This week on Nights and Weekends, we talk with Nate and Jake, the duo behind Raincoated Records—a DIY label that’s quietly growing into a recording studio (Lilypad Underground), video production shop, and creative hub for Rochester artists.

Their tape release project Spit Takes and Split Tapes is part documentation, part celebration of the local scene—highlighting bands you should know and making it easier for new ones to get heard.

We get into the why behind what they’re doing: creating accessible space, encouraging collaboration, and building something that’s actually useful for local musicians.

Mentions

Raincoated records (@raincoatedrecords)

Home Videos (@homevideosband)

thesoundrochester.com (@thesoundroc)

lunchador.org (@lunchadorpodcasts)

Mentioned in this episode:

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Sa.

Welcome to nights and weekends.

My name is Katie Kate Rogers, and I'm here with Virginia Wood.

And we are hosting this week's episode in Lily Pad Studios, which goes hand in hand with our guests that we're with tonight.

We have Nate and Jake, who run Raincoated Records, and the recording studio that they work on and they own is Lily Pad Studios.

So we're doing a special segment from the studio here.

So.

Hi, Nate and Jake.

How are you doing?

Good, thanks.

Kate in Virginia.

Yeah, thanks for having us on.

Yeah, we're really excited to be here.

Thanks for lending your studio space to us here.

If you know, the audience obviously can't see it, but it is a very warm space.

Feeling wise.

It feels like we're in a.

We like to keep the heat at like 95 or so.

It's like sweat lodge vibes.

It's nice that you guys brought a couch over for us.

Really appreciate that.

Yeah, it's good.

It's good vibes in here.

We're surrounded by drums and guitars, and it feels good to be here.

So thanks for having us.

So I wanted to have you on the show today because you are doing a lot in the Rochester music scene.

You have a record label, you have a video production angle that comes out of that label, and you also have a recording studio.

So could you just give us, like, an overview of what.

What you're trying to accompl Rochester and what.

What you guys bring to the table here for our local scene?

Yeah.

So Raincoated Records is a record label documenting bands in Rochester with recordings and releases on cassette tape and also through video production and other digital music releases, because you have to.

And yeah, we.

We really like a lot of the music here in Rochester.

We.

We play in a band together called Home Videos, and that started a lot of our interest in recording and kind of the network we have with other bands in Rochester.

Yeah.

So why did you want to start the label here and give us some background about, you know, your personal backgrounds and, you know, why you thought that was an important thing to bring to the scene?

So my initial idea for the label was kind of like an umbrella for different projects that I was working on, and a part of that weren't all just my band.

But then I kind of let it snowball with.

Kind of let it snowball with being so interested in my friends bands and also wanting to help promote them.

And at the beginning, kind of starting the video production session series, Raincoded Review, which is like live performance videos of bands in Rochester or Kind of friends with bands in Rochester and cross promotion for the bands, the label and other people in the scene.

That's amazing.

And how.

Tell me about the studio setting that we're in right now.

Lilypad Studios.

It's a fully built out recording studio.

And I know that you've been doing a lot of sessions with local bands.

So tell me a little bit about the process there and what you hope to.

To, you know, with these, with these sessions with local bands, what you hope to do in the future with the studio.

Yeah, so I guess I'm Jake if.

I think we already covered that.

But yeah, so basically me and Nate went to school together.

We.

We were making music at the same time back at RIT and like, you know, for years and we really never.

We.

We kind of would jam together, we had like projects together, but a lot of times nothing necessarily.

You don't.

Don't have like a.

Something to show for at the end of all these months of playing and recording and writing songs and stuff like that.

I feel like.

And I feel like that's something that a lot of musicians run into.

So why is it so hard to get like a finished product out?

And that kind of led us down this rabbit hole of these four track cassette tape machines.

And so we tracked one down.

A friend of Nate's dad had one.

Who, Eddie Nebula, who still plays around in Rochester.

Yeah.

Hell yeah.

Thanks, Eddie.

Thanks, Ed.

Yeah, so Eddie initially let us borrow this Yamaha four track tape machine and we recorded our first EP that was like an acoustic EP on that, along with the quiet single of our song Instant Coffee.

