Ra (U.S. band)

Ra
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Genres	Nu metal alternative metal hard rock post-grunge
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Republic Records Universal Records Cement Shoes Records Sahaja Music Records
Associated acts	Trixter Deepfield Fight or Flight
Website	http://www.ra-band.net/
Members	Sahaj Ticotin Skoota Warner Ben Carroll P. J. Farley
Past members	Sean Corcoran Brix Milner Andy Ryan

Ra are an American alternative metal/post-grunge band from Los Angeles, California, taking their name from the Egyptian sun god, Ra. The band was formed in 1996, and took off around 2002, when their song "Do You Call My Name" from their album "From One" was released. Their music was described as "exotic not familiar, heavy not funky, direct not sophisticated, sensual not soulful, unrelenting not cathartic."

The band is known for their hit songs "Do You Call My Name", "Fallen Angels", "Don't Turn Away", and "Broken Hearted Soul". To date, Ra has sold 400,000+ albums in North America alone.

Frontman Sahaj Ticotin has commented on the origin of the name Ra in multiple interviews. "...There's an underlying theme where 80 to 90 percent of the songs have the word sun in it. So I have a little sun fetish and I thought that Ra was appropriate." He has also stated that he likes the idea of the name because it's short -- "If your name is Ra you've got two giant letters taking up the same amount of space so it looks like your name is bigger"—melodramatic, and "sort of an odd thing and really unique."

Marcus Ticotin, Sahaj's older brother and Abandon Entertainment president, financed Sahaj's first record while Sahaj was living in Greenwich, CT with mentor and friend Rob Jones. They held open auditions in New York City to fill out the lineup with a drummer, guitarist, and bassist. Skoota Warner was chosen as a drummer who fit in well with the blend of funk and hard rock in Sahaj's writing style. R&B bassist Kirk Lyons and guitarist Ben Mauro, the latter of whom would later play with Lionel Richie and Britney Spears, completed the initial configuration of the band. The members' influences did not completely mesh, but the lineup did produce one commercial track in "Crazy Little Voices," which appeared as the end title track for the movie The Rage: Carrie 2.

The moderate success of "Crazy Little Voices" led to the band signing with Edel Music. Ra recorded many tracks including "Rectifier", "Fallen Rock Zone", "Only", "End of Days", "U Need Me", "What I Am", "Sky", "The Foundation" and the first real version of "Do You Call My Name". Edel, unbeknownst to the band, was on its last legs and was weeks away from closing shop upon album completion.

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Wikipedia