wrote the song “8 Feet Tall” that Nicole sings for the Rise Together students, while they were in Colorado.
“I knew she had been through some serious stuff and we became extremely close during our time in Colorado,” Solomon said.
Rae reciprocates those feelings, calling Joe “extremely passionate and a fantastic friend who maybe didn’t even know this, but helped me through detox.” That passion is very evident in the music of The Traveling Suitcase.
After about five years writing music in the mountains and staying clean Rae moved back to help with a family member who had been fighting with the same type of problems, just with a different medium: alcohol.
“Alcohol is a completely different drug [than what I dealt with] because it kills you slowly,” Rae said.
After being there for her family, Nicole still wasn’t a big fan of being back in Oshkosh so she “started a band to stay sane,” and that band would become Nicole Rae and the Traveling Suiticase.
She originally played the guitar and sang, and following his return from Colorado, Joe Solomon was also part of the band in the early years.
They have since evolved into the three-piece outfit they are now (having dropped ‘Nicole Rae’ from the name), with Rae back on her first love, the drums, Brandon Domer (a founding member and Nicole’s first friend in high school) on the bass and keys, and Bill Grasley, the latest addition, on the guitar and horns.
The band has gained much praise in the area and has traveled throughout the Midwest and as far as Texas this past March as part of the South by Southwest Music Festival.
She keeps a very open mind about music saying she really isn’t sure where any of her musical musings will take her but she likes it that way.
Rae is perfectly stubborn for the music business and said she would only take a record deal that was, indeed, “perfect,” noting that bands can do OK around Oshkosh while remaining independent.
“My only goal is to keep playing and keep building so this can be a sustainable living,” she said. “And I really don’t need much.”
For someone who doesn’t need much, Rae sure has plenty to give away and does so every week.
Anyone who has seen her band onstage knows that she plays with an endless supply of emotion and passion, but when the music is turned down when she speaks with Rise Together, the passion is amplified.
Nicole Rae is a virtuosic musician, timeless songwriter, charismatic performer, great friend, hard-worker, traveled soul, recovered addict, philanthropist, and more apparent than anything else: an extremely intelligent person.
Through her stage presence, talents, and songwriting she can save a group of people from a boring night in Oshkosh by playing an awesome show with The Traveling Suitcase, but when those talents join forces with her past, hard work and enormous passion to help people, she truly saves lives through Rise Together.
Anyone who is a fan of Oshkosh’s eclectic and progressive music scene knows who Nicole Rae is. Maybe not by name, but at least as that “drummer chick from The Traveling Suitcase.”
What most don’t know is that behind the tattoos, wild hair and general badassery that comes with being the focal point of a red-hot rock band on the rise, is an Oshkosh citizen who doesn’t forget where she came from.
That place she came from wasn’t state championships and prom committees or the school band (she was kicked out because she couldn’t read music), it was a place of being picked on for looking a little different, being ridiculed for being openly bisexual (in the 90s… “gay” was more of an insult than an orientation), having a family with a history of addiction problems, and ultimately falling victim to that same addiction before she was even old enough to drive.
Though she doesn’t blame anyone for what happened, she did say that there was not a lot of support back then for someone who was a little “different” in the administration’s eyes.
She got suspended for things that she believes would be lawsuit-worthy-discrimination nowadays, and also added that there was no sort of LGBT community or support in the school.
“I felt cornered by everything and I needed an escape.”
That was the feeling she remembered, that was the feeling that led to her addiction, and that is the feeling she hopes to prevent anyone else from having, and is doing so by being a “voice for the voiceless” with the addiction support group Rise Together.
Rise Together was formed two years ago by a group of recovering addicts who were looking to help spread awareness of the addiction problems in our state.
In its short existence, Rise Together has already partnered with more than 150 schools in the Midwest and has spoken to more than 70,000 students.
Rae has been onboard since the beginning, and is now even mentioned by name on the site’s home page because of all her contributions.
“Heroin use is absolutely an epidemic in Wisconsin right now,” Rae said. And even though not every kid who is bullied turns to drugs, she knows first-hand that many of them do, which is why her primary focus in Rise Together is the youth community.
When Rae was young she was bullied, had “faggot” and “dyke” written on her locker, and even got letters telling her to kill herself.
“Bullying is just awful,” she said, and explained why letting these kids know that it’s okay to be different and that they should embrace those differences is one of the most important things they can do to make sure the youth never find themselves in the same corner she was in when she was 15.