And it was just like a really fun and like kind of fulfilling experience to like have no screens around you and just like have to learn the mechanics of this machine and make mistakes along the way and like try to find out how you can make it sound better and, and then.

But like in the end, really, like, I think that the recordings that we got out of that, through all the things that people, you know, don't like about cassette tape or didn't like about cassette tape, especially in, in that setting, in this like kind of like lo fi world, I think they sounded great.

They sounded like better than what we were getting out of our digital attempts and everything hiss and all.

So.

So that kind of set us down this rabbit hole of trying to like preserve that analog feeling and keeping all the, keeping all the, you know, bumps and bruises along the way and everything.

Yeah, I think with, with cassette tape and the four track recorders, there's like a certain imperfection you have to like accept with your performances.

And it really focuses on capturing kind of the like authentic performance of the band in the room.

And for us, for our band, like it forces us to like really focus on the musicianship up front and like be ready to record when we record or to be happy with kind of the charm of maybe not being ready to record or something like that.

Could you.

Oh, go ahead.

Sorry, non musician in the room.

Could you explain like a little bit about how a four track machine works?

Like what does four track mean?

Yeah, so on a, on a.

I'll let Nate try to fix anything that I say wrong or like, am not covering here but like basically just on a, on a cassette tape, you know, you've.

You got music on one side, you flip it over, you got music on the other side.

How that works is you have a left and right channel on one side, a left and right channel on the other side.

A four track machine only plays a cassette in one direction.

So that means you get four places to put your sounds.

So you get, you know, maybe guitar on the first channel, second guitar on the second channel, vocals on the third channel, and like rhythm track on the fourth channel.

So like your drums and bass all mixed together or you know, you could, you can get creative from there.

But yeah, so it's, it's kind of like whatever you get is on this cassette tape.

So you don't really like if you get halfway through a song and you go, oh shit, I fucked up, let's try that again.

And then you do the other one where you mess up in the beginning.

But then the second half is great.

It's not like you can just like splice the songs together.

So you kind of are like limited to this single performance.

And there's totally the option, like a lot of people I think record like analog to tape and then put it on digital and splice stuff together and everything.

But we're just hard asses about it or something.

I don't know.

Yeah, I think the limitations make the creative process a little bit more fun or at least more of a challenge in a way that we like.

And maybe it makes our music sound worse, but we'd like to think it makes it sound better.

Yeah, I think that there's some times that we can.

If you, like, do two takes and you're like, not totally happy with either of them, but you, like, try to splice together this one take that works, there's a lot of times that we've like, kind of been almost there on the first two takes, but then like by take like four or five, we actually get like a take that feels really, really good.

And like the band is firing on all four cylinders or whatever.

And you're.

If you.

If.

If we had kind of like stayed in this digital world, uh, I feel like we'd be more apt to just like stop earlier in the process and potentially you miss out on some of the magic of like a really great performance that you would have gotten.

Yeah, that's really interesting.

It's interesting also how you're giving that opportunity to Rochester bands.

Because I think for a lot of musicians there's one option and that's either recording at home or going to a studio.

And you're kind of giving this really fun, approachable option.

And also I.

I do know that you're actually doing this for bands for your own compilation.

So you're giving this opportunity to bands that might not, you know, be, you know, have the funds to go into a full production studio.

And you're kind of opening your doors and giving exposure to the local scene, which I find is incredibly important and much needed.

So tell us a little bit about your process with working with local bands, what you hope to do with that and the compilations that you're in the middle of putting out.

Yeah, I guess just to quickly step back to the answer to the previous question.

Lily Pad Underground is our basement studio with a bunch of cassette machines and other outboard gear, hardware gear rigged up to record all analog.

We took that recording process of putting everything on cassette tape, not using screens until the very end anyway.

And last year we had a project called Spit Takes and Split Tapes.

It's a tongue twister title and I've gotten myself on it a million times.

But anyways, that started as kind of us wanting to put something out with our friends, bands and almost like capture what a night of our little corner of the scene at the Bug Jar would look like.

