Rachel Bochner is bringing honesty, relatability, and a whole lot of contradiction to pop music- and I’m completely here for it

By Meghan Connors

Last week, I had the pleasure of chatting with Rachel Bochner, a delightfully witty and incredibly talented singer/songwriter. We covered everything from family ties and female empowerment, to coffee orders, and future project releases. She was a joy to speak with, grounded, and refreshingly humble. With incredible accomplishments already under her belt, success is imminent for this budding artist. 

Bochner always knew she wanted to work in the music industry, but it wasn’t until recently that she realized her path was through creating her own music, rather than helping someone else do such a thing. In the summer of 2018, while pursuing a career in A&R, Bochner began to recognize her own talents, ultimately making the decision to switch gears, and pursue a career of her own as an artist. 

As for her sound, “a bit conversational, relatable,” and (one we both whole-heartedly agreed on,) honest. “I try to strike a balance between being more emotional and being kind of light hearted,” Bochner explained of the contradictions that she so effortlessly combines in her songs. 

Officially kicking off her career in 2019, Rachel Bochner came to find herself in an unusual position where traditional marketing methods of live performances, and in-person-interviews eventually became an impossibility due to the pandemic that set in as her career found its footing. It was then that social media became such an important asset, “I don’t think there’s even been a platform that gives people a potential reach as TikTok for example. Maybe early youtube had that effect, but on a smaller scale. Now it’s an interesting time for independent artists because there are these tools that have a lot of power to reach a lot of people for free and not in an ‘advertisement.’” She spoke candidly though, about her weariness of social media, and the delicate nature of allowing it to hold so much power. She said, “I try to make sure that I’m using it in a way that's both serving the music and also serving me if that makes sense because I think it’s easy to get super caught up in trying to post a viral video or trying post things that exclusively make you look cool and fun, so people want to follow you.” Bochner acknowledged the importance of keeping a level head when posting on her platforms, while also appreciating what a privilege it is to have immediate feedback on work, as well as an opportunity to test out new songs. 

“I’m kind of embracing the honest; this is how I actually am and, sometimes it’s serious and sometimes its emotional, and sometimes its dumb and kind of stupid because it’s funny. So, I think in that way it can be fun for everyone.”

Her two latest singles, ‘ghosted my therapist,’ and, ‘hating myself in the summertime,’ as well as, her yet-to-be released EP were produced by a close friend and former mentor, Tiger Darrow. “It’s so much fun not only finding people that understand what you’re going for, but then also building a friendship with them and just making the whole process even more fun.” Bochner went on, “We’ve developed this really good understanding of things. She’s helped me grow a lot in the past year, I wanna say, so I’m definitely super grateful for her.” 

“Wild.” was the first work to come out of Rachel Bochner’s mouth upon my mentioning of her recent feature in Rolling Stone’s Global Artist Spotlight. Bochner explained that though she knew the feature was coming, she didn’t know when. “Actually seeing it online and seeing the Rolling Stone logo, I was like, this is insane.” Her humility remained as she spoke further on the honor, “it’s nice to see your name on a list with other super talented artists, and I’m super thankful and just excited to keep going.” 

We spoke briefly about a song Bochner released in July titled, ‘hating myself in the summertime.’ I asked specifically though, about a verse where she sings, “My little sister looks just like me / And I don’t mean to make it worse / But I see her move carefully / Taking in the things I’d never say to her.” Born the middle child of five girls, Bochner shared that as she’s grown, so have her relationships with her sisters. She has been inspired by her constantly being surrounded by women, all with success in different careers, and has used the experience to fuel the sense of female empowerment she both portrays in her songs and implements in her work. As a result, Bochner now prioritizes finding ways to support and uplift other women which is what led her to create all aspects of her upcoming EP, ‘Twenty Something,’ which features both ‘ghosted my therapist,’ and, ‘hating myself in the summertime,’ with an entirely female team. 

Currently, Rachel Bochner is promoting her most recent release, ‘ghosted my therapist,’ and while researching the song, I realized there was no published background information regarding the lyrics. So, we played a little game the songs lyrics, to give fans a better understanding of Bochner’s vision behind the song. 

“Stay up all night so I can binge a couple seasons.” What are you currently binging? 

“I’m currently binging Doctor Who.” 

“Take my meds with my iced coffee” What is your iced coffee order? 

“Oh my gosh, well right now, because it is the Fall almost… uh, or no? Is it Fall? Whatever. It’s Fall, it’s Fall, it’s September. My go-to is a pumpkin cream cold brew from Starbucks.” 

So you’re a Starbucks girl over a Dunkin’ girl then? 

“I definitely am.”

“The universe won’t take my messages” Let’s say the universe was listening right now, what would you say? 

“Thank you so much for the sold out world tour that I’m about to go on and for all of my happiness and success, and just like amazing memories that I’m making.”

“Graduated college now I wanna quit my day job / Writing songs don’t pay my bills yet'' What was your day job? If it wasn’t money, what was it that made you finally want to quit your day job?” 

“I was working at a PR agency.” 

“Songs are starting to pay the bills, we’re just continuing to work until they completely pay the bills and more.” 

“I tried to find the balance that was both practical and still making me happy, and it just got to a point where I wasn’t able to commit the  amount of time to music that was going to make me feel happy and fulfilled, so I decided that I need to quit. And, you know, have much more time to devote to music and that is what’s gonna make me happy. And I obviously believe in what I’m doing so I just… pulled the trigger!” 

Bochner suggests that after streaming, ‘ghosted my therapist,’ listeners should play, ‘hating myself in the summer,’ “because those songs go together,” both stylistically and as parts of the new EP. And after streaming all of her new songs, Bochner suggests her fans search for her 2AM EP to continue getting to know her style and sound. 

Before ending the call, Bochner teased a few more upcoming songs off her EP, “Twenty Something,” saying they’ll be released in the next few months, before the end of the year. She revealed that she is working on new “merch,” and excited for what’s to come.

In her closing remarks, she chose to use her final comments with a reference to the holiday, Yom Kippur, she was celebrating. 

“Today is a jewish holiday. And it’s a holiday where you reflect on your actions over the past year. And, you basically think about the kind of person that you've been, and ask for forgiveness for any wrongdoing that you’ve done, and kind of think about the next, this upcoming year, and what kind of person you wanna be. And, I hope that, you know, I guess, if you’ve made it this far in this interview, we can all take a moment to think about how far we’ve all come in the last year, and you know, regardless of maybe some of the things that you’re not so proud of, or you feel like were a little bit bumpy along the way. And we can be proud of everything we’ve learned in the past year, and we can all look forward to this next year of, just, being a good person, pursuing our dreams, being happy, being a good friend, being a good, you know, sister, girlfriend, boyfriend, and yeah, that’s really it. 

If you would like to see Rachel Bochner live she will be playing a show at Arlene’s Grocery on November 16th. Also, her music is available under her name on all streaming platforms.