“Catching Up” with Presley Sullins Rains

16-year-old Presley Sullins Rains is no stranger in the Red Dirt Music scene, having grown up in the thick of it. Her father Chad Sullins, who was a Stillwater musician and headed the band Chad Sullins and the Last Call Coalition for many years, took her to his shows in bars as a baby, and she grew up surrounded by musicians and the music community. So, it’s no surprise that she ventured into music and songwriting herself.

Rains wrote her first song, with her dad, at the age of seven. I covered that release, Daddy Daughter Heart, back in 2017. If you want to see the talent, ambition and drive she was already displaying at that age, you can go read the article and see the video made from the song. That was also when she got her first guitar.

“I actually got my first guitar right around that time, as a gift for releasing that single, but my hands were so little and I just couldn't quite get it yet. So, I started seriously playing probably when I was about 12,” said Rains.

She has been writing songs all along the way, honing her craft, taking lessons at Daddy O’s Music in Stillwater and participating in Rock Camp for Girls for several years. She has performed at various places through the years as well. Now she’s ready to go into the studio and record her first album.

“The day that my mom and I talked about the album and just the whole concept of going in and recording my first album, we actually came up with the name right there on the spot, not even discussing album names. I was talking about what the project means to me and what the idea of it is, and essentially to me, it's like a scrapbook or a photo album in the form of songs. As my first album, it's a collection of songs that I've written over the entire course of my life and so it's not just a reflection or a snapshot of my current artistic ability or my songwriting style. Where, for most people, an album is a snapshot of kind of where they're at in their musical journey. For me, this is the entire story leading up to that. So it's going to be called Catching Up,” said Rains.

Rains is going into the studio in mid-July with Boston Davis of American Slang. She already has about 12-15 songs written and ready to go but is going to cut it down to 8-10 for the album. Two of those will be her dad’s songs that she is going to cover.

“I picked August Sun and 10 one 10. August Sun, first of all to start with that one, has always been my favorite song of my dad's. It conveys so much emotion and it's actually going to be really interesting seeing how I do my own version of it because my voice and the style that I sing it is just a lot more soft and it's a lot more gentle. And the energy he brings into that song is so aggressively emotional and so I'm excited to push myself. It's very primal and I'm so excited to be able to explore kind of a different style and doing that. It is definitely still going to be more in my vocal style, but I'm excited to get out of my comfort zone a little bit with that one,” said Rains.

10 one 10 is a special song with incredible meaning to Rains as well. 10/1 is her mom, Aleisha Rains’ birthdate and 10/1/10 is the day her mom and dad got married.

“So that song is obviously just really, really important to me. I've always grown up just thinking that song was so beautiful and just knowing that it's about my mom, which I mean a lot of his songs are, but just specifically that one is just so wholesome and beautiful and regardless of how things turned out, I think that song will always encapsulate just the beautiful love they had,” said Rains.

August Sun is also one of my personal favorite songs of Chad’s, and it will be exciting to see how Rains transforms those songs into her own. In fact, she’s looking forward to seeing how all of her songs will transform in the studio. Boston Davis will be lending drums to the album and Ryan Danger McCall will be playing guitar.

“You know, what I think I'm really excited about is to see these songs kind of transform. I think a lot of people will say in the recording process a lot of things can change. And for me that's going to be especially true because none of my songs have really ever been full band before. I think it's just gonna be really interesting. Ryan McCall, who obviously is a close friend, he's going to be playing guitar for the album. Just his abilities and what I know that he can do is just going to transform it in a way that is beyond my instrumental capability. Because for me, the way I play guitar for now is at a pretty casual level. It's just enough that I can write songs and I can figure out the chords and things like that. But what he's going to bring into it is just really going to take it to the next level. I'm just really excited to see how that transforms it,” said Rains.

While Rains has been involved in music for most of her life so far, and is geared for pursuing music in life, it’s not the whole focus for her life.

“So as far as career wise, I do intend to pursue a career that's outside of music. But for me, music definitely isn't just a hobby. I intend to be in education or library sciences, and even though I am planning on pursuing that career, music is going to coexist with that for me. It's never just going to be an afterthought or a side gig. Like for me, music is going to coexist with my career in a very equal way, at least that's how I hope for it to be. Although I'm not necessarily pursuing music as a full-time career, it is still something that's always going to be a huge part of my life,” said Rains.

I’ve gotten the privilege of knowing Rains since she was a toddler and watching her grow into the talented young woman she is today. Her ambition, drive and maturity have always far surpassed her age in years. She has a great head on her shoulders and approaches everything with a healthy perspective and expectations, but also a clear idea and plan on what she wants to achieve. I have no doubt this album will be no different and I look forward to hearing the end results.

Rains has already booked her album listening party at Oklahoma Listening Room in Cushing on Saturday August 9th, where she will perform some of the songs from the album live as well as have the album playing throughout the evening.