So Jake had the initial idea and the.

We were going to have each band record to cassette tape one way or the other.

We knew a bunch of our friends had some sort of cassette recorder or Claire from Georgie borrowed Jake's for a little bit, but kind of out of the gate.

One of our friends, I think the folks in Kitchen were like, we don't have enough tracks to record our band or the full band lineup.

Could we just come to it at your place?

And so we had the band come through.

We did that process where it's all live takes of the band and the instrumentation.

And some of the folks on that last split use like live vocals too.

It's like all live straight to the tape.

And so we wound up recording all four of the bands on the split, which was our band, Home Videos, Bug Catcher, Georgie and Kitchen.

Two songs from each band for.

For an eight song, four band release on cassette.

And part of what we really liked about the release was some of the bands have like the same members playing different instruments or something like that.

And like it's kind of this little cohesive, like sonic group in the scene.

Like, I don't know, the bands have a similar sound, similar.

Some similar members, and I think like a similar, similar ideology.

So after that release we were really happy with how it came out.

We had a lot of fun with it.

And so we decided to try to spin it up into more or less like a series or at least we're trying another one.

Yeah, yeah.

I think you pretty much covered everything, but.

But yeah, like, I think that it's.

I.

I liked what you said about basically like capturing that night at the Bug Jar because I think that that really there was a night that we did that show.

I'm pretty sure.

Yeah.

And it was really fun.

And then so.

So yeah, I think that that's what we're trying to do with the analog tape and with the basement studio and everything is just like get everybody together, have a good time, make everybody buddy sound as good as we possibly can.

And you know, I think I hope y'all go listen to the spit takes and split tapes because I think it sounds great.

Yeah.

And I think again, kind of did Jake's point earlier or I guess a lot of bands break up really fast, especially like at this small scale in the local scene.

And like part of what, what the Spit Takes thing does is like it.

We're at the Lily Pad underground studio using cassette tape.

Like you can document the band really quick because it's live takes.

You just have to kind of come down here and do your thing and then you have something to show for it.

So I think working in tape and kind of doing the splits is in part a way for us to like help capture the bands we really like while they're active and while they're doing stuff.

Not that we expect or want any, any of these bands to break up.

But that's part of the idea with the stud and the split.

I think the other thing we think about a lot at the label is like cross promotion and kind of, I think Jake usually says like this like lifting all ships idea where keeping the scene as kind of this like cohesive, unified group where we're all kind of trying to build something together.

So the.

There's like four bands on the split, which is kind of a lot if you look at a usual split release is two, there are some with four.

But you're basically ideally exposing the audience of one band to another.

And since it's like a similar sound and like minded people, hopefully, hopefully that'll stick.

Something else we do at the label is the Raincoated review session series, which is like live performance videos.

But it's not necessarily bands on the label, but it's bands we really love and like to showcase.

And I think the idea is like the cross promotion.

We can make something really nice for, for our friends, bands and for bands we really like and, and hopefully their audience will listen to some of the bands on the label and the people who like the label will listen to them.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really special work you're doing because I think that's exactly what you know, we need more of here is that cross promotion, those mix bill shows, those special kind of moments where, you know, people especially like you said, you know, bands are ebbing and flowing all the time and it's important to capture what we have in the moment and showcase all the talent and make that really accessible for everyone.

We're going to take a quick break now.

We'll be back to talk more with Nate and Jade from Ring Coated Records.

So stay tuned.

Okay, we're back here on nights and weekends with Nate and Jake from Raincoated Records.

We are recording live, live from Lily Pad Studios in the basement of Raincoated Records.

We're happy to be here.

We were just talking about the compilations that you're doing for local bands and all the great work that you're doing by kind of capturing those, those quote bug chart nights where, you know, it's kind of that magic that a current lineup or a current band is bringing and making it easy for bands to kind of showcase their work pretty quickly.

What are you working on now and what do you plan to do in the next six months with the compilations?

Yeah, so it's been really top of mind because we've had a couple bands in, in, in through the studio in the basement.

At Lily Pad Underground in the last couple weeks, but we're doing the kind of second volume of spit takes and split tapes with a bunch of our friends.

