The Building of a Band

University of Mary alumni Mat Charley and Joe Berger started playing music together while students at Mary. Now they’re part of a band that is gaining recognition worldwide.

Mat Charley, ’16, wanted to be a musician from a young age. He started playing violin around the age of six and writing songs when he was 13. When he graduated from Bishop Ryan High School in Minot, North Dakota, he went to the seminary in St. Paul for a year to discern the priesthood. But not long after leaving seminary, his music dreams took him to Los Angeles.

“I was trying to make it happen and do music, but I had no money, no contacts, a car that didn’t work, and a terrible apartment,” Mat said. “After a year there, my mom and sisters convinced me to go finish my college degree and leave Los Angeles. I ended up enrolling at the University of Mary for the spring semester to get a double major in theology and Catholic studies.”

Shortly after arriving at Mary, Mat crossed paths with Joe Berger, ’16, a track and field scholar-athlete who was studying business administration and marketing.

“I thought he looked really cool,” Joe said. “So, I walked up to him and introduced myself. We became friends and stayed in touch, but it wasn’t until our senior year that we started playing music together.”

Once they started playing together, they quickly realized that their music had potential. “One of my friends was out in Los Angeles and knew someone who was setting up a showcase,” Joe said. “That’s when we thought, ‘let’s see how seriously we can take this.’” They spent some time in Los Angeles writing and recording songs and networking, which is when they realized they needed a lead singer.

“Strangely enough, we ended up finding our lead singer on Instagram,” Mat said. Mark Race is a vocalist from Durham, England. They thought it was a long shot when they invited him to meet them in Los Angeles, but after a few Facebook messages between them, Mark was on the plane to meet Mat and Joe just ten days after their initial outreach. “We clicked immediately,” Mat said.

The next step was picking a name for the band. “We had a list of probably over 3,000 names,” Mat said. “We wanted a word that didn’t really mean anything, with no prior association, so we could make it about us. We also wanted it to be one syllable. We came up with the name Raynes because Mark had a friend named Rain, and we changed it a little. But ultimately, a band name really means nothing, you know; it’s not like ‘The Beetles’ is a great band name. It doesn’t matter what you call it as long as people recognize it.”

Now the men of Raynes have their sights set firmly on the future. They signed a publishing deal with Sony Music a few years ago and have recorded multiple songs and a mini album. Raynes performed on the British television show “Walk the Line,” Simon Cowell’s newest show, right before Christmas 2021. “We got contacted by a casting director out of nowhere,” Mat explained. “We were named runner up for the night we were on; it was really fun to be performing on a big stage like that.”

Joe Berger, left, Mark Race, middle, and Mat Charley, right, performing on Simon Cowell’s “Walk the Line.”

The band looks forward to recording more music, performing, and hopefully going on tour in the future, but the pandemic has hindered their ability to get together with Mat in Arizona, Joe in North Dakota, and Mark in the UK. Despite the distance, they were able to put together an EP that they all recorded separately while in lockdown, which Mat produced.

You can find their music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, or anywhere else you stream music. Mat recommends you check out their song “Lemon Drop,” and Joe recommends “Collapse.”

Although neither Mat nor Joe were music majors at Mary, they see the value their education gives them each day as they work to grow their fanbase and write more music. “My marketing background comes in handy when it comes to the business part of the band and getting our name out there, which I think is pretty cool,” Joe said. Mat said he draws from the things he learned in theology and philosophy classes when he is writing music.

For Mat and Joe, the cherry on top is the people they impact with their music. “We get a lot of messages from people to whom the songs we write really matter, whether it got them through a hard time or whatever it may be. It’s nice to know that it’s bigger than just hanging with your friends making music,” Mat said.

“There’s a feeling that you get when you’re creating music, and it’s indescribable,” Joe added. “I want other people to feel that feeling that we get. I want them to feel how we’re feeling when we’re creating it; that’s the best part.”