Meet Rachel Peters

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rachel Peters. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rachel below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Rachel with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I think for a long time, I allowed myself to wait on people to do things. In a certain way, I think the environment I grew up around expected me to wait for people to help, rather than do things myself. Whether I was waiting for people to do the things they said they would, or to change, or to prioritize things for me in the ways I prioritized for them- I found myself for a long time sitting around and just allowing my faith in others take the lead, instead of taking the reigns myself. It wasn’t until the thousandth disappointment, that I finally had had enough of sitting. I was seeing my peers do the things I wanted to do, and I was tired of just letting those opportunities slip past me. There are several examples in my early adulthood where I sowed the seeds of what I wanted, put the effort in, and reaped my rewards. However, It wasn’t until I was twenty-two that I woke up and realized that, if I wanted to do anything with music, I had to put myself into the position to be around that. After the thousandth disappointment, I made a sort of mantra for myself: “if you aren’t satisfied with where you are, you are the only one with the power to change your life”. With that, whenever I come across roadblocks, instead of waiting for it to be removed, I try to find either a way around them, or find a new path. When it came to music, I realized that the only way to be in the position I wanted to be in, I had to throw myself into the scene. I made the decision 3 weeks before classes started to go to school for sound engineering. An impulse decision that proceeded to remove every roadblock from my path as a musician, that I had previously felt paralyzed by. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of amazing opportunities, from recording some amazing musicians in Portland, to starting my own band, Valkerie. If there’s a spark of want or desire, kindle it, you’ll realize soon the opportunities are limitless.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Valkerie is an alternative rock band from Portland, Oregon. I’m blessed to have the talents of Dan Bacon, Bradley Dirlam, and Jordan VanSise beside me, to build my poetic, tender songs into full, dramatic rock sounds. Initially, Valkerie was going to just be a producer tag. However, I started going to open mics with my acoustic guitar, singing the couple of songs I had written. Dan had been at an open mic I was at, where ironically, Bradley was at, too. After my turn, Dan came up to me and said “Hey, that song you sang, ‘Chokehold!’, that’s supposed to be like a full band song, yeah? Can I show you an idea I have in my head?”. The very next day he sent me the full demo for what would become our first single. I told him about my little project called Valkerie, to which he recommended making it a full band. So, we did. I had always wanted to be in a rock band, and with the songs I had come into the project with having full band sound to them, Dan really helped to encourage me to chase what I really wanted.

Dan and I had known each other for a couple years before this, as he had helped me with sound engineering projects. We started, and continue to, record musicians in our studio in SW Portland. When it came to the debut EP for Valkerie, we did just about everything ourselves. We did have some help from our good friend, Finlay Aylward, with recording the drums at the iconic Hallowed Halls. Our EP ‘Prelude’ was the most rewarding labor of love, and we are so unbelievably proud of it. It’s available on all streaming platforms.

Up and coming for Valkerie we have another project in the works, with our next single “To Keep You Good” in the works. We play around the Portland area, and are excited to be playing through the Pacific Northwest this summer. Dan and I are continuing to record and mix several bands at the moment, and we are stoked to help them release their art into the world as well.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The most important quality I have noticed in my journey with Valkerie is showing up! Going to local shows, following other local artists, streaming their music, and sharing it to your story. Showing up for your community harms no one, and uplifts everyone. Have the mindset of support as the priority. Expecting something from someone you showed kindness to isn’t kind. Every band wants to move up, but I’ve noticed by just being a good person in your scene, without expectation, gets you a more authentic and opportunistic outcome.

You do not need to be the most talented, most beautiful, nor the loudest band in the room. To get your vision across, you just need to have the confidence to back it. Everyone forgets lyrics, everyone slips up a note or a chord, everyone stumbles on stage, and everyone’s voice cracks. The impressive thing to people is resilience. Don’t make it the center of your performance that you slipped up, just keep it moving, it’s likely no one else noticed. Stay confident in what you’ve built, that makes an impressive band.

Lastly, know what you want. Are you trying to tour? Are you trying to record? Are you just trying to play at some open mics? Everyone has different goals, so know with your project where you want to go. Knowing what you want helps you emulate standards and goals for your project, and helps you get to your goal. With Valkerie, I build small achievable goals that help me get the project aligned to where I want it to go. With us being a band, strong communication with each other and collaboration on goals is key. This also helps build confidence in your project, having a clear vision.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

Go in with the front of your strengths, and use the opportunities to build on your weaknesses. You don’t need to be perfect at everything you do, but having a clear vision of what you want to portray is what’s important. That will help you invest properly. In Valkerie, I was singing and playing guitar live. However, the band and I discussed for a while going forward without me on rhythm guitar. So, I did not invest in guitar playing or set up, and instead invested in building my stage presence and vocal capability. Now, we are progressing to where we want to be, as we had properly invested. I’m by no means a bad guitar player, but it’s not what Valkerie needs from me. So, now, I can further strengthen what Valkerie does need from me. Trial and error, that’s what it’s all about.

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Image Credits

Valkerie at The Six from Isabelle Quinn Photography
Valkerie at The Snug, and The High Water Mark from McKenzie Scott

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