Bands, including.

Including Kate's band, Bedbloom and then Chores, who we released a full length with last year that's really, really good, called Tender as a Wound and Big Nobody and Comfy, who we did a session with last year, too.

So some returning faces, I guess, but a lot of bands that we really, really like and we think kind of share this similar thread of sound where I feel like the thing that they all have in common the most is it sounds really, really big in a.

In a cool way.

But this is kind of the last split was kind of these, like, quiet bands or loud, quiet bands, almost, like.

And I.

I think this is our loud, loud band split kind of.

Yeah, that sounds like the loud bands of Rochester lineup.

At least.

At least some of them.

But I don't know anything else.

You.

I.

Yeah, no.

And I think it's.

It's just.

It's been really fun so far, and I think it's gonna continue to be fun.

And.

Yeah, it's just, like, a bunch of great people to work with and everything and kind of people that I've been following for, like, longer than we've even been doing our music.

So it's, like, really awesome that we're able to, like, that everyone said yes.

That, like, everyone is, like, so willing to come and, like, share their music with us and, like, trust that it's in good enough hands, I guess, to.

To make it sound as good as we can.

And.

And, yeah, so.

So I.

I think that's just.

I don't know.

It's kind of a next.

Next step for.

For the studio.

Yeah, I feel like, in the label, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that the.

The first time around, we kind of, like, had this idea for, like, where we, like to do a split with our friends and.

And then it just kind of so happened that everyone came down and, like, we learned so much through that whole process and kind of built everything out throughout that whole process.

So then this is kind of like the first one where we, like, got to go into it with the mindset of, like, we're gonna try to record these bands and we're gonna try to, you know, take it.

I guess we took it pretty seriously the first time, too, but, like, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think the last.

The last split, we were kind of reacting to what was happening and, like.

Yeah, we had the idea and it kind of snowballed and with this one, I feel like we're a little bit more proactive with it where we're.

We have the vision kind of established by the last one and we're taking it from there, I think.

And I think the same kind of goes for the studio, where we're working on experimenting and trying new things, but also taking what we learned from last time.

And yeah, having.

Having that background.

And like Jake was just saying, with both of these projects, it really is bands we really admire.

And I feel like almost all of them have been.

We've been following before, before we were doing the label or at least like, certainly before we were doing the splits and stuff.

But yeah, some.

Some of our favorite musicians in the scene, and it's really cool to.

That they want to work with us.

And it's always really fun to have them, like, come into the space, have.

Get everybody mic'd up and be like, okay, what do you got?

And.

And like, hear, like, really awesome stuff.

Come.

Come out of the pants.

Yeah, and you bring a really unique experience too.

Right?

Like, you're not going to be able to go get this type of sounds anywhere else.

I mean, you.

Yeah, I'm sure there's a place you can go get this type of sound, but it feels like.

It feels extra special because it's like you said, you're.

You're capturing a sound from that moment and it's with your friends, right?

Like, all these bands are playing together.

They're, you know, in each other's bands, they're out going to shows.

And I feel like you just feel, you know, it's just a good feeling to know that there is a community that's kind of working on a project collectively, together and creating this, like, thing to put in the world to just add more to the music scene here.

So.

So tell me, we're gonna go back to kind of the Rochester music scene in the core of the show, which is, you know, change makers and what we could be doing better.

And I know, I think both of you have lived in other cities for a while or, you know, have a, you know, thoughts on how, you know, what Rochester is doing, right.

What we need to be working on and how we can change collectively in a positive way to make things better for everyone.

So I kind of ask this question in every episode, but I would love both of your thoughts on, you know, change in the Rochester scene.

Yeah, so, yeah, I did.

I lived in Boston for a few years.

Like, that was kind of like the catalyst to getting our first EP recorded was that I was about to move to Boston.

So we just wanted to get something out there.

So that was probably.

Or maybe I was already back from Boston.

Was I back from.

I don't remember.

But you're back for a minute.

Yeah, I guess I was back.

It was like a one semester timeline while we were at RIT though.

Yeah, so.

