From dreary dorm rooms to sold out stadiums: Rainbow Kitten Surprise brings genre-bending melodies and an other-worldly sound to the Spokane Pavilion

If you ask a random person on the street if they’ve ever heard of Rainbow Kitten Surprise, their response might be something along the lines of – “What is that?” or “Who?!”

It’s not the name of a brand of sprinkles, a My Little Pony or even a mythical place known only in early 2000s children’s movies like, “Zathura: A Space Adventure.”

It’s actually the name of a band. Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s whimsical name matches their genre-bending melodies, witty wordplay and other-worldly sound that’s amassed more than 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

“We started with two acoustic guitars and more like a folk outfit with a banjo and that kind of thing,” said Ela Melo, the lead singer and songwriter for Rainbow Kitten Surprise. “Over time, (we) added more electric stuff – added organ, added synthesizers in the last couple of years. And I don’t know exactly where we fall. … But I think alt-rock is where we’re sitting now.”

What started in 2013 as a band playing in dorms at Appalachian State University in North Carolina has blossomed into sold-out shows across the globe.

On Thursday, the band will travel to Spokane where they will play 7 p.m. at the U.S. Pavilion in Riverfront Park. Melo said her hope for the show is that people have the time of their lives and feel inspired to chase their dreams.

While Rainbow Kitten Surprise has found significant success, the band’s path to stardom has been wrought with challenges.

In 2023, the band went on a yearlong hiatus. The band’s indefinite break, as it was later revealed via an Instagram post, was so Melo could find help in order to work through a “medical crisis.”

The blurred lines between reality and hallucination eventually got so bad for Melo that she had to be hospitalized. At one point during her psychosis, she was convinced the stars were trying to communicate with her. Melo received some mental relief when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Mix the diagnosis with the right medication and a little less than a year later, in March 2024, Rainbow Kitten Surprise returned, but with one less member. Charlie Holt, the bassist, departed from the band due to internal disagreements, which left four members, Melo; the rhythm guitarist, Darrick “Bozzy” Keller; the lead guitarist, Ethan Goodpaster; and the drums, Jess Haney.

“For me, I definitely found that I was trying to write all the time and I stayed locked in my studio, or room, or whatever, just trying to write, write, write until I was burnt out, spinning my wheels,” Melo said. “So what I’ve realized now is that the most important thing you can do is to take breaks for however long you need to regulate your system. You come first and the music comes second. Because if you’re not in a good place, then the music’s not going to ring true.”

Rainbow Kitten Surprise released a slew of songs in 2024 as part of their 22-song album “Love Hate Music Box.”

For Melo, expressing emotional honesty about her journey was a strong emphasis for the album. “Love Hate Music Box” is meant to shed some light on the events that have transpired in Melo’s life over the last six years.

In 2022, Melo came out as a transgender woman while in her early 30s. She described her transition as going from seeing the world in black and white to finally experiencing it in full color. Melo said transitioning is definitely a process, but once a person discovers who they are, there’s really no stopping it. With numerous anti-trans laws in the works nationwide, Melo’s advice to anyone thinking about, or currently, transitioning is to be brave.

“Beyond that, it’s just like find your community, find people local to you that are supportive and will let you be the light that you are and shine as bright as you can,” Melo said.

When the band first started, Melo would develop a chord structure and then write lyrics with a sharpie and try to fill the page completely. This stream-of-consciousness style of writing would then get chopped apart and broken down into separate songs, a process she described as similar to creating a collage.

For their most recent album, “Love Hate Music Box,” Melo would write the first verse word-for-word and then ad-lib the rest. Then once she had a bunch of possible songs, she’d take what she had created before the band, and they would together decide what was the best fit for RKS. She described their most recent project as guitar-driven and more pop-esque, with a sound that harkens back to the 2010s or early 2000s.

“(My writing process) changes every record really,” Melo said. “I’m always trying to figure out what’s going to give a fresh kind of sound and I believe that you have to switch things up in order for it to come out right, because we grow and evolve as people and the music has to do the same.”

Across the board, there are several artists who have inspired Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s sound. Similar artists might include Caamp, Mt. Joy, and STRFKR. Melo said she remembers listening to albums like “Lonesome Crowded West” by Modest Mouse and appreciating the honesty in the lyricism. The jam, Melo admits, is a bit divergent, but she said the sound of the band could change with time to resemble more of a Modest Mouse beat. Rainbow Kitten Surprise is also inspired by another artist who is rather infamous for making people wait extended periods of time for new music: Frank Ocean.

“Even if he never drops (music) again,” Melo said.

After playing in shows from Sydney, Australia, to Fargo, North Dakota, Melo said there are some lyrics and songs that have stuck with her more than others over the years.

“I don’t know exactly where (the lyrics) come from, but it’s somewhere deep inside,” Melo said. “I’m not saying that I don’t take credit for the lyrics that I write, but there is a certain part of what I’m trying to articulate that is a collective experience and I didn’t make that experience single-handedly, that was shared with other people.”

Melo said the song “Work Out” forces her to excavate things about her past each time she sings for a crowd.

As for a specific lyric she resonates with, Melo points to the song “Painkillers.”

“If there’s one lyric, what’s coming to mind is ‘Don’t kill yourself today,’ ” Melo said. “I’ve sung that to crowds in dire straits mentally and in tough times and in dark places and I’ve sang it to them while absolutely having the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. It just still rings true. It’s two meanings because you could take the darker or more morbid approach, like ‘don’t kill yourself today.’ But in a more casual sense, it’s like ‘hey, take it easy on yourself.’”

Melo thinks that a lot of people feel like they have to be troubled or wrestle with demons, so to speak, in order to write music. Melo said it’s the act of growing from and learning about what works for each individual that’s paramount to blooming into one’s true self.

As for Melo, now that she’s managed to put herself and those she loves first, and the music second, life has become a bit more manageable. It seems that even as people evolve and priorities change, Rainbow Kitten Surprise is finding ways to have loads of fun through a veil of controlled chaos, emotionally resonant lyrics and uplifting, occasionally melancholic, melodies.

“Every night we go out there we’re putting ourselves out there and trying to give the best show we possibly can,” Melo said. “How you show up is how you show up. What I hope the crowd in Spokane or wherever we play really takes away from that is the same thing: Don’t beat yourself, don’t be too hard on yourself.

“Life is hard enough without that, and just live and love the moment, because it’s all we really have.”

Rainbow Kitten Surprise announced that they’re releasing a new 10-track album on Sept. 26 called “Bones.” This album strays a bit from the synth-ier, delicately layered production quality of albums like “Love Hate Music Box” and leans into walloping live drums and strident electric guitars reminiscent of their previous work. In an announcement, the band said they chose to call their new album “Bones” because they’re clearing out the skeletons in their closets.

Mathew Callaghan is a graduate of The Spokesman-Review’s Teen Journalism Institute. He can be reached at (509) 459-5437 or by email at mathewc@spokesman.com.