Raechel Whitchurch is  a singer-songwriter from a town called Parkes in Australia, whose newest single , "I'm Not Cool",  is now making rounds on the Australian Country music scene.  The song ia aptly labelled and its theme resonates with most of us.   The upside is of not being cool, as Raechel has said, "Trying to be cool is the death of art". 
 

Raechel Whitchurch was born and raised on Country music. Some might say that her life reads like a country song,  from her parents’ shotgun wedding and her childhood spent living in a caravan, to her dobro-playing husband and their babies named after long gone Country music stars,  it’s hardly surprising that she ended up singing her songs for a living. 

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Raechel is an alt-country singer-songwriter who grew up in regional NSW and found her love of Country music while performing in her travelling country family band.  Her entrepreneurial parents decided that they would home school Raechel and her siblings while living in a caravan and travelling around Australia for the better part of five years. They instilled in her the deep values of working hard and being honest, and these themes become very apparent when you listen to Raechel’s lyrics.  

 

Whitchurch started playing piano when she was five and  traded it in at eight for a mandolin. Guitar and banjo soon followed, and so did the songs. Songwriting became something she simply had to do, and many nights her parents would find her in her room long after her bedtime, lights dimmed, pen and guitar in hand.  Her songwriting was always beyond her years, and while other kids her age were fixated on the popular artists of the time, Raechel was listening to Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Lucinda Williams and countless other songwriting legends. This shaped the way she wrote her own songs, and even from an early age, she didn’t care if she was ‘cool’,  she just wanted to say something profound and beautiful.

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 “My family were all very musical and we were encouraged to chase after our own musical dreams. I started playing guitar when I was twelve and it changed everything for me. I realized that if I could put how I felt into a song, people were able to understand and relate to it more than when I just said it. I was hooked and something in me came alive", Raechel has stated. 

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Country music fans are clearly  resonating with what Raechel has to say and in 2016, her debut EP, “Outlaw” opened at #1 on the Australian Country iTunes charts (ahead of Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Chris Stapleton). She also sold out her Sydney launch show, and travelled all over Australia on a tour she booked, promoted and funded herself.  When it came time to follow up the ‘Outlaw’ EP, Raechel wanted to make sure the body of work she created for her first full-length album was all it could be. So, she took three years to live, experience, grow and create. She wrestled with the feelings that all artists experience, and made sure that she had the grit to live and breathe music.  

 

 She recorded her new album with multi award-winning producer Matt Fell at Love Hz Studios, and it features some of Australia’s best musicians, including Josh Scuberth, Stuie French, Lawrie Minson, Mick Albeck, and Raechel’s husband, Ben Whitchurch. It also includes a co-write with one of Australia’s finest lyricists and one of Raechel’s songwriting heroes, Colin Buchanan, and guest vocals from award winning artist, Kevin Bennett.

“I knew that it was time to make my follow up album, but I also knew that I had to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to grow. I went backwards and forwards on producers, but I kept coming back to Matt [Fell]. Everything he does is beautiful and nuanced, while maintaining the integrity of the song. I can honestly say that this album wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for Matt and his dedication to the project”.

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 In March 2020, Raechel released her new single, “I Found Home”, along with a music video shot in Saint Albans, northwest of Sydney. “I Found Home” is a song about realizing that no matter what you do, see or achieve in your life, there is nothing as good as coming home to someone you love. Despite releasing her single amidst a worldwide pandemic,  fans and artists alike were excited for her new music.  

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 In April 2021, she released her debut album ‘Finally Clear’ on Compass Bros Records, featuring the hit singles ‘My Father’, ‘You Ain’t One of Us’, and ‘I Used To Think I Was An Outlaw’. It debuted at #1 on the ARIA Australian Country Album Charts and #3 on the AIR Independent Album Charts. It was also nominated for 2 Toyota Golden Guitar Awards, New Talent and Traditional Country Album of the Year.  Raechel is spent 2021/22 on the road with Adam Harvey for a 50-date national tour.  Raechel  also toured with Fanny Lumsden, The Whitlams (Black Stump Band), Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham, and  had four radio hit singles.    She has appeared at the Gympie Muster, Boots & Beach, Groundwater Country Music Festival, Tumbafest, and NQs Rock’n Country Festival.

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It's been a wild ride for Raechel Whitchurch, and now she gets to do it all over again with her forthcoming sophomore album set for release in 2023.  Until then enjoy Raechel Whitchurch's  new single "I'm Not Cool" and all of her other previous releases and get to know this talented up and comer to the Country music world stage.