On average, Nicole speaks with 3,000 to 5,000 middle school and high school kids each week throughout the state about what bullying did to her, and how it led to drug use, which led to trouble, depression, and even jail time.
“It can be even worse now because of social media and I really shine light on that when I talk,” she said. “And I’m not afraid to call those kids who do bully ‘assholes’ either.”
After answering a few questions and interacting, Nicole sings a couple of songs for the students as well.
The first song is about her family overcoming hardships, and the second is called “8 Feet Tall” about “losing hope and finding hope again,” and knowing that it can always get better.
She explains her troubles and her addictions and also tells the kids how focusing on something you’re passionate about can truly save your life, as music has done for Nicole.
“Play every show like you’re gonna die the next day.”
Not only does Nicole possess the skill set to play any position in a standard four-piece rock band lineup of guitar, vocals, drums and bass; she also has the musical prowess and work ethic to do them all extremely well.
She writes most of her songs on the guitar and occasionally performs solo acts (outside of her Rise Together speeches) with just an acoustic guitar and a microphone.
She also writes, sings and strums with cellist Stephanie Tsech as Wilfret and Miss.
“Wilfret and Miss is kind of out of a different vein,” Rae said of the mellow and melodic duo.
The different vein is the different emotion that Rae puts into each project. For Wilfret & Miss Nicole is “laying back and being timid” and focusing more on accenting Tsech rather than being the creator, as is the case in most Suitcase songs.
“I think silence is such an underrated thing in music,” Rae said of her work on Wilfret & Miss, and she makes those feelings known lyrically in her most recognized and popular band The Traveling Suitcase.
“There’s beauty in silence” is a lyric from the opening track “30 Below” on the band’s album “Nobody Wins” which was released in January, but there is also beauty in sound, and the three-piece rock outfit has an abundance of it.
The band has a little bit of indie rock, a little bit of jazz, a little bit blues, and a surplus of emotion that has been building up for years.
Shortly after high school, Rae needed a scene change and jumped in a friend’s car which was on a one-way trip to Colorado where she met up with Oshkosh native Joe Solomon and started writing music.
“Nicole is an absolute genius,” were the first words from Joe, who co-wrote the song “8 Feet Tall” that Nicole sings for the Rise Together students, while they were in Colorado.
“I knew she had been through some serious stuff and we became extremely close during our time in Colorado,” Solomon said.
Rae reciprocates those feelings, calling Joe “extremely passionate and a fantastic friend who maybe didn’t even know this, but helped me through detox.” That passion is very evident in the music of The Traveling Suitcase.
After about five years writing music in the mountains and staying clean Rae moved back to help with a family member who had been fighting with the same type of problems, just with a different medium: alcohol.
“Alcohol is a completely different drug [than what I dealt with] because it kills you slowly,” Rae said.
After being there for her family, Nicole still wasn’t a big fan of being back in Oshkosh so she “started a band to stay sane,” and that band would become Nicole Rae and the Traveling Suiticase.
She originally played the guitar and sang, and following his return from Colorado, Joe Solomon was also part of the band in the early years.
They have since evolved into the three-piece outfit they are now (having dropped ‘Nicole Rae’ from the name), with Rae back on her first love, the drums, Brandon Domer (a founding member and Nicole’s first friend in high school) on the bass and keys, and Bill Grasley, the latest addition, on the guitar and horns.
The band has gained much praise in the area and has traveled throughout the Midwest and as far as Texas this past March as part of the South by Southwest Music Festival.
She keeps a very open mind about music saying she really isn’t sure where any of her musical musings will take her but she likes it that way.
Rae is perfectly stubborn for the music business and said she would only take a record deal that was, indeed, “perfect,” noting that bands can do OK around Oshkosh while remaining independent.
“My only goal is to keep playing and keep building so this can be a sustainable living,” she said. “And I really don’t need much.”
For someone who doesn’t need much, Rae sure has plenty to give away and does so every week.
Anyone who has seen her band onstage knows that she plays with an endless supply of emotion and passion, but when the music is turned down when she speaks with Rise Together, the passion is amplified.
Nicole Rae is a virtuosic musician, timeless songwriter, charismatic performer, great friend, hard-worker, traveled soul, recovered addict, philanthropist, and more apparent than anything else: an extremely intelligent person.
Through her stage presence, talents, and songwriting she can save a group of people from a boring night in Oshkosh by playing an awesome show with The Traveling Suitcase, but when those talents join forces with her past, hard work and enormous passion to help people, she truly saves lives through Rise Together.