So I think I lived in and out of Boston for four or five, four years, something like that.

And yeah, I personally definitely like struggled to find this like a similar kind of niche in the Boston music scene.

I felt like there's a lot, just like a lot more.

I don't, I, I don't know, like, like sort of gigs where it was like you're playing at a brewery or something and like it's, it's not really the focus isn't necessarily on the music.

And so that I, I don't know.

And I, I didn't necessarily always feel like it was a, a very inclusive scene.

I felt like there was kind of people's egos tended to become involved a lot more than I see in Rochester.

So that's one thing I really like about Rochester is this kind of community focus.

Like we're all showing up to each other's shows, like people are there in the room, like paying attention while you're playing.

And you know, when you get off, people tend to think that you did a great job and that's really great that like, you know, you don't have this awkward feeling of like, you know, trying to one up each other or something.

It's like, I just think it kind of is a more creative environment than trying to be all competitive about it.

There's plenty of space in music for everybody.

So yeah, I think something, something.

I grew up here in Rochester and I've always felt like the scene is like this really kind of strong, like small, tight knit thing where like Jake said, artists are supporting each other and the people who are showing up show up and really care about the music and the shows.

And I don't know, when I was in high school and like early college, Tim Avery was booking a lot of shows at the Bug Jar and the Vineyard Community Space, which is now Book Eater, and a lot of really cool DIY shows.

And I remember feeling like, I don't know, seeing a lot of familiar faces and always being like really in awe of like the bands coming through or playing, whether they're from Rochester or touring.

And I think Rochester does have something really like unique and kind of homey and special where everybody is supporting each other.

I lived in New York for, like, a summer, a few months, but I.

I think just the feeling that I.

I've gotten from there, from other scenes or that, like, feels absent or that Rochester doesn't have is, like, kind of that competitiveness or, like, almost in New York, like, kind of like people are a little bit more jaded and, like, less interested in what the other musicians have to say.

Like, I don't know, kind of showing up to the open mic night, but only to play your songs, not to listen to other people's.

I.

Not to talk down about New York.

And I know there's great musicians in New York and great music having in New York.

And, yeah, it sounds like it's just.

Easier here to be connected to the community.

And also, you're more dialed into the DIY scene.

And for listeners that don't go out to the DIY scene that often, I was wondering if one of you two could, like, kind of encompass what that means.

Yeah, I think that.

I think the DIY scene here is very, like.

What's the word I'm looking for?

There's not like a.

This kind of, like, tiered way of looking.

I feel like.

I feel like you can just, like, go out to these shows, you know, and by the second or third time you go, you're gonna be, like, recognizing faces and stuff.

And there's.

There's, like, so many.

There's, like, the.

The scope of great bands in Rochester definitely extends far beyond, like, anything just located on raincoated records.

But, like, obviously, like, if you're looking for, like, an in, like, all these bands that we've done splits with that.

That Nate's done the video sessions with and everything, like, these are all bands that I can personally, like, vouch for as very, like, you know, these are the people we're talking about when we're saying that this is a welcoming community and in a fun place to be involved in the music community.

So.

Yeah, and that typically just, you know, looks like people going out to shows, being radically inclusive, being nice to the people around you, being supportive of the people around you, you know, and.

And that's something that I think that everyone in the scene keeps very near and dear to them, and we should certainly keep it that way.

So if you're listening and you're like, I'm a jerk, then just don't come to the show.

It's fine.

Like, it's not that cool, I guess.

Well, I was going to say, like, you know, we're putting out the lists every week of.

Of all the shows.

And I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that are like, you know, I really want to go to this show, but I'm nervous about going to the Psychic Garden for the first time or, you know, I don't want to go to whatever this place by myself.

Like, what.

What would your advice be to someone that wants to start being involved more but, you know, needs to take that first step?

I think, I think the biggest thing would be like, check out the bands that.

That are going to be playing online.

See what you like.

And I think I'd hope that you'd find like a band you really like and that really motivates you to get out to the.

To.

To the bug jar or something.

And then with that said, I think just like, feel free to say hi to people.

Really.

