RAINSHADOWER is a new musical endeavor led by multi-instrumentalist and longtime Pacific Northwest mainstay, A. Ball. Over the past many years, Ball has played an integral role in the fabric of the Seattle area music scene, lending his talent to multiple albums, shows, and tours in bands such as Cumulus, the Cops, Idiot Pilot, the Saturday Knights, Virgin Islands, Police Teeth, Dryland, and many others. Drawing from his life experience and the natural melancholic beauty of the Cascade Mountains and surrounding forests he grew up exploring, the project’s debut album “Charred Scars” will release November 21st, 2025.
Moody, brooding, dreamy, dark and beautiful, “Daybreak the Spell” is teeming with sparse and lonely reflections on regret, remorse, and redemption featuring a catchy chorus despite (or perhaps because of) the 7/4 time-signature.
The track’s bridge brings an optimistic tone melodically but resolves in the acceptance that resistance is futile. A lonely slide guitar takes the song to its climax, then concludes while acknowledging growth through change and the inevitable march of time.
Elaborating on the conceptual roots of the track, Ball shares, “The music for this track was one of the first things I put together for the album. There was something about the sparseness and beautiful darkness about it that kind of laid the foundation for how I wanted the record to sound & feel. The Rhodes melody is simple and lullaby-like, but the sound of the Rhodes itself is so unique, dreamy and gauzy. Like the months of grey that descend upon us annually every year here in the PNW. It felt like rain to me. Beautiful but also kinda cold & dark.
Lyrically, this song’s about reflection, regret, remorse & redemption to me. It’s about trying (and often failing) to not continue making the same mistakes over and over again. Change is constant and the fact is that you’re either adapting and growing with change or you’re stagnant. You can resist change all you want, but it’s still going to happen. It’s about trying to embrace change and growth even though holding on to what is, or even what was, can feel safe and is also somewhat natural.”
Clyde Peterson (award winning director of “Even Hell Has It’s Heroes” https://www.evenhellhasitsheroes.com/) produced the cinematically enigmatic music video for “Daybreak the Spell” as an aestetically paired visual component to the release.
Released a few weeks ago, “Cold Comfort of Grey Days” features vocals from Cumulus’ Alexandra Lockhart. The song is a subdued, ethereal journey anchored by a hopeful Rhodes keyboard. Ball describes the lyrics as “an examination of societal collapse as a result of human shortsightedness and climate change.”
The song’s bridge steadily increases in intensity as Ball and Lockhart sing the mantra “World is burning, world keeps turning, when will we learn?”
“Daybreak the Spell” will release digitally on Wednesday October 29th, 2025.
Ball has been an active participant in creating music with the bands he has played in since the 90s, primarily as a drummer. “A lot of that music was written organically with everyone in the room together,” he shares, “and I’ve always felt compelled to throw out ideas and make suggestions on whatever music I’ve been a part of creating collaboratively.”
It was in 2012 that Ball first started seriously writing music on his own when he landed in the hospital with acute appendicitis less than a month after getting home from a tour with Virgin Islands who were supporting Cursive on their I Am Gemini run. “The resulting surgery meant that I couldn’t play drums for several months for the first time in my adult life” he says, “and with the downtime at home, I really dove into figuring out how to demo songs in GarageBand.” Ball would mess around on an old keyboard and eventually that developed into writing entire songs. He leaned into the bass guitar, which he had been playing a lot of during that period as well, and bought a Fender Rhodes, which would also become a signature part of Rainshadower’s sound.
The moniker RAINSHADOWER is inspired by the Northwest Washington climate, where rain and overcast skies has been a consistent element and influence for the vast majority of his life. “I love the rain and the beautiful, lush green that it brings,” he shares, “yet I also find it to be oppressive, dreary and miserable at times.”
Rainshadower combines two words with negative connotations to create a positive, a guard against and a reprieve from, the sometimes oppressive weather. To Ball, the Rhodes dreamy, beautiful, and melancholic qualities emulate the unique natural beauty of the world he grew up in around Bellingham, WA. A magical place where the trees outnumber people 100 to 1, and the surrounding forests, mountains, and beaches are within easy reach to explore and connect with.
| RAINSHADOWER is: |
| A. Ball – vocals, Rhodes, vibes, Moog, grand, acoustic, electric and bass guitars, drums and percussion |
| Engineered by Alex Heubel and Nicholas Wilbur at the Unknown |
| Mixed by Nicholas Wilbur at the Unknown |
| Mastering by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering |
| Layout by Clyde Petersen |
| Cover photo by Stefan Lee Goodwin |
visit RAINSHADOWER online:
Website: http://www.rainshadower.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rain.shadower/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582949397339
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@Rainshadower-music
Bandcamp: https://rainshadower.bandcamp.com
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/rainshadower/1842474961
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4PZdD8GjKvwdndMYOqCnJg
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