Everybody in the scene is super friendly.

And even if like your entry point or the person you want to talk to is in the band, they.

They'd be more than happy to talk to.

Talk to you.

And yeah, yeah, I think it's like.

If someone, you know, send someone an Instagram message before you're gonna go.

Like, bands love to hear from people that want to buy a ticket or that are just like, hey, did a great job on stage, like you were saying, Jake.

Like, it's just like we, everybody.

I feel like there's such a need for connection and there's such a need to, you know, just be with others that want to be a positive force in the community.

And we really have that here.

And I think it's such a good thing that's only growing, especially because of the work that you're doing as well.

So before we wind this episode up, we have one question that we ask everybody, all of our guests.

Who are you listening to now in the.

In the Rochester music scene?

Who's a band that you're really excited about or that you.

Yeah.

That you're really loving right now?

Well, we just had chores and Comfy come through the basement and so we've been listening to those songs a lot, both making them and listening to the rough mixes after the fact, because we're really excited about them and both of those bands sound awesome.

Our friends in kitchen who are on the last split are putting out a new album, I think in early April, literally today.

I'm sure obviously this will be dated, but the pre sales for their cassettes went up and their music's always really good and they have like four singles out ahead of the album right now and they're, they're, they're catchy as all heck and I've been listening to that a ton.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Similar list for me probably.

Definitely, you know, Chores and Comfy.

Both released albums last year too, so those were great.

That was on my list last year.

Listen to the rough mixes.

Kitchen is one of my, one of my favorite groups that's working and active in Rochester.

I love Attica Basement.

I love Georgie.

I love, I love all the bands on our.

On this spit takes and split tapes and yeah, we, we've been, we recorded Comfort Objects demo a few months ago, which we were really excited about and like happy to work with them as well.

I don't know, there's.

There's so much, so much great music here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And yeah, I mean you mentioned Georgie and Bug Catcher and I just feel like I also want to mention Georgian Bug Catcher, but that all those folks are really like, not just some of our favorite songwriters in Rochester, but like in general.

They're making really awesome music and different stuff and it's really great.

Well, thank you so much for being on the show today where if, if people wanted to find you, follow you support Raincoated and Home Videos.

Where.

Where can they find you at?

Well, the, the label is pretty active on Instagram, I mean unfortunately now.

And you can.

Yeah, on Instagram you can.

There's like the link tree.

So there's.

We post regularly on Instagram and Blue sky now.

And then there's a YouTube channel for a lot of the video stuff and we try to keep it up with music and the new releases too.

And then of course we have a bandcamp page for the label which basically links out to the releases we've of bands we've worked with.

Yeah.

And then we.

Video is pretty much the same deal minus the YouTube.

You can find us on the Raincoat YouTube.

On the Raincoat YouTube.

But we're on Blue sky and Instagram.

And.

Yeah, yeah.

And we're happy to work with people in the Lily Pad underground if you want to record a tape or anything else really.

We're super excited about making music with people and happy to work with anyone.

So hit us on your preferred platform that way.

And same goes for video production and production services.

Our crew.

I want to shout out Rick and Dan who do all the video stuff with me.

Rick also bass player in home videos.

Yeah, it's a family run operation.

It is for sure.

Yeah.

But we also are more than happy to do like freelance production services.

It is kind of through the label at this point.

But yeah, yeah, happy to work.

Work on a music video with you on a session if you want, even if it's not the Rainco review thing.

And yeah, we'll do anything.

We're really happy to make things one way or the other.

I can vouch for the production studio because Bad Bloom had a video made, a music video made, and it was excellent and it was great working with the crew and also the studio is awesome.

So I will say that.

But thank you so much for being on the show.

Thank you for supporting and growing our scene.

You're doing really important work and it's really meaningful work and all the time.

And the energy you put into what you do is only benefiting everyone.

So everyone check out Raincoated Records and thank you again for being on the show.

This is Kate, and you have just listened to Nights and weekends.

You can find us on thesoundrochester.com we're on the sound Rock on Instagram and we also have a Patreon page if you would like to.

To support us there.

Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll see you next time.

